How Travel Apps Can Be Used To Engage Customers

By Author: Shibi
Total Articles: 1
Comment this article

Travel is no exception. Travel has a wide meaning and the idea can differ from person to person. From a simple day trip to a month or year long vacation may be classified as travel. And now it is possible to plan and book everything for your vacation or business trip using a mobile app.

Gone are the days of mobile websites. Customers these days are looking for a dedicated app for everything, and travel is definitely not an exception. They expect travel apps to offer a whole range of features.

What do travel apps generally offer

It is not enough to just list the hotels and restaurants. Travel apps are expected to offer a lot more in addition to this. Usually they provide useful ratings from other travelers, curated tour packages and general travel guides.

They also offer a host of other related services like ticket booking, vehicle rentals and so on.
The travel apps that are currently leading the market are extremely feature rich. With complex algorithms enabling them to churn out extremely curated and personalised search results, customers are able to seal the deal with the single ...
... click of a button in no time. It has in fact become a matter of convenience to be able to book everything from flight/train bookings to hotel accommodations in a single app.

Here are some of the things that a travel app can do to engage its clientele:
Send push notification about flight / train timings and check-in
Notify about changes in timings or gate changes or cancellations
Notify about hotel bookings at their destination
Suggest places to visit at destination
Create and push locally curated tours based on user interests and preference

How to make sure that the travel app is highly engaging

The travel app is a primary tool in the hands of a potential traveler. So it is imperative to incorporate top notch user experience and features. The whole experience from sign-in/log-in to making payments should be seamless and without any friction. Here are some simple tips to convert a first time user of the app into a loyal user.

Ensure that sign-up is hassle free. This can be done using the more popular Google sign-ins or facial recognition / biometric features which are available in most of the new phones.
Provide options to save their credentials which would help them fill-up details easily the next time they visit the app to make a booking.
Provide as many payment options as possible.
Have a live chat window so that a customer can immediately clarify any query while making a booking.

To make sure that you handhold the customer though the whole process of planning, booking and experiencing the vacation, it would be best to add a few more features which would be useful once the traveler reaches his destination. This would make sure that your travel app is the one-stop-shop for the customer’s travel experience.

Travel booking- The most obvious of all features: facilities to book a flight ticket, a hotel room or rent a vehicle is an essential service.

Geolocation - A traveler would love to know where he is at on a map, almost at all times. Useful information such as local restaurants with ratings, attractions and more can be accessed. If these can be provided with user ratings, then the travelers would not have to hunt for this information on other sites.

Weather - In an unknown city it would be more than convenient to know the weather beforehand so that the traveler can be informed as to what to expect.

Offline access and personalised chat - most of the time users prefer to have direct communication and hence it is crucial to have a chat window in the app.

Expense Manager - This could be a useful tool to keep a track of the expenses during the trip. With this addition to the travel app, the user need not jump to another app to make use of an expense tracker.

Review Systems - User reviews help to find out what exactly a user thinks about a hotel or a location or a restaurant. This is quite popular with fellow travelers as they are perceived to be honest and first hand experiences.

Push Notifications - Keep showing push notifications within the app by predicting the best time to make a booking.

Augmented Reality - By making use of your smartphone’s camera, the user can access Live information about the places around, discounts, special events, curated deals etc.

Conclusion

Travelers and tourists are sure to use travel apps more often in the future. With the right mix of features and user interface, the app is sure to engage users. By collaborating with the right people and ensuring that you deliver what you promise, you can be assured to win over loyal customers.

If you are looking to develop a travel app to engage your customers, get in touch with us and we can discuss the most efficient way to bring your app ideas to life. Wiinnova Software Labs is a mobile app development company in India with vast experience in developing rich native applications for the travel industry. Drop us a line and we will take it forward from there.