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How to Create a Hotel Booking Website
// Development
How to Create a Hotel Booking Website
According to Statista, nine out of ten Americans book hotel rooms using web services such as Booking, Priceline, Expedia or Hotels.com, as it is faster, easier, and often cheaper. Therefore, it is not surprising that many enthusiasts are thinking about how to create a hotel booking website and monetize it. From our article you will learn how to do it, what is needed for this and how much will it cost you to launch such a project.
Hotel chain website. The easiest option is when hotel chains create web services and mobile applications for booking rooms only in their hotels. Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton and other major players have such web services. Small hotel chains and individual hotels also tend to have their own sites.
Agent business model. These are all sites that work according to the multi-vendor platform algorithm: the service collects rental offers from many sources and offers them to users in the form of a list with many filters (location, price, availability, shower in the room, etc.). The most striking example is Booking.com, which charges 10 to 30% commission on every transaction.
Advertising business model. This model is based on pay-per-click advertising (CPC) that is displayed on the hotel reservation website. At the same time, an order for such advertising can be sought using direct contracts with hotel chains, affiliate programs of other sites, or by connecting to Google Ads or other similar services. Classic examples: TripAdvisor, PlacetoStay, Hotels.com, HotelTonight and Google Hotel Finder.
Commercial business model. Sometimes this scheme is called trading. Its essence is that the web service buys several hotel rooms and then resells them to its users. The difference between the purchase price and the sale price is the profit of the service. This is how the Expedia reservation site works, which in 2018 earned more than $ 5 billion, thus selling rooms in more than 200 countries. Its main competitors are Orbitz and Priceline.
Niche Business Models. The above are the classic booking sites that occupy most of the market. It’s quite difficult to compete directly with them, so many startups rely on a specific niche, creating a unique selling proposition for it. The most striking example of a niche project is Airbnb, which relies on short-term rental of private housing.
Here are some more examples of niche business models for booking sites:
#1. Step 1: choose a business model
#2. Step 2: determine the basic functions
#3. Step 3: add additional features
#4. Step 4: choose an API to integrate with the site
#5. Step 5: protect user data
#6. The cost of creating a hotel booking site
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