When we are traveling to a new place, we look towards a sensational experience while the cost is pocket-friendly. How will you feel if you could get the same, all in one place? Let’s say a distant home-like ambiance. In this article, we will learn about how to make an Airbnb clone app for similar services as Airbnb provides.

Understanding Airbnb to make Airbnb Clone App

Airbnb is a travel app that reciprocates to demands towards apartment/home rental openings throughout the world. When someone entails a short-term abode Airbnb comes into play, it also suits perfectly for property owners. In other words, it provides services for property requirements giving business to the property owners. It has certainly made noticeable changes in the property search market. Airbnb is associated with property owners and provides resources at a good rate. This can be termed as an interactive arena* for both the provider and the provided.

In simple words, it generates queries about apartment search by the travelers and directs them towards the owners of such properties which has a tie with Airbnb, this helps the owner to earn some money even though they were not noticed before joining hands with Airbnb and the travelers gets a proper place to stay at the rate s/he desires. Airbnb is active in over 190 countries worldwide, acting as the main reason Airbnb got a grip on the global market.

How Airbnb Works

Before we understand how to make an Airbnb clone app, we have to pay close attention to the business structure Airbnb follows, not because you are after their idea but only because it is necessary to look at the facts first. The facts will teach us about their business pattern, as we already have a vague idea about what Airbnb does. In the following areas, we will discuss its business model, how promotions are done, the cost involved in the process, and which group of people is their main target, sharing the revenue details of Airbnb in the end.

The Business model

The 3 arch-affiliates involved in this model are :

• The Hosts — People who own a house or a property and are willing to give out the same as lease/rent, Airbnb cuts commissions on each from such hosts.
• The Guests — Travelers, families going on vacations and/or official purposes who want to stay comfortably at an affordable rate. It gains commission from guests with each booking.
• The Freelance Photographers — Airbnb has an assorted reticulum of freelance photographers in almost all the cities across the sphere. As a host lists his/her property on the portal, these photographers are assigned to capture high-quality images of the property. These photographers are directly paid by Airbnb. 

If you are interested to become a photographer in Airbnb check out their photographer’s page and register yourself.

As you can see from this model that there are three essential heads that are responsible for revenue generation. As the host contacts, Airbnb about their property a professional photographer is informed who clicks high definition pictures of that property and gets directly paid by Airbnb. High definition images kindle interest, hence attracting travelers.

The travelers then select a property, makes the payment mentioned by the host along with transactional charges. After this process is complete the host approves the booking and the travelers get a place to stay while his visit, lastly, Airbnb makes a payment to the host keeping aside their commission.

Channels of promotion

The important area of business is the channels of promotion, without which your business might grow over a period of ten thousand years but it will go downstream if promotions are not kept in mind at an initial stage. In this era, there is a finite amount of platforms that are waiting for your ads, like social media, other apps, etc which will help you promote and advertise your app using their platform. 

For understanding how to make an Airbnb clone app a thorough knowledge of how promotions work is essential, anyways, let’s take a close look at what Airbnb is doing about their promotions.

• They have their mobile app on both iOS and Android-based platforms
• Airbnb has its website which lists details of the locations, their services, etc.
• Social Media has become a huge platform for advertising, so even Airbnb is entitled to it
• Digital Marketing is necessary for a direct search plus nowadays’ with content, even information is shared on that industry via digital marketing
• Promotions such as offers like discounts, free items, etc are provided to the customers, ads in print media are published, banner ads are considered, while promotions also take place as word of mouth, let’s take my example I would not have known about Airbnb if my aunt wouldn’t have told me about these services as she was boding in such a property sponsored by Airbnb.

Cost Layout

With business flows capital, it might not be the only requirement but it is the most essential one. Addressing the topic about how to make an Airbnb clone app, this might be one of the essential areas that light will shine on, as it is understandable that knowing about how much you have to spend and how much you will get in return; is a very frequent question generated from your end.

Not wasting more time let’s have a look at the sectors Airbnb spends :

• Airbnb has a bulky amount of employees who are responsible for different areas of work involving technical workers, telecallers, etc.
• The maintenance cost for online platforms such as the website and the app
• Activities involving marketing and advertising costs, hence this is a major area of revenue deduction
• Online payment section like Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal, where revenue is deducted for using those services for making or taking any payment
• And of course, there are insurance costs generated from the properties they work with which almost all of us have to pay, so does Airbnb
• Income tax is another aspect which swallows a lot of revenue from any company as well as Airbnb

Intended Customers

The intended customers or the target customers might be the ones traveling and the ones having a property they want to give out in lease/rent. While you are searching for how to make an Airbnb clone app even you must have particulars about your target audience if not exactly the same as this one.

• The travelers who are in need of affordable property, like solo traveler or group of friends traveling together would like to keep there pockets tight in matters of food and stay
• Those families who are traveling and is not willing to pay for over-priced hotels
• The ones traveling for business and generally not willing to open up there pockets much
• The travelers who are traveling for visiting or exploring new places
• The ones acting as hosts looking for some extra money they could earn from giving out a property
• Exchange students who have not been allotted a hostel yet or they have not found a rented place for a long-term stay
• Families of such exchange students coming to visit them

What has the company earned in terms of resources?

One essential need of a company is its resources with a huge number of resources a company can easily go on without a month’s advertisements. You will get the answer to how to make an Airbnb clone app but first, we need to know how much resources can be generated by such apps looking at the stats of Airbnb.

• Over 500 million guests in 2019 have used Airbnb to stay in exotic locations, with 500,000 bookings per night 
• 650,000 hosts are doing business with Airbnb according to 2019’s statistics, that were found here. 
• Over 150 million people are using Airbnb in 2019 for selecting a house in exotic locations
• Approximately 6 million listings are present at the moment with 1.9 million listings instantly bookable.
• Airbnb is agile over 191 countries and 65,000 cities with active customers
• The company is said to be foreseeing EBITDA of $450 million on $2.8 billion in revenue as per 2017, by 2020 Airbnb might reach to $8.5 billion
• Airbnb generated $93 million in profit on $2.6 billion revenue in 2017 (2018 stats can’t be provided as they haven’t gone public)

How to make an Airbnb clone app? | The tools involved in the process

For building an app that is similar to Airbnb you will definitely need to make use of some technologies. The main question in this area is who will do it for you, it is well and good if you are a developer but if you are not, there has to be a distributed team who will be working dedicatedly for your needs if you do not believe in outsourcing.

There is another way to get the job done that is by hiring the hard-working developers here at Vyrazu Labs,  we work with app development and design hence, we will get the work done for you. So, the initial question was how to make an Airbnb clone app, for which certain technologies will be involved such as the list given below :

• Application Framework — Ruby on Rails, Laravel, Django (Based of different language lovers)
• Programming languages — Ruby, PHP, Python, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3
• JavaScript Framework — React.js or Angular
• Cloud Storage — Amazon S3, EBS
• Cloud Hosting — Amazon EC2
• Automation Frameworks — RSpec, Capybara, PhantomJS
• Voice and SMS API for SMS, Voice, and Phone Verification — Nexmo
• Messaging & Communication — Twilio
• Global Payment — Braintree, Stripe, PayPal
• SQL data storage — PostgreSQL

What are the features that you can include in a Airbnb Clone App?

In an app like Airbnb, there can be varied features that you can include while keeping in mind which feature will best suit your app, “how to make an Airbnb clone app” is far fetched if the basic features are not kept in mind, what are these basic features? From a user’s end, we more or less know about the features that are provided to us, however for revisiting those known features we will include a paragraph on it, while we start off by talking about the admin panel moving on to the hosts’ section.

The Board of Admins

• History of Bookings — This is a property that helps the admin to check all the booking histories old or new. An update on the status of each booking reservation is posted here as well. This data can be mingled like you can edit, update or delete it as you like.
• The Dashboard — This is the admins’ area which lists all the users who are registering on their website or app as well as contain all the user who has already registered, the pre-existing hosts, even the new ones singing-up under Airbnb’s banner, and the freelance photographers who are working for Airbnb.
• Insights — All kinds of activities taking part in the app will be visible here, both the ones done earlier and the ones taking place every hour. These are later used as data which helps in the growth of the company.
• New Listings’ Manager — Uploading a new listing online is analyzed and processed more so that any mistake is not unnoticed or any update that has not been mentioned. This panel assists the admin to edit listings, add them or delete any of them as per the need suits the user.
• Complaints and Feedback — This is the area where the complaints are lodged both by a user or by a host, which be will appear here, the feedback and complaints which are regarded towards the guests or the hosts can further be processed by the admin.

*Footnote — Interactive Arena — Previously I had mentioned that it provides an interactive arena, what it actually does is let its users and hosts interact through these feedbacks or complaints here both the user and the host can post feedback, comments, findings, complaints, etc on each other almost like a conversation. These are recorded in the Airbnb data which is later analyzed.

What does the Host see?

The hosts’ app is entitled to know about all the details his tenant (for a couple of days) can offer, for the safety of the property is also a priority for other travelers to come in, while knowing about how to make an Airbnb clone app what should be included in the hosts’ list is an indulging topic don’t you think? Well, there are these basic things that Airbnb includes :

• Logins and Signups
• Registration
• Listings Manager
• Profile Information and Personal page manager
• Listings of Booking
• Feature Messaging
• Requests
• Details of the Account
• Sharings
• Help
• History of Bookings
• Ratings and Reviews

These points include all the necessary features that the host app should hold. These points can be easily explained, login and signups are available for both the host and the visitor. The drill is simple the host has to sign-up if they don’t already have a registered id. They will fill in the necessary details like their names and numbers if they are signing-up or they can just sign-up using their social media handles. Registration is the first step, using which one can register their property which they intend to give out, they will fill in the details of the property involved in this business.

The listings manager will provide the hosts with the details of their property involved in the business like the amenities, pricing, etc all of which can be managed under this feature, such as these details can be edited, updated and even pictures of the same can be uploaded using this feature.

These features let the hosts maintain the information they provide and the information that they gain such as the feature profile Information and personal page manager, this, as you might have gotten a clue, is for updating the hosts’ profile like address, mobile number, email id. This feature is dedicated to the hosts while they can edit, manage, update their personal information as they feel like, the password to their account can also be changed under this feature. To perceive how to make an Airbnb clone app, these feature listing will help you understand what features to include and which ones to omit, Airbnb has a good profile of almost all the necessary features.

Moving on to the next feature, which is listings of booking this is one of the most important features that the host is entitled to this is a calendric view of all the upcoming bookings that the company has passed on to the host, which s/he has already approved. This calendar will include the dates in different months for which the bookings are due.

Feature Messaging is a feature that allows the hosts to communicate with the guests regarding any queries or information by using the chat feature. This can be done even before the traveler has made the booking or the host has confirmed the stay. This also allows the host to create or send new requests to travelers. The feature which allows the walkthrough for accepting or declining the user’s request is known as requests.

Details of the account or account details can be managed with this feature, for adding or removing information in their account. Sharings are for the hosts to invite friends via their social media account, similar to the “share” property all the platforms have. All the guests can be reviewed or rated in accordance with their behavior this is the ratings and reviews of the guests.

Finally, the history of bookings will show the bookings which were done in the past, the payments made by those bookings and the revenue generated from those bookings. Another feature which is included is help, now, we all know what this button does, it provides information related to the queries generated, like FAQs or anything that might be baffling in regards to the bookings or any guest-related issues.

The service takers

Now, who is going to be a service taker in this kind of app? If you are unsure about this let’s think about a scenario where you are going out for a holiday or a business trip and you wanted to book a hotel, that hotel is going to be a service provider and you as a guest are accepting the service by paying some money. You definitely will have a set of features that will fit your requirements. We as users’ we already have some knowledge about the features which are provided to us in different platforms, but when we are learning about how to make an Airbnb clone app lets recap these features real quick :

• Signing-up and Logging-in
• Filter Search
• Managing Account
• Chat and Push Notification
• Host Interaction
• Wishlist creation/saved properties
• Maps
• Booking
• Payments
• Coupons
• Sharings
• Help
• Ratings and Reviews

What they recently added:

• Supplementary
• Receiving SMS-Notifications

Though these points are self-explanatory, we will still go through a brief explanation doing justice to these points mentioned above, few points like logging-in and signing-up, managing account, host interaction, help, sharing, ratings and reviews have already been described above in regard with a host, since we have used other apps and services these are the basic things we all know. In the above explanation, the description for these mentioned points will change in accordance with the guests’ information which was stated as the hosts’ information in the “what does the host see?” paragraph. You can read-on ahead or skip this area if you feel you already know these features.

However, a short explanation is due as I have said, I will be doing justice to all these points. You already know logging-in and signing-up is for the pre-existing and the new users respectively. Either the user has to log-in using his/her ID or a new user has to fill in his/her details to acquire such an ID. The host interaction area is for chatting with the hosts regarding matters of importance and accepting or denying the offers made.

You can manage your account by editing, updating, managing your personal information like name, number, email id, DoB, permanent address, gender, etc while also being able to change your password. You can get help for any confusion or questions regarding the host or access FAQs by clicking help. For leaving behind reviews and ratings about the host or the property, by now you must know which feature will let you do that.

Now, we know how to make an Airbnb clone app, by utilizing the technologies mentioned earlier and paying heed to these features that you might or might not include in your app, but Airbnb is firm on providing these features to their guests and hosts. Moving on to describing these features further, filtering search is an important inclusion with which the users are free to filter their search by choosing dates of travel, room type, price range, facilities that one is looking for, etc. Airbnb like any other messaging app provides an area for a chat and push notification allowing the user to chat on with the host or Airbnb help-line, which clears a user’s queries also helping in communication.

With the help of wishlist and save for later you can store properties which you might have liked but due to some reasons you could not bode it, so, we know there is always a next time and with this feature, you can find that particular property easily and book the property some other time. Airbnb has included a map feature in the app which pinpoints properties in the maps for the users to locate the area and choose a property likewise. While a user is confident with a property s/he chooses to stay s/he will complete the booking process, this feature also includes earlier bookings or any upcoming booking.

Payments can be made through the app itself, the guests can choose which method of payment he wants to access, this area also shows the previous transactions. The payment method of Airbnb includes a property for changing the currency. Coupons can be used while checking out, these can be accessed by referral codes.

The newly added features like receiving SMS-notification is for reminding the users about their upcoming bookings and for sending offers or promo codes. This helps the user to avail some discounts or some cut in the payment. An app like Airbnb can be associated with different social media channels and methods of payments these are called supplementary.

How to make a Airbnb clone app? |Making of the app

The initial question was how to make an Airbnb clone app, now, let us talk about the making of the app, any project’s inception depends on the first steps taken towards its development. What we can do is divide the app into different parts based on its resources, technicalities, and the modules which help us in determining the work hours. Let us now pay close attention to the deduced work hours :

• 20 hours — Database model
• 100 -150 hours — Implementation of services and libraries
• 100–150 hours — REST API implementation
• 20 hours — Project setup

The work hours of the developers to develop Airbnb Clone App

The developers are such that they look after every detail while creating an app, after all, they do not want to upset their employers’ and have to produce an app that is better than what their employer was looking for, let us now divide the work hours further in groups in regard to the features that have to be added :

Signing-up and logging-in

While a user or a host opens up your app they will look for registering in your app. The user has to agree to the terms and conditions of your app while registering which will portray your policies and other fundamental details. Your app has to have the login and signup options for making it easier for the users to store their desired data in your app. This will help in generating a recommendation for that user according to his taste and preferences. Creating this feature will take around 10–12 hours.

Profile of the User 

There are going to be two user profiles one is going to be used by the traveler and the other will be used by the host. In this feature, both of them will be providing their personal and contact details like their names, gender, DoB, phone number, address, personal description, etc. This takes almost 20 hours of work. This is a basic feature which almost every marketing app has. 

Settings

Settings is a feature known to all, this helps the user to customize and configure according to their preferences. The settings menu offers you the features like push notification, SMS notification, payment method, payment currency, wishlist/save for later, conversation with the host and updates on rental options which are area-based. This feature as we all know is important for the user to stay updated on everything that is going on in his profile in regard to the app. This means the users are obligated to know about the changes that you are making in your app which will concern him like offers, etc. This takes about 60 hours of work.

Apply filters

While we are considering how to make an Airbnb clone app we must keep in mind the work of filters as this helps the user to narrow down his search the filters on search are equally used by both the host and the traveler. 

i. How will the host use it?

The host will add information like room type, house type, photos, pricing accommodation details, etc. further he can filter in guests as per what kinds of guests he will allow in his property or what is their native language, etc

ii. How will the traveler use it?

When a user will filter his search they will look for details such as the location of the property, house type and size, photos of the property, price range, check-in and check-out dates, amenities, etc

This feature insertion is vast and the developers might take 24 hours for creating this feature.

Details of accommodation

Right after the user or the host will be done filtering data there will be a huge range of varieties in the search result popping up in front of you. This includes the details of the room you wish to stay in. The details which will pop are photos, accommodation, host profile, rating, amenities, price, review, available dates, map providing the location, and terms and conditions of your company. How to make an Airbnb clone app is one topic but putting in the accommodation details in your panel is a necessity. This takes about 20 hours of work.

Property Listing

So you are the host, as soon as you sign up you have to enter the necessary details about the property you are letting out. The app itself will show the esteemed rate that you can charge for the room/apartment/house. This consumes about 20 hours of work.

Feature: Guide

This feature is user-friendly and guides the user to locate the sight-seeing venues and other places that the user can visit while his/her stay. This helps the user to plan out which places he will be visiting. This also gives a brief idea about the locality. This feature can be added in about 40 hours of work

Inviting Friends

This feature as the name suggests is for letting the user invite their friends to download the app.

Adding to Favourites

With the help of this feature the user will be able to add a few bookmarks or listings under favorites and can view them later as and when they require. Insertion of this feature takes almost 10 hours of work.

Feature: translate

This feature uses google translator to translate the details of the property in the native language of the user. As descriptions are written in many languages one can not know all of them, however, the text is sent to the google translator and it reverts the text translating it. Almost 80 hours of work will add this feature.

Maps

Talking about how to make an Airbnb clone app, a feature like maps must be included here. This will allow the user to check the different locations s/he wants to visit, routes, neighborhoods, and facilities in that particular area. These are the facts that we consider before choosing a place to stay. Maps can be added in about 60 hours.

Backend

The area involved with the server is very crucial as the product created needs to get properly configured from both ends, the server-side and the client. The client will be dealing with interaction with the users and the server will be dealing with the functions, server connections, etc. backend is the most time-eating job that the developer has to do. Not less than 150 hours have to be put behind this.

How to make an Airbnb clone app? | The costing Involved

Determining the cost for developing such an app is a time-consuming job, one has to critically evaluate the necessary areas. You are no Marx but capitalisation is something you have to sit and construe. In these kinds of apps, numerous divisions regarding different fields of the business. In the study of how to make an Airbnb clone app cost will help you organise the tasks accordingly. Let us take a look at the components that you will have to address while making such an app :

The team players

As mentioned earlier, you will need a team who will be working behind this project. Now, you might have a large team consisting of different employees doing their asserted jobs or you can have a smaller team with a designer and developer along with a project manager who could do a little more work to cut some cost apart from them you will also need a system administrator. All these members must be dedicated workers for getting a better end result with a smaller group and efficient workers the employee cost is less in comparison to a bigger group.

If you do not want to make up your own team rather get the work done by a company like Vyrazu Labs as mentioned earlier who will do it for you, once your business sets off there is always an area for development and your work team to come in, even though they don’t set in initially.

The developers association

This is the initial stages of the development and you will be looking for developers, now, where will you get these developers? Either you can post ads online for a developer or just look for one in an IT company providing services related to the design and development of apps. The price will vary here if you want a personal developer he might charge you a humongous amount or an inexperienced developer might not be able to pull off the task as you had planned out initially. For these reasons, it is a lot safer to visit a company who will complete the task for you on time with the exact details or designs you had in mind. However, it is completely up to you for determining this area I would suggest you consider both the scenarios, then carefully make a decision.

Designing the Airbnb Clone App

The aphorism that Airbnb is a big company with a huge clientele is no joke. So, they have to produce such a design that will help them grow further, hence it is discrete and is able to attract customers in a market as big as the Earth. You have to keep in mind that the app you will make can be easily handled and the design of the app doesn’t have to be a masterpiece but, certainly has to be enticing. They are two aspects of such an app one is customised and the other is standard. You as the owner of the app can customise the design creating something unique rather than following the mainstream app norms and standardising your app. Let’s look forward to the creation and cut some costs in terms of designing.

What will your Airbnb Clone App have and how will it work?

When it comes to developing an app especially in terms of how to make an Airbnb clone app the features and functions of the app are equally important as the design of the app. This falls in the development process, while the developers will be developing the app the first question they will ask is what are the features that the app will have and which functions will be included. As there will be three sides to such an app, the cost itself will be on the higher side, on evaluating you will figure that Airbnb has one too many features that you can exclude from your app as those are unnecessary in the initial stages like the booking history, data on the host, communication between the traveler and the host, etc. these features will add on to your disburse list. However, a minute consideration will save you from getting ripped.

iOS or Android for Airbnb Clone App? Maybe both?

How to make an Airbnb clone app is a topic related to the making, developing and designing of the app, but after completion of the app, the question comes that which platforms will you choose to launch your app. You can launch your app either on iOS, Android or both if need be. Now, you just can not go and launch your app on both platforms, as both of them need different app screens for launching. This crucially depends on your target audience, you will have to take a survey, finding out which platform your target audience uses. On the other hand, developing an android app takes more time than iOS just because it has varied fields for testing trial and error.

In-app purchase

This option is for you to introduce your customers to in-app purchase features, for example, you can add an option where a customer can pay to avail extra discounts, etc. Your app initially might be free as all the other travel apps are while you can earn money through in-app purchases. The next question that might come in your head is how free apps make money? visit this link for knowing-how.

Insertion of special features

There are certain features an app like this demands. What are those features? You might wonder. They are geographic location indicators, booking calendar, data sync, in-app chat or calling services, etc. which will increase the figures of your budget. These are some basic points determining cost hike whereas the main consideration comes in while hiring the developers they will provide you with a cost chart which will be in consideration of the time required to build such an app. The time of development is calculated in hours and the rate per hour differs from one company to another. Let us consider that rate to be $30 per hour, considering standards worldwide. Let us use an example that you are interested in developing an app that is iOS based, so what will your team look like?

Something like this :

Ther team will include at least these members for executing the development process :

• 1 iOS developer
• 1 backend developer
• 1 UI designer
• 1 Quality Assurance Engineer
• 1 project manager

The prime competitors

Airbnb is a stellar company, while many try to follow their footsteps. We have been talking about how to make an Airbnb clone app but there are other companies who have also set up their market and are offering similar services like Airbnb. Even though this topic was related to one of the best companies you might want to have a look at the rival list as these companies will also be your competitors after completion of your app.

HomeAway is the prime rival of Airbnb as it has over a million listings all over the world and it is active in 190 countries. It provides all the features that Airbnb provides and has its own insurance program. It is owned by Expedia. It operates in regional sites like VRBO, TravelMob, and VacationRentals. 

Roomorama is a Singapore-based company providing rentals and is not as big as Airbnb but provides 80,000 properties worldwide. With this service, you can instantly book their homes/apartments. They are focused on the security of their customers. The guests can avail discounts, local offers, and deals which is not yet a feature in Airbnb.

Flipkey is run by TripAdvisor, it has a great number of users and the best quality verification program by the employees of the company. It is known as the “vacation rental market-place”, has almost 300,000 properties in almost 160 countries. However, it does not offer rooms that can be shared but has features like the kid-friendly, dog-friendly, or waterfront in their properties.

What did we deduce?

Carefully, considering all the feature inclusions, modules, we have the approximate figures that will be involved in this process. The figures somewhat look like this $28140 — $30840, which can be rounded off to $29000 — $31000 only if we consider the rate as $30 per hour as the average rate. Nonetheless, this could vary for different reasons such as the companies who are developing the app. The amount can vary on other properties as well as the economy, social stature, etc.

On reading this article you might have gotten an idea on the requisites that are involved in an app development process. This is evident that the app development process is not an easy job it is time-consuming and has to go through numerous checks and balances before the process is complete. After carefully looking at the criteria on how to make an Airbnb clone app you might have understood what will be your next step.

If this article was in any way useful to you please leave a comment or feedback, you can also include your requests on any above-mentioned topics to be elaborated. For any consultation regarding your, IT needs kindly contact us, we will be more than happy to help you.