In recent years, the demand for housing rental apps has grown significantly. It is driven by the rise of the sharing economy, the convenience of booking accommodations online and the increasing popularity of vacation rentals like Airbnb.

Since its founding in 2008, Airbnb has grown significantly and now has more than 4 million listings in over 100,000 cities and 191 countries. In 2020, Airbnb reported having over 4 million hosts and over 800 million guest arrivals.

According to the latest report, the global vacation rental market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.5% from 2020 to 2025. This growth is being driven by factors such as the increasing trend of experiential travel and the rising disposable incomes of consumers in emerging markets.

Top Airbnb features that you must have when building a housing rental app

In the early years of the company, Airbnb focused on offering a platform for individuals to rent out their homes or apartments to travelers. However, the company has since expanded to include a broad range of properties, including vacation homes and boutique hotels. Along with that, Airbnb has introduced new search tools and a wide range of features ideal for a home rental application.

When developing an app like Airbnb, you must strive to include key features such as map integration, listing management, reviews, search filter, communication and much more. Let us walk you through a few features that make Airbnb one of the best applications in the home rental market.

Same-day bookings

When you are aspiring for an app like Airbnb, the first thing you ought to offer your users is a seamless booking of accommodations. The aim is to make bookings via mobile easy and user-friendly. Thus, the app must allow users to select that date and time with the help of a one-click option.

Especially when people are planning things in a jiffy and are looking for last-minute accommodation the same-day booking feature allows them to have options. Needless to say, this feature in your housing rental app allows the renters to book and stay in a home on the same day. Furthermore, you can integrate a search filter for same-day bookings in your app and the users can choose to refine their rental stay options.

In-app chat feature

An in-app feature in a housing rental app can be useful for hosts as well as guests to communicate with each other before, during and after the stay. This helps build a layer of trust between guests and hosts and also resolves any issues, questions or mishaps that may occur during their stay. Moreover, hosts and guests can use this feature to get in touch with customer support.

You can implement the in-app chat feature by using a third-party messaging platform like Messenger or WhatsApp which can be integrated into your app feasibly. If you want to give your users a more seamless experience, you can opt to develop a custom messaging feature within the app. This allows for more control over data privacy and user experience.

Real-time alerts

A real-time alerts feature in a house rental app like Airbnb can help users stay up-to-date on new properties that match their search criteria and can also alert them to changes in the availability or pricing of properties they are interested in. It keeps users informed about alerts and price drops at all times. The users as well as the hosts can view important information on booking, confirmation, details and much more from the notification panel itself.

The real-time alert is a feature that is widely used for engagement and promotional purposes. With this feature, you can send customers personalized messages based on their booking and browsing preferences. Moreover, you can use push notifications to notify guests of new properties or changes in properties they have saved. You could also allow users to customize their alert settings by including their interested properties, alert frequency and much more.

Save for later

A lot of the time users come across multiple housing rental options and are flattered by them all. In such scenarios, they can save their choice of selected homestay and come back to them whenever they want. Therefore, saving for later is one of the great features you can include in your housing rental app as users don’t have to worry about losing or looking for their desired home all over again.

The save for later feature allows users to save properties or rentals that they are interested in but are not ready to rent or reciprocate on it. This can be very useful, especially in the early stages of their search and when users want to keep track of various property options they are considering. Additionally, you can add a save button to each property listing that allows users to add properties to their saved list without any hassle.

Ratings and reviews

One of the most crucial features that make Airbnb app development so reliable is the ratings and reviews feature. It is a valuable feature that helps prospective users make informed decisions about a particular rental property with the help of valuable feedback from people who have already stayed in that place. Along with this feature, you can allow users to rate and review stays they have rented on a scale i.e. 1-5 stars and leave a written review.

In addition to displaying reviews on individual property listings, you can also consider aggregating ratings and reviews on their profiles and on a separate page. Furthermore, allowing guests to leave reviews and ratings for properties and hosts can help build trust, transparency and credibility for your house rental platform.

Summing up

To succeed in this rental app development market, it is crucial for entrepreneurs or startup owners to understand the specific needs and preferences of their target audience. Such enlightenment helps them and to offer a range of services by including the best features of a mobile app that meet users’ needs. This may include things like local payment options, support for multiple languages, and integration with external booking systems.

As the vacation rental market continues to grow, it is likely that the demand for housing rental apps will also continue to increase. This presents opportunities for you to hire Airbnb app developers and create innovative and user-friendly house rental apps that meet the needs of both hosts and guests.