Expedia has made a significant impact on the travel industry since its launch, setting new standards for travel mobile apps. According to 6Sense, the app holds a 6% market share in the reservation-and-online-booking sector and a 19.3% market share in the USA, according to Business of Apps.
Source: Business of Apps
Expedia has provided a proven case study for entrepreneurs willing to enter the travel and hospitality industry. By following its model, they can develop a tailored travel app with cutting-edge features and technologies to provide users with a solution that enhances their travel experiences.
Plus, with the right monetization strategy, the app can generate consistent revenue to support ongoing development and business growth.
In this blog, we will decode Expedia’s app strategy and provide a step-by-step guide to building your own travel app, covering must-have features, technology stack, and monetization models. Read on to get inspired and start building!
Why Should You Build A Travel App like Expedia?
The following are the top reasons to develop a travel app similar to Expedia.
- Growing Demand
According to the Business Research Insights, the travel app market size is expected to reach $47.8 billion by 2033, growing at a 15.6% CAGR.
Hence, it is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to develop a custom travel app like Expedia to tap into this growing market, and make their place by playing their cards right.
- User Convenience
Expedia-like travel app development enhances the enhance the overall experience of the users and makes their travel planning more efficient and stress-free.
Travel apps bring all travel services, such as flights, hotels, car rentals, and activities, into one seamless platform. Users can effortlessly search, compare, and book travel options in real-time, saving valuable time and effort.
No wonder 72% of people now prefer online booking and travel apps over traditional travel agencies, which only account for 12%.
- Revenue Streams
Expedia Group reported a revenue of $3.184 billion in the 2024 fiscal year, reflecting its strong position in the global travel industry.
By developing a travel app like Expedia, you can also create multiple monetization opportunities, such as commissions on bookings, featured listings, in-app advertisements, and premium services.
Moreover, you can diversify income sources by integrating various travel services and affiliate networks, ensuring long-term profitability and business sustainability.
- Market Differentiation
Lastly, building an Expedia-like travel app can help you differentiate your business in the crowded market.
With unique branding, tech-driven personalization, and value-added services, you can make your travel mobile app from traditional platforms, helping build customer loyalty and a strong competitive edge in the travel and hospitality industry.
Step-by-Step Process to Develop a Travel App like Expedia
The following is the step-by-step process to build a travel app similar to Expedia.
- Evaluate Your Requirements
Before you start developing your travel app, you need to understand and determine your requirements in detail.
These requirements may include the type of travel app you are thinking of building, your targeted user base who will use your app, the number of travel agencies and hotels to onboard initially, and other features.
When you evaluate all these basic requirements beforehand, it will become easy to explain your vision to your development team and build a travel app like Expedia.
- Analyze the Competition and Market
It is crucial to analyze the competition and the online travel app market. The market already has key players like Expedia itself, and others like Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Kayak, and more.
You need to study these platforms deeply to understand how they work, why users prefer these apps, and areas they are lacking.
While you analyze your competition, you also need to study and understand what the market demand is. Research what users want in travel apps in terms of services, technologies, or features.
Once you crack this, it will become easy for your Expedia-like travel app to stand out and succeed in the online travel sector.
- Design the UI/UX
At this stage, your core travel app development process starts. You must start by designing the UI/UX for your travel app, like Expedia. Also, create wireframes and prototypes for the same to understand the look and feel of your app.
For designing the UI for your app, you can get ideas from the Expedia app. However, you need to take care of one major factor, i.e., user experience.
As Expedia is a travel aggregation app, it has several tabs that display flights, trains, hotels, cabs, currency exchange, and other services. If you creating such an app, make sure that you keep it clean and uncluttered, so that it does not affect the overall user experience.
- Develop the Travel App
Now, develop the core backend and frontend infrastructures of your Expedia-like travel app. You can use frameworks like React Native (same as Expedia), Flutter, or Xamarin to build a cross-platform app.
If you are aiming to target a specific user base, then you can build native apps using Kotlin or Swift. Also, integrate essential travel APIs to enable features like flight booking, hotel and stay reservations, cab services, currency exchange, and more.
Moreover, integrate cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality, and blockchain to enhance your app’s capabilities and improve user experiences.
- Testing and Quality Assurance
Post-development, you must test your travel app like Expedia by conducting rigorous testing to ensure that it is bug-free and functioning as per the expectations.
You can conduct manual and automated testing to check bugs, glitches, performance issues, compatibility issues, or any kind of technical issues. Once the app is approved by your testing team, prepare for the app’s deployment.
- Deployment
Launch your travel app similar to Expedia on the app stores, from where your targeted users can download and use the app.
Publish the app on the Google Play Store and App Store. Follow the respective platform’s guidelines to ensure that it gets approved without any delay.
Also, you need to promote your travel app like Expedia to your targeted market and beyond. So, you can choose online and offline marketing tactics, such as app store optimization, influencer marketing, advertisements, and more.
Keeping the right balance between the two marketing approaches will give you the best results.
- Maintenance and Upgradation
You need to monitor your Expedia clone travel app to stay updated about its performance and user feedback. For monitoring, you can use KPIs like app downloads, active users, total time they spend on your app, churn rate, and more.
Also, check user feedback on app stores and platforms to understand whether your users are loving your app or not. It will help you get an idea of areas where you can improve.
Moreover, upgrade your travel app with new UI, functionalities, technologies, and APIs to enhance its capabilities and user experiences, so that it stays relevant for a long period.
Must-Have Features for a Travel App Similar to Expedia
Here are the top features to add to a travel mobile app like Expedia to enhance its capabilities and user experience alike.
- User Registration & Profile Management
A simple feature that enables users to create accounts, manage preferences, view bookings, and track activity.
- Advanced Search & Filters
This feature for a travel app similar to Expedia helps users quickly find flights, hotels, or rentals based on dates, price, ratings, and more.
- Multi-Modal Booking Engine
An all-in-one feature that supports bookings for flights, hotels, taxis and cabs, and other activities.
- AI-Powered Recommendations
A feature powered by artificial intelligence that provides tailored recommendations to users based on their preferences and travel history.
- In-App Payments & Wallet
A secure payments feature supporting cards, netbanking, digital wallets, cryptocurrencies, and even an in-app wallet.
- Trip Itinerary Generator
A user-friendly option that creates and manages day-wise travel plans and booking details in one visual timeline.
- Currency Converter
A currency converter is a feature that helps international travelers check prices in their local currency within the app.
- Weather Forecast Integration
A feature that displays current and upcoming weather for travel destinations.
- Multi-Language Support
A capability to translate the app’s content into the users’ preferred language to break language barriers.
- AR/VR Previews
Augmented reality and virtual reality-powered visuals that provide immersive previews of hotel rooms, landmarks, or travel routes.
You might be interested in: Metaverse for the Travel and Tourism Industry
- Flight & Hotel Comparison
An AI-powered feature that displays and compares pricing, features, and reviews side-by-side for smarter decisions.
- Real-Time Availability Status
A feature that displays availability and pricing updates in real-time to ensure users get up-to-date options.
- Interactive Map Integration
In-app mapping systems that enable location-based browsing for accommodations, landmarks, and transportation.
- Reviews & Ratings
A feature in a travel app similar to Expedia that allows users to leave and read reviews for flights, stays, and destinations.
- Loyalty & Rewards Program
Promotional tactics that encourage repeat usage by offering points, discounts, and exclusive perks.
- AI Chatbots
AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants that help users with queries or issues through real-time chat and smart automation.
- Offline Access
A feature that enables users to access trip itineraries and bookings even without internet access.
- Travel Insurance Integration
This feature in an Expedia-clone travel app lets users opt for insurance coverage during the booking process.
- Admin Panel
The tab for the app owners and admin teams that allows them to manage listings, users, revenue, and content easily.
- Push Notifications
An intuitive feature that sends alerts about price drops, booking confirmations, travel reminders, and promotions.
Read Also: How AI-Powered Solutions Revolutionize Corporate Travel Management?
Technology Stack to Build an Expedia Clone Travel App
The following is the technology stack that you can leverage to develop a travel app like Expedia.
| Category | Technology Stack |
| Frontend | Flutter / React Native (cross-platform), Swift (iOS), or Kotlin (Android) |
| Backend | Node.js / Go / Python (Django) |
| Database | Firebase / PostgreSQL / MongoDB |
| Travel APIs | Amadeus / Skyscanner / Sabre / Travelport |
| Payment Gateways | Stripe / Razorpay / PayPal |
| Maps & Location | Google Maps Platform / Mapbox |
| Cloud & DevOps | AWS / Google Cloud / Azure (Cloud), Docker / Kubernetes (DevOps) |
| Security | OAuth 2.0 / JWT / SSL Pinning |
| Analytics | Firebase Analytics / Mixpanel |
| Testing | Jest /Appium/ Espresso |
* Please note that this tech stack is only for recommendations. You can also use other tools and technologies that align with your budget and goals to build your travel app, like Expedia.
Read Also: How to Develop an App Like Airbnb? A Complete Guide
Proven Monetization Strategies for a Travel App
In this section, we have mentioned the top monetization strategies that you can implement to generate revenue from your travel app, like Expedia.
- Commission on Bookings
The best monetization strategy for Android and iOS travel apps is charging commissions from the bookings made through your app.
Using this strategy, you can earn a percentage from every hotel, flight, or car rental booked through your app.
However, you need to partner with service providers or affiliate networks to implement a commission monetization strategy for your travel app, like Expedia.
- Featured Listings
Another proven monetization strategy for a travel app similar to Expedia is featured listings.
In this strategy, you charge hotels, tour operators, or travel services to appear in top search results or as featured partners.
These featured listings rank them on top, boosting their visibility on your platform while you generate ad revenue for your app.
- In-App Advertising
You can also run advertisements for other similar businesses in the travel niche and charge them as on impressions or clicks.
You can use platforms like Google AdMob or Facebook Audience Network to enable targeted ads and generate revenue from your travel app, similar to Expedia.
- Dynamic Pricing & Surge Fees
Dynamic pricing and surge fees are also a good way to generate revenue from an Expedia clone travel mobile application.
To implement this, you will require AI-driven pricing strategies to adjust booking fees based on demand, season, or availability.
This helps to balance the costs of bookings according to availability, hence increasing revenue during peak travel times.
- Affiliate Marketing
Last but not least, you can affiliate marketing model to monetize your travel app and generate revenue from it.
You can promote travel insurance, travel gear, or experiences from third-party vendors within your app and earn commissions for each purchase or lead generated.
This is the most commonly used monetization strategy for iOS and Android travel apps.
Conclusion
Travel apps are transforming the way people plan their travels and book accommodations, transportation, and other activities. Expedia is one of the top travel apps that has emerged in the travel industry and generated billions of dollars in revenue.
Developing a travel app similar to Expedia can give various benefits, like addressing the growing demand for travel apps, providing convenience to the users, creating multiple revenue streams, and gaining a competitive advantage.
Hence, to develop a travel app like Expedia, you can follow the step-by-step process provided in this blog. Moreover, if you want professional assistance, then reach out to Quytech, the top travel app development company.
About Quytech: We are the top travel app development company that has developed travel and hospitality apps, software, and aggregator platforms for leading businesses, agencies, and startups in the travel sector.
Since our inception, we have developed and delivered 70+ digital travel solutions to our clients with an unmatched 100% success rate. Get more details on www.quytech.com
Frequently Asked Questions –
React Native is used to develop the Expedia app. It is a popular mobile app development framework that developers use to build cross-platform apps.
AI can be used for several purposes in developing a travel app like Expedia. AI in travel apps like Expedia can be used for powering chatbots, providing suggestions of hotels and places, dynamically adjusting pricing, fraud detection, and more.
The cost to develop an Expedia clone travel app depends on factors like the complexity of the app, the tech stack you will use, emerging technologies, the development team, and more. So, we highly recommend that you contact our team and share your idea and project requirements to get a detailed cost estimate.
Integrating cutting-edge technologies in the travel app can enhance its functionalities as well as the user experience. You can use technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, generative AI, blockchain, virtual reality, and others to build your travel app like Expedia.
Modern mobile app development trends, such as AI and personalization, use of AR/VR, blockchain, contactless travel solutions, and more, bring positive benefits and innovative features for the development of travel apps.
As of 2025, Quytech stands out as the top travel app development company, with expertise in AI-powered travel mobile app and platform development for travel agencies, companies, and startups.
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