Who needs a travel agent when they have a mobile device? It’s 2017 and planning a vacation is getting easier thanks to the myriad of travel apps on the market that help travelers plan pretty much everything from their flight and hotel booking to walking tours, check out restaurant reviews on social networks, book a rental car, and more.
Just look at the stats:
- 80 percent of travelers refer to recent reviews before making any sort of booking or travelling decision;
- 76 percent of mobile travelers share experiences on their social networks and the reviews can be integrated with travel app’s recommendations
Still not convinced?
So, what are travelers using this year?
2017’s must-have travel Apps
While there is quiet a selection on the market, we have outlined three of the must-have apps for summer 2017 travels.
- Kayak
Kayak has been around for a while, and like its counterpart, Skyscanner, Kayak conducts searches across a range of travel sites for hotels, flights, and rental cars. It also runs regular deals and users can set up price alerts and a forecast option to determine if they should make their bookings now or hold out for a while. Travelers can plan just about every aspect of their trip with this app and they can access details like flight and gate numbers in real-time.
- Hotel Tonight
The dread of a flight being delayed or a hotel booking falling through is real. Hotel Tonight is a great app for those last-minute deals and users can find accommodation at discounted prices and bookings can be done in a matter of seconds.
- Google Trips
This app pulls reservations from your email, adds hotel bookings, vehicle rental details, and much more. Essentially, it helps to create the framework for a trip without the traveler having to do very much. It’s handy for checking out curated day trips, popular and recommended places to eat, tour, and overall plan an entire day. It also allows travelers to access the information offline, which is great if they don’t have a reliable connection when travelling.
Have you localized your Apps? Use these tips
Localizing your app will enable you to take your offering to a global market, but there are a few things to keep in mind when localizing your app:
- Culture
Localizing your content should include taking cultural differences into account, like the type of color palette that is used or the screenshots you choose for the app store.
- Direction of Text
In some languages, text is read from right to left, so you need to think about how the text will look when you overlay it on images. One option is to use symmetrical images that you can flip in the code of the app. This will support right-to-left text and helps to keep the size of the app to a minimum.
- The Layout of the App
You should not use fixed heights and widths for your app layout as this can result in the text being cropped in some languages. It is better to have a fluid layout that will handle differing string lengths in different languages.
- Don’t Be Afraid of Using APIs
Let APIs do the hard work when it comes to localizing currency, times, and dates. This will remove a few barriers, but you need to check out which functions are supported before going ahead with APIs.
The power of localization for travel Apps in 2017
The key take-away from 2017’s travel app trends are that mobile users are abandoning single-use apps for more effective apps that rely on API integration and consumer insight to deliver localized and relevant recommendations. By developing localized apps that meet the needs of today’s travelers, you can build a fully-integrated app that will meet their need for broad functionality and ease-of-use.
