The Best Mobile Apps for Hospitality Industry in 2022

Managing a HoReCa business is no piece of cake, even when it’s a bakery. Who would've thunk it takes so much… well, management. Yes, restaurants might not be all the rage right now, but as soon as the pandemic is over, people hungry for communication will be flooding bars and cafes. And when they do, you have to be ready. Why not start with apps for hospitality? It will help you improve cost-effectiveness, task flow, and overall customer experience.

Apps for hospitality can help a restaurant a lot. In fact, most dining establishments are already using restaurant management systems, mobile apps, or self-service kiosks to carry out daily operations efficiently. Their managers know: to offer a superior guest experience, you have to ensure that all the finely interconnected processes are handled with precision.

The best apps for hospitality help dining establishments attract the online audience as well by catering to their online orders and deliveries. Which is important because, according to statistics, online food deliveries account for nearly 90% of all restaurant deliveries in the United States.

Hospitality Apps in 2024: Market Trends

As we look ahead to 2024, the hotel management industry is poised for a journey, driven by high guest expectations. Here's a glimpse of what to expect from mobile apps for hotel industry:

Blockchain for Security: Blockchain technology will enhance security in hotel transactions, ensuring data protection and fraud prevention.
Digital Key Access: Traditional room keys will be replaced by digital keys on mobile apps, offering convenience and a touchless experience.
Remote Work Amenities: With the rise of remote work, hotels will cater to digital nomads with coworking spaces, high-speed internet, and comfortable work environments.
Health and Safety: Stringent health and safety measures will continue to be a priority, with contactless services, and robust emergency response plans.
Sustainability Takes The Stage: Wait for a surge in eco-friendly initiatives and energy-efficient technologies.

Mobile apps for hotel industry will become indispensable. The hotel management will digitally adjust to ever-evolving needs of travelers in 2024 and beyond.

How do apps automate the hospitality industry?

Today, equipping rooms with apps for hospitality is no longer a luxury, but a necessity related to security standards and the need to control climate, lighting, and multimedia in every room in 4 and 5-star hotels. Increased guest comfort, a renewed image of a modern hotel, the competitiveness of a smart hotel in the hospitality market, and energy savings are just some of the benefits that can be achieved with good software.

Hotel automation along with the hotel management mobile app will help to link the work of different departments of the hotel into one and simplify control. By implementing such a system, you will be able to modernize service, reduce service time and eliminate staff errors. This can be the first step of a small hotel on the way to a large hotel complex.

Types of apps for the hospitality industry

Apps for hospitality have their own set of functional modules, but the most common types of services are as follows.

Hotel booking app

Hotel booking app provides automatic determination of room availability at the time of booking, specifying reservation parameters, creating and canceling reservations. A centralized booking system allows users to monitor the availability of rooms of all hotels that are part of the network, and to make a reservation in several of them at once.

Hotel management app

Automated hotel management apps allow to serve clients quickly and with high quality, control personnel actions, and cut costs. The hotel management app operates with large volumes of information. Automated systems databases include information on room reservations, check-in and check-out time of guests, guest and staff access zones, cash payments, and much more. Automation simplifies accounting and increases the level of service.

Hotel management apps include:

• consolidation of all hotel activities into a single system;
• accounting of monetary and material resources of the hotel;
• high speed of guest service at all stages - from booking and check-in to room delivery;
• optimization of staff work;
• limiting access areas for guests, staff and unauthorized persons;
• creating a safe environment through the use of electronic keys, video surveillance and other features of the hotel system.

Communication app for hospitality workers

With the help of hospitality applications you can easily and quickly organize communication between staff in the hotel. This type of hospitality app is very convenient for calling the maid, porter, guard, and other staff by guests or for internal communication.

List of apps for the hospitality industry in 2022

Let's take a look at a few typical hospitality applications that are actively used in the hospitality industry. We can use them to illustrate what features are usually present in the apps for this industry. If you don’t know where to start, here are three top industry apps. But we should warn you: no out-of-the-box solution will cover ALL your needs.

ALICE Suite

This is a multifunctional suite of apps for hospitality designed for hotel management. This hotel management mobile app system is an all-in-one platform that streamlines operations and communication, boosts productivity, and increases guest satisfaction. It includes functionality for communicating with guests and getting instant insights into room status. Mobile functionality allows the housekeeping department to be in constant communication so they can operate efficiently.

Chef's journal

This hospitality app was launched almost a decade ago. It allows chefs to share recipes and is extremely convenient for kitchen staff. There are many ways to capture a recipe: through a photo, audio recording, or text.

The Hospitality Inspection App

This hotel management mobile app is more suitable for checking the functionality of all aspects of the hotel business. Features include the ability to capture information and save it to the device of your choice for later access. An extremely useful mobile app for the hospitality industry that can help reduce overall costs.

ChefDesk

A cloud-based restaurant management system, ChefDesk is an ideal solution for restaurants that operate in different modules, cafes, pubs, and hotels. Basically, a restaurant point of sale (POS) system, it has a sleek web interface that allows you to manage a wide array of processes such as deliveries, inventory, orders, table management, and customer profiling.

Pros:

• Extensive inventory hotel management mobile app functionality that helps track item quantities and wastage
• Cloud-based POS software with automatic data backup
• In-depth reporting feature for better decision making
• Ability to integrate with multiple payment processing channels
• Clean and intuitive mobile application

Cons:

• The mobile application often requires updating for seamless use

Pricing:

ChefDesk offers a free demo for those who are interested in checking the system's compatibility with their business. Pricing plans vary based on individual needs and customization.

Humanity

A nifty app, Humanity makes managing the entire workforce easy. From creating schedules for different days to seeing who’s clocked in at any point in time, tracking staff holidays, and reporting on attendance, the app simply acts as a pocket dashboard to your business.

Pros:

• The ability to manually enter/approve time-off requests and create and publish schedules
• Available on iOS, Android, and desktop
• Easy scheduling even for a large group of people

Cons:

• Inability to track system inactivity
• Geo-Fencing isn't available for different regions or countries

Pricing:
Though Humanity doesn’t have a free version, it still offers a free trial to prospective users. After that, pricing starts at $3.00 per month per user.

Freshbooks

Managing accounts of your business can be an overwhelming task without the right tools. Freshbooks is a popular accounting hotel management mobile app that’s easy to use and fast—making it a perfect option for business owners in the hospitality industry to create invoices, track expenses, and take payments.

Freshbooks gathered all the accounting tools you need and put them right into your pocket. With it, you won’t have to be chained behind the desk and will be able to manage all the important tasks like invoicing and billing on the go.

Pros:

• The invoice feature is excellent, which gives you the ability to know when a user reads the invoice
• The free version offers all the basic features small businesses require

Cons:

• Individual transactions are hard to organize
• The app doesn’t offer tax estimates

Pricing:
The pricing starts at $4.50 per month. But there is a free version you can use alongside a free trial.

Benefits of a custom app for the hospitality industry

Generic solutions for the hospitality industry are usually good, but if you want high quality and vivid functionality you should think about making a custom app. Its benefits include:

Individuality and efficiency

Custom hospitality applications, designed from the ground up to meet the needs of a particular business, are unique. They are adapted to existing business processes and allow you to quickly implement new ones. The interface is designed specifically for employees or customers of a particular app owner. All of this allows you to work in the system as efficiently as possible.

Free licensing

With custom development, there is no need to pay for licenses. Any new features or users can easily be included at no additional cost.

Easy growth

When a business grows, there is often a need to scale the app. Custom development makes this easy and straightforward.

Easy maintenance and upgrades

With a custom app, you won't have to deal with bugs, system glitches, or outdated tools, as there will always be a dedicated team ready to help.

How AI is Transforming Mobile Apps in the Hospitality Industry

The hospitality industry is no stranger to technology, with many hotels, resorts, and restaurants already using mobile apps to provide guests with a more personalized and convenient experience. However, with the rise of AI technology, mobile apps in the hospitality industry are becoming even more powerful and transformative.

Here are some ways in which AI is transforming mobile apps in the hospitality industry:

Personalization: One of the most significant benefits of AI in mobile apps is the ability to provide highly personalized recommendations to guests. By analyzing guest data such as past bookings, preferences, and behavior patterns, AI-powered mobile apps can provide personalized recommendations for things like dining, activities, and room upgrades.

Voice and Chat Interfaces: AI-powered voice and chat interfaces can help to enhance the user experience by providing guests with an easy and convenient way to interact with the mobile app. This can include features such as voice-activated room service orders, chat-based concierge services, and more.

Predictive Maintenance: AI can be used to analyze data from sensors and other sources to predict when maintenance is needed in rooms, equipment, or other areas of the property. This can help to prevent equipment breakdowns and reduce downtime, which can be especially critical in the hospitality industry.

Dynamic Pricing: AI can be used to analyze market trends, demand patterns, and other factors to adjust prices dynamically in real-time. This can help to optimize occupancy rates and maximize revenue for hotels and other hospitality businesses.

Fraud Detection: AI can be used to analyze guest data and detect patterns that indicate fraud or other security issues. This can help to prevent credit card fraud, identity theft, and other types of cybercrime that can be damaging to both guests and hospitality businesses.

In conclusion, AI is transforming mobile apps in the hospitality industry in a variety of ways, from personalization to predictive maintenance to fraud detection. By incorporating AI into their mobile apps, hospitality businesses can enhance the guest experience, improve operational efficiency, and increase revenue.

Hotel Management Mobile App Development: Our Success Story

Perfsol had the privilege to work on a mobile app for one of the world's leading hotel brands, aiming to improve guest experiences and streamline their hotel management processes.

We were entrusted to optimize the existing platform, which was the backbone of our client's operations. The system suffered from monolithic code and outdated software, making it challenging to introduce new features and maintain the platform over time. To address this, we suggested transitioning from a monolithic code base to a microservice architecture.

For transforming the monolithic approach into microservices, our developers created an optimal API that could seamlessly integrate with external interfaces, including Android and iOS apps, POS terminals, and the client's website.

Some of the new features of the updated mobile app include:

1. Dynamic waitlist and walk-in management for optimizing revenue.
2. Multi-dashboard for up-selling menu items and personalizing dining experience.
3. Real-time communication for inventory optimization and managing guest wait-time.
4. Improved performance and scalability for future updates.
5. Custom reporting for valuable insights and data analysis.

Perfsol team is truly proud how our flexible approach to clients needs and passion for innovation helped us improve the guest experience and optimize client’s revenues. We’re great because of clients like you!

How much does it cost to develop a custom hotel management mobile app?

It's quite a complicated task to calculate the exact cost of custom hotel management app development without knowing the requirements and intended functionality. The development cost of any application, not only for hotels, is a complex process and depends primarily on the number of functions the business owner wants it to have as well as the programming language, platforms, and many other factors.

Nevertheless, certain calculations can still be done before the start of development, based on the data from past projects. In particular, the cost of developing a hotel management app is the number of hours spent by specialists on its development multiplied by the cost of an hour of work of a specialist. Also, the region in which you will order the development plays a major role.

Thus, the development of a custom mobile app for hotel management will take about 1000 hours, provided that it will include such modules as:

• Reservation
• Analysis and Monitoring
• Staff management
• Customer management

So its development will cost you around $50k. Of course, we are talking about ordering the development from Perfsol. If you decide to turn to specialists from Western Europe or the United States, you can multiply this figure by two.

Let us build an app for the hospitality industry

While there are many tools for HoReCan business management on the market, none can satisfy you 100%, and juggling several tools just isn’t feasible. Perhaps, you should consider getting an application custom-built for your business? This way, you’ll definitely get an app that meets your business needs.

At Perfsol, we take pride in developing apps for hospitality that make delivering impeccable customer experiences easy and cost-effective. Whether you are looking for a desktop, web, or mobile application, we leverage the best tools, approaches, and platforms to build your project. Just like we did for our client in Dubai.

We helped the client who was looking for technical consultants and a development team with a restaurant management platform. We developed the front end and the back for an HoReCa solution with an integrated POS terminal and customized reports.

So, if you decide to get a custom application built for your business, reach out to us. We’d be happy to help