How To Develop Short Term Rental App in 2025?

Are you planning to develop your own short term rental app that users can use to book astonishing properties for their vacations? As the travel industry recovers from the pandemic shock, this presents the right circumstances to develop a home-rental app! 

This blog explores the key features you should include in your app, the mobile app development cost, the tech stack powering the app, and, most importantly, the steps to develop an app for short term rentals. So, read on as you try to shake up the vacation home-rental industry with your entrepreneurial mind!

What are Short Term Rental Apps

Generally speaking, a short term rental app is any residential house or ancillary structure rented for a limited time period. Usually including booking for less than a month, the maximum duration varies based  on the state and jurisdiction the property is located. Other names for such rentals include resort living quarters, short-term rentals, holiday rentals, transitory rentals.

Types of Apps for Short Term Rentals

There are majorly three different categories to segregate the types of short term rental apps. This includes, complete houses, auxiliary houses, and rooms. Usually deemed an owner-occupied residence, the owner marks the land as their homestead 51% of the time or more. Should not be the case, the property would be classified as a non-owner-occupied residence. 

1. Rooms

A short-term rental is when an owner lets one or more rooms in their main house for brief visits up to a maximum number of days annually. 

2. Accessory Dwellings

Too would be regarded as a short-term rental if an owner rented out, for brief periods of time, a guest house or garage apartment from a home they reside in.

3. Entire House

If the owner spends most of the time living in a rental property but sometimes leases the whole house for a few days or weeks, up to a maximum number of days annually, the property might be deemed a short-term rental.

Market Statistics for Short Term Rental Apps

Short term rental apps have made it very convenient for users to compare prices, make reservations, and purchase traveling tickets with only a few clicks on their smartphones. This explains the rising appeal of the online travel and tourism industry. 

As per a recent survey of Statista, the US rental market size will hit all-time highs ranging up to $20.27 billion by the end of 2024. Here are some other market statistics that will help you understand the size of short term rental apps.

• With an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2029) of 4.10%, this income is predicted to rise to US$24.78bn by 2029, therefore influencing the projected market volume.
• Furthermore predicted to rise to 71.94 million people by 2029 is the user count in this market.
• The estimated user penetration rate in the Vacation Rentals market in 2024 is 18.7%; by 2029, it is expected to drop to 20.5%.
• Average revenue per user (ARPU) is projected to be US$316.50.
• Furthermore, by 2029 internet sales are predicted to account for 85% of the whole income in this sector.
• With US$20.27 billion in 2024, the United States is predicted to create the highest income in the Vacation Rentals industry among nations.
• As people seek more private and socially separated lodging during the pandemic, vacation rentals in the United States are becoming more and more popular. 

Also read: Car Rental Mobile App Development Cost and Key Features

Must-Have Features to Develop a Short Term Rental App

To unlock the full potential for short term rental management apps you require an app equipped with essential features. Delve into this article to discover the key elements that distinguish top-tier short-term rental applications. From robust booking management to seamless guest communication, explore how these features elevate efficiency to enhance guest experience in the competitive rental market.

1. Multicalendar

Effective management depends mostly on the property management multi-calendar function. From one interface, this feature lets hosts and property managers examine and handle reservations across multiple sites.

2. Channel Manager

Among the key features in the toolkit of short term rental management apps is the channel manager. From a single platform, it lets hosts and property managers effectively disseminate their listings across many booking channels like Vrbo, Booking.com, and Airbnb.

3. Unified Inbox

Combining all guest correspondence into one consolidated platform, the unified inbox for property management tool changes short-term rental app. From one interface, hosts and property managers may easily handle guests, reservations, and their questions coming from many sources.

4. Smart Automations

Effective short term rental apps are mostly baked on smart automation, which transforms host and property manager processes. These clever features assist businesses in automating time-consuming chores such as seasonally-driven price changes, payments, cleaning schedules, and communication with guests. 

5. Owners Portal

With an app for short term rentals, the owners’ portal feature is a great advantage as it gives property owners open access to the performance information of their rental units.

6. Advanced Reporting

Top-notch apps for short term rentals must have advanced reporting as they provide hosts and property managers with a thorough understanding of their property performance. Customizable reporting capabilities let customers examine important data.

7. Reviews Management

A key functionality of short-term management apps should be the review management, which lets hosts quickly monitor and address guest comments. This feature compiles evaluations from several sites into a consolidated dashboard so that hosts may monitor the reputation of their app or property.

8. Online Check-in

Offering a practical and quick approach for visitors to check in from a distance, the Online Check-in function transforms the guest experience within short-term rental management systems. Guests may finish check-in processes, upload passports, view property information, and get crucial instructions before arrival via safe digital platforms.

9. Mid and Long-term Bookings

Designed to meet the changing demands of short-term rental management, Mid and Long-Term Bookings allow longer stays than standard short-term rentals. For visitors looking for mid- or long-term lodging, hosts may provide various booking choices, including seasonal or monthly rentals.

10. Payment Solutions

Within short-term rental management systems, payment solutions provide hosts and property managers with a flawless and safe approach to conducting transactions. It easily handles refunds, process payments, and online reservations by interacting with many payment gateways. 

Best Apps For Short Term Rentals

Here are some of the best short term rental apps that you can use as your base to develop your own application upon it.

Airbnb

Listing your home on Airbnb is a fantastic approach to increase its visibility and sales given Airbnb’s exceptional reputation and large audience. Airbnb allows you to list any kind of home hence it is quite well-linked short term rental app among budget-conscious tourists. One of the main benefits of listing your property on Airbnb is that you will be directly in touch with folks wishing to reserve it.

Vrbo

If we talk about luxury, Vrbo is one of the best short term rental apps for that. It shows your properties to a certain kind of people, usually people that have a high budget or want a luxurious property for their vacation or to the people who want to stay in locations for rather longer time periods. The Vrbo booking system is also really simple and thorough for the visitor to utilize, which attracts many tourists to use this platform.

Booking.com

Having one of the biggest portfolios of properties worldwide, Booking.com is a booking facilitator making it one of the top real estate apps. Travelers will have the choice to reserve hotels and other lodging kinds as well conveniently narrow their searches for accommodation. This makes the marketplace somewhat more  competitive for hosts with private residences up for rent.

Hospiria

One of the best short term rental apps available is Hospiria as it enables you to properly handle your property listings. The application lets you keep track of the money owed to each of the platforms as service fees and syncs with all the platforms your property is featured on so you may handle the cash received from each listing.

Expedia

Using the Expedia app you may interact with your audience, post pictures, and reply to travel reviews to increase your profile as a host. The platform allows you to establish your credibility as a host, therefore strengthening your profile as a professional in the hotel sector and company owner. Downloading this short term rental app as a host can greatly increase your sales and property visibility.

Cost to Build Best Apps for Short Term Rentals

Mobile app development company that create short term rentals apps are constantly introducing new features. Most of such development companies have their own designing standard to satisfy their clients by ensuring their needs. 

Many elements influence the cost of building a short term rental app including the location of the hotel booking app development company, platforms used, features, and complexity of the app. Simply said, creating a rental app is expected to cost you between $50,000 to $150,000.

Short Term Rental App with Basic Features

In the basic version, essential features such as payments, bookings, listings, and user profiles can be in between $50,000 to $70,000.

Short Term Rental App with Moderate Features

More sophisticated applications with features like notifications, reviews, and conversation within the app might cost you between $70,000 to $100,000.

Short Term Rental App with Advanced Features

A fully functional app with strong and advanced features such as AR property tours and AI-based recommendations might cost you more than $100,000.

Also read: Custom Flight Booking App Development: Cost and Features

Tech Stack Used to Develop Apps for Short Term Rentals

To create an app for short term rentals you need a mix of different technologies that fulfill the application’s needs, from property management to user interface. Below we have listed some of common tech stacks that are used in developing such apps.

Frontend Development

1. Frameworks

• React
• Vue.js
• Angular

2. CSS/HTML

• CSS3
• HTML5

3. Mobile Development

• Kotlin (Android) & Swift (iOS)
• Flutter
• React Native

Backend Development

1. Programing Languages

• Ruby
• Python
• Node.js

2. Frameworks

• Django
• Express.js

3. Databases

• NoSQL
• Relational

Cloud Services and Hosting

• DigitalOcean
• Heroku
• Google Cloud Platform
• AWS

APIs and Integrations

• Mapping and Location Services
• Property Listings
• Payment Processings

DevOps and Version Control

• CD/CI Tools
• Dockers
• Git

Additional Tools

• CMS
• Notification Services
• Analytics

Security

• HTTPS
• OAuth

It is important to choose the right technologies for your short term rental app development as it will help with the scalability and performance of your app.

Summing Up the Short Term Rental App Development Process

Developing a short term rental app like Airbnb is a profitable business but comes along with its own obstacles and challenges. To succeed in developing a successful short term vacation app you need to deeply research about its market, its competitors, and your target audience. Sticking to the structure provided in this article can help you develop a profitable mobile application. 

It would be wise to consult or hire a mobile app development company before making any financial investment. Octal IT Solutions isn’t limited to developing applications for vacation homes. We also provide advertising and marketing services along with other services. If you want to know more about the development process contact us!

FAQs

How long does it take to develop a short term rental app?

For an app with few features, the development time frame may be three to six months; for an app with many sophisticated features, it might be a year or more.

How to make short term rental apps profitable?

Service fees, booking commissions, premium listings, and advertisements are the usual ways that apps like Vrbo generate revenue.

How much does it cost to develop an app for short term rentals?

The platform, service provider, and contract type you choose will determine the hourly fee. So, whereas an Android Airbnb clone software would likely cost $70,000 or more to design, an iOS app would likely start at $50,000.