Get found by travelers in every market, on the right keywords.
ASO for travel apps starts with reading the category and the payment rule correctly: Travel and Navigation are separate on the App Store, as are Travel and Local and Maps and Navigation on Google Play, and services consumed outside the app, such as flights, hotels and rides, are sold with your own payment method rather than the store's in-app purchase.
What makes ASO different in this category?
- 01
Travel or Navigation?
On the App Store, Travel covers planning, purchasing and tracking: flight tracking, city guides, hotel, rental car and air fare shopping, vacation planning, travel rewards. Navigation covers driving and walking assistance, maps and transit maps. On Google Play, Travel and Local covers trip booking, ride-sharing, taxis, city guides and tour booking, while navigation and GPS apps sit in Maps and Navigation.[1][2]
- 02
Tickets and hotels skip store billing
Under Guideline 3.1.3(e), goods and services consumed outside the app must use a purchase method other than in-app purchase, such as Apple Pay or card entry. Google Play's Payments policy also says its billing system must not be used for physical services such as airfare and transportation.[3][4]
- 03
Air travel services need the provider to submit
Guideline 5.1.1(ix) asks that apps providing services in highly regulated fields, air travel among them, be submitted by the legal entity that provides the service, not an individual developer.[3]
- 04
Location permission and declaration
On the App Store, Guideline 2.5.4 allows background services, location included, only for their intended purpose, and 5.1.1(iv) suggests letting people enter an address by hand if they decline Location. On Google Play, background location may be requested only for core functionality and needs the Permissions Declaration Form in Play Console plus a short video of the feature.[3][5]
Features that matter most
Keyword radar
Reads your rank daily for city, route and stay searches in every country you pick: top 200 on the App Store, the first page on Google Play.
MoreLocalization
Shows the languages each App Store storefront indexes and the ones your listing is missing, so you reach travelers searching from abroad.
MoreVisibility score
Gives a popularity-weighted 0–100 visibility score across your keywords and reads your place in the Travel chart every 3 hours.
MoreCompetitor tracking
Shows rivals' daily listing changes, shared keywords and who leads which search.
MoreThis category's charts
The free Chart Movers tool shows this category's top 10 today, the climbers, new entrants and launches of the last 90 days.
App Store · Travel
US · Chart Movers
Daily: a category's top 10 in a country, the climbers, new entrants and apps launched in the last 90 days.
Open toolGoogle Play · Travel & Local
US · Chart Movers
Daily: a category's top 10 in a country, the climbers, new entrants and apps launched in the last 90 days.
Open toolKeyword Atlas
Measures one search term in up to 10 countries on both stores: popularity, difficulty and each market's top 3 apps in one table.
Open toolQuestions
Should I use in-app purchase for hotel bookings?
No. Apple's Guideline 3.1.3(e) requires a method other than in-app purchase for services consumed outside the app, and Google Play says its billing system must not be used for physical services.
How do I compare a travel search across countries?
The free Keyword Atlas tool measures one search in up to 10 countries on both stores: popularity, difficulty and each market's top 3 apps in one table.
Read more
Choosing an app category and reading top charts on both stores
How to choose a primary and secondary category on the App Store and a category plus 5 tags on Google Play, and how to read category top charts.
Read the guideApp store localization: local search terms, not translation
How to localize App Store and Google Play listings: which fields, how each store picks the language, Play translation options and per-country measurement.
Read the guideWhich countries should you localize your app for first?
A scored method to pick which App Store and Google Play countries to localize first from your downloads, search demand, competition and revenue, plus a test.
Read the guideGuideline 5.1.1: data collection, sign-in and account deletion rejections
All ten parts of App Review Guideline 5.1.1 in one table, the account deletion and sign-in rules of 5.1.1(v), purpose strings, 5.1.1(ix) and a fix checklist.
Read the guide