# 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?

- **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]
- **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]
- **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]
- **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](https://uptika.app/en/product/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.
- [Localization](https://uptika.app/en/product/localization): Shows the languages each App Store storefront indexes and the ones your listing is missing, so you reach travelers searching from abroad.
- [Visibility score](https://uptika.app/en/product/visibility): Gives a popularity-weighted 0–100 visibility score across your keywords and reads your place in the Travel chart every 3 hours.
- [Competitor tracking](https://uptika.app/en/product/competitor-tracking): Shows rivals' daily listing changes, shared keywords and who leads which search.

## Questions

### 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.

## Sources

1. [Categories and discoverability (Apple Developer)](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/categories/)
2. [Choose a category and tags for your app or game (Play Console Help)](https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9859673)
3. [App Review Guidelines 2.5.4, 3.1.3, 5.1.1 (Apple Developer)](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/)
4. [Payments policy (Play Console Help)](https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9858738)
5. [Understanding location in the background permissions (Play Console Help)](https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9799150)

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Uptika is an ASO and store-intelligence tool for the App Store and Google Play. https://uptika.app/en/categories/travel · Last updated: 2026-11-05