For Better or Worse, These Hotels Have Realized 'There's An App For That'
We've been variously hot and cold about hotel chain iPhone apps. As a rule we embrace anything that can help us travel easier while already on the road, and we certainly embrace it if it lives in the App Store. But hotel apps fall into that dicey category where we're not sure that the bother that goes into them is worth whatever comes out.
Hotel iPhone applications generally help you find a nearby chain hotel and check in through your rewards account. Sometimes they may automatically dial customer service. All of which is great except people rarely book within just one chain. Price is usually the most important factor, which means using a search engine, and rarely is someone in so much of a pinch that exact GPS-pinpointed location matters.
As for checking in, well, we're not talking about flights. The hotel will still be there waiting when you arrive, and you'll still have to wait in line to get it. Checking in doesn't have to happen from the road.
Nonetheless, hotels aren't going to stop producing apps. It's just what companies do these days. So here's our roundup of the industry's current offerings. Feel free to sound off in the comments: would you make space on your beloved iPhone for something like this?
* Choice Hotels - In addition to the usual functions, the Choice Hotels app will also map you to your destination hotel with the push of a button.
* Omni Hotels - A branding maneuver if nothing else, the Omni Hotels app is partly built around customers' loyalty accounts and preferences.
* Starwood - Part of Starwood's broader gamble on travel sharing, this application is supposed to leverage their other social media technology. We haven't had a chance to play around with it as much as we'd like but suffice to say we're not optimistic.
* Four Seasons - Another new entrant into the iPhone app field, the Four Seasons application is very pretty and does absolutely nothing exceptional. You can book rooms through it. They also claim that it's a "gateway to mini 'escapes' while on the go" but we have absolutely no idea what that means.
* Travelodge - An early trailblazer in the iPhone hotel app market, the offering from UK chain Travelodge is a bare bones booking engine. Meh.
Know of any hotel chains or individual hotels that have created their own iPhone apps? Let us know.
[Photo: Linux insidev2 / Wiki Commons]
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