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Like, Duh! Hotels Realize How Valuable iPhone Apps Can Be

August 11, 2009 at 4:53 PM | by amandak | 1 Comment

From the tales of stuff-we-already-knew (but hotels didn't): potential guests who use iPhones are worth chasing. Of course they/we are! Chains like Choice Hotels and Wyndham Hotels are getting serious about mobile sites and iPhone apps so that future guests can get all the info they need while on the run, and it's all a whole lot more successful than they thought.

A Wyndham spokesperson said that potential customers accessing their mobile site "are converting at much higher rates than assumed" and the Choice people claim to have been the first brand with an iPhone app, and they're keen to keep doing more in this direction.

Both chains figure that getting a share of this market is really worth doing, and say it includes a fair chunk of "convenience customers" – people who look on their phone at the last minute to find a hotel nearby and can either make a reservation online or have a quick link to phone up the hotel directly.

Their research also shows – no surprises here – that online bookings early in the week come from computers, but later in the week and on the weekend, people are booking from mobile devices. So we're expecting to see some great weekend specials flick up on our iPhone sometime real soon.

Do you use any iPhone applications to book your hotel rooms? If so, tell us which apps you use!

1 Comment

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Return to » Like, Duh! Hotels Realize How Valuable iPhone Apps Can Be

  1. openremote

    HotelChatter Member

    Mobile Devices in Hotels

    It's great that hotels have noticed the increased use of smart phones and are adapting to how their customers are using them.

    Helping people to book their accommodation while on the road is a good first step. The next logical step is to extend the guests' handsets to all the services available in hotel -- anywhere from easing the check-in/check-out process, guest messages and notifications to browsing the in-room menu or checking the current bill.

    We are currently building an open technology to enable such automation of hotels, commercial and residential buildings, focusing on iPhone, Android and other Internet enabled devices.

    --
    Juha Lindfors
    http://www.openremote.org

    August 25, 2009 at 12:12 PM
    #Permalink

Return to » Like, Duh! Hotels Realize How Valuable iPhone Apps Can Be

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