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Get Hotel des Arts Art on Your iPhone

Where: 447 Bush Street [map], San Francisco, CA, United States, 94108

One night at the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco: around $128.
Opportunity to sleep in the middle of floor-to-ceiling art: priceless.
Being able to not pay $128 and show your friends pics of that floor-to-ceiling art on your iPhone: really priceless — and also awesome.

A company called Start Mobile has just launched an iPhone application that brings "new art to a new medium": they've introduced the very first mobile art gallery for the iPhone. This one features images of the "painted rooms" on the inside of the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco, and the images are delivered as mobile wallpapers directly to the picture library on your iPhone.

From the official press release:

The mobile art wallpapers are optimized for display on the iPhone, and all the images can be 'flipped' to reveal additional information about the artists and their artwork, including links to their respective websites and galleries.

Oh, and: after you go through the whole "Art Hotel Gallery", the very last screen you come to contains a coupon for an exclusive discount on a week's stay at the Hotel des Arts. Ah, a harmonious marriage of pretty things, hotels and gadgets — what more could we want?

[Photo of Hotel des Arts hotel room: Sophie_pr]

Tags: iPhone Hotels / iPhone Applications / Hotel Technology / Inns / Hotel News / → All Tags

New iPhone App Caters to the "Inn" Crowd

Something about trad B&Bs makes us assume they’re all living in a bit of a time warp--you know, a simpler time before modern necessities like the “Internet” and, god forbid, “the iPhone.” (We blame their propensity for antiques and creaky stairs.)

But you know what happens when you assume. And to prove just how fancy and 2.0 B&Bs and country inns can be, American Historic Inns and iLoveInns.com this week announced a brand-new iPhone application called InnTouch. And it sounds pretty awesome. The free application offers travelers access to iLoveInn’s more than 3,500 listings of inns and small hotels in North America (with a coverage of nearly 2,000 cities).

The mobile guide can search for inns near a traveler’s current location using GPS, then browse nearby B&Bs and boutique inns by reading descriptions, detailed info, and up to 10 photos per property. Plus, more than 1,200 recipes of favorite B&B dishes are highlighted. Probably not all that useful to a traveler on the road, but it’s still an awfully fun feature (and just writing about it gives us a hankering for B&B classics like homemade blueberry French toast).

Once travelers have browsed the database to pick their perfect inn, they can also use the app to, you know, call the inn to book a reservation or ask questions.

Tags: Hotel Technology / iPhone Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Video Tours / Geek Hotels / iPhone Applications / Hotel Evolution / → All Tags

iPhone Hotel Review at Malibu Beach Inn

Where: 22878 Pacific Coast Highway [map], Malibu, CA, United States, 90265

When we found out that The Malibu Beach Inn was running the world's first iPhone guest management system, Hotel Evolution, naturally we had to go and try it out.

Despite the hotel's website telling us that rooms were a steep $385 a night (on a Tuesday in a recession), we actually found a rate of $258 within the site. We clicked on one of their promotions which was offering a room and dinner for select days only. Our day happened to be a select day.

So a few hours later we were checking into the Malibu Beach Inn on PCH. At check-in, we casually placed our iPhone on the counter, hoping the front desk clerk would notice it and ask us if we wanted to try the Hotel Evolution program. He did not. He was gracious in every other respect however.

We made our way up to the room and chilled for a bit, ordering that dinner as promised, in-room. As we waited, we looked around for any notes about the Hotel Evolution application. But there were none. So once we ate, we headed down to the front desk to inquire.

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