Editor’s note: Each month, HotelNewsNow.com’s Samantha Worgull highlights the five best, most interesting, unique and otherwise downright cool apps in the hotel space.
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This mobile hotel app creator allows you to do just that—create cool mobile apps that keep guests connected to your hotel 24/7. The platform includes all the usual goodies: mobile booking, property info, photo galleries and special last-minute deals via push notifications. It also allows you to create custom itineraries for everyone from solo travelers to families to showcase your property and the surrounding destination. Ustay also has “At Your Service,” which grants guests a personal concierge connecting them to the front desk with a simple click or phone call. Allow for a bit more time to create your app, however; once you specify what you want, your customized app
takes four to six weeks to create.
Available in: App Store, Android Market |
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MO Hotels
(Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group) This app’s stylish design and slick functionality alone make it worth sharing. The landing screen, for example, features a flash image of a flowing waterfall that invites guests to choose from “Our Hotels,” “Reservations,” “Tempting Offers” and “Cities by MO.” The “Tempting Offers” tab offers the latest specials available at all MO hotels worldwide, and the “Cities by MO” tab is a wide-ranging destination guide. Selected by MO’s concierge teams, these destination guides include area attractions, restaurants, shopping and nightlife sections. The app also allows guests to make and cancel reservations directly from their phones and call or email dining and spa services to make an appointment.
Available in: App Store
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Although the number of review apps and aggregators continues to grow, here’s one you’ll definitely want to keep an eye on. From the reputable team at Oyster.com, which sends expert investigators to stay at and review hotels, comes the free Oyster.com iPad app. The application features more than 600,000 un-doctored, high-resolution photos taken by the experts themselves. Oyster’s approach includes all the pros, cons, bottom line and “pearl ratings.” The app houses 2,500 hotel reviews in more than 100 countries—and counting.
Available in: App Store (iPad only) |
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Weave is a handy little tool for those of you who want to increase productivity by getting more organized. This app is like one giant to-do list, but it’s a bit more organized than the old-school way of writing it down. With Weave, you can view a list of complete and incomplete “to-dos,” each with their own due dates and alerts. You also can manage the expenses for your hotel in any currency. Available in: App StoreCost: Free |
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Who comes to your hotel’s website is one of the most valuable pieces of information for any marketing team. This app is designed to help you keep track by connecting you to your Google Analytics page at anytime from anywhere. For a cost of $6.99, the app gets you a lot for your money, including 55 types of analytics reports with up to 100 rows of data. You have the ability to add multiple accounts as well. There are several versions of this app in the App Store and Android Market. This particular one is for the iPhone, but you can download Mobile GA for the Android for free. Keep in mind though, the Android version is free, therefore it is limited. Available in: App StoreCost: $6.99 |
Want to share an app you find useful? Send your apps to Samantha Worgull.
The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinions of HotelNewsNow.com or its parent company, Smith Travel Research and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.