Hotel booking tool launched with GPS integration

[slitchfield]

Hotelzon, an upmarket (predominately) UK-based hotel chain, has launched a native S60 search and booking tool, Hotelzon Mobile, with GPS integration. All very swish, and well implemented, if a little over the top for something with less than 300 hotels in its portfolio, none of which I can afford(!) Still, a good effort. Screenshots and links below.

Read on in the full article.

[malerocks]

Now this is what I call smartphone functionality... Great work...

[aragornsbeared]

Yeah, if someone like Lastminute or Laterooms did a tool like this then the world would be a happy shiny place

[viipottaja]

File under "Nice, but useless for 99.99% of people". Who looks for a hotel when you are already there?

[Ratkat]

Available in Download on E71

Press release states availability of more than 90.000 hotels, not 300.

[slitchfield]

The PDF might well say that, but from my own searches and from the banner on their own site, the figure is less than 300 in the UK. Maybe they have 89000 hotels listed in China?

how about this one gps base application for booking a table at resturants
i think that would be more useful.

I like many people never know where i am going be in advance so always need to book a hotel late in the day for that night. The fact that you are able to pinpoint hotels near to you as well as make a booking is fantastic.

Not sure where you got 300 hotels from??? Hotelzon have over 90,000 hotels worldwide which all show the lowest available flexible rates. There is a huge variety of hotels on their inventory, from your standard "budget" hotels, right up to 5 star hotels, so there is always something on there you can afford to book. The idea is predominantly for travellers who need to book hotels when they do not have access to the internet on their PC's. For example, the sales person on an appointment who misses the last train home at night and who therefore needs a hotel urgently, or the employee sitting at the airport waiting for a flight who thinks he may as well book the hotel he needs for next week etc etc. Corporates will see this as an excellent way for their employees to feel extra secure when travelling (most seasoned travellers have had the unfortunate experience of being stuck and needing a hotel to stay for at night - you dont always know in advance that you need accomodation).

[N/A]

I'm a frequent corporate traveller. When I need a hotel, I call my company's travel agent (24/7 service) and ask them to book it.

And if you have a phone with an application like that, you also have a phone with Internet access, so you don't need the app that badly.

Anyway, good luck with it, and hope there are enough users to make it worth the development effort.

I think you're missing the point here. If you call your corporate travel agent out of hours to book a hotel you will be charged a seriously large transaction fee for them to do that (typically around £25 or a premium rate telephone number). The phone application is completely free to download and thats the crucial difference in this current economic climate. Plus Hotelzon are more likely to have better rates as they have enormous global buying power in the industry.
Of course, the application will not be deemed to be necessary for every Corporate but the initial response is overwhelmingly positive.

I like it! It's just so easy to use.