Hotels.com announces mobile concierge app

Hotels.com has announced its new mobile concierge app for visitors to its partner hotels. The app offers taxi services, directions, suggests nearby restaurants and activities and can arrange for deliveries to guests’ hotels. Powered by contextual commerce platform Button, the app tracks your location and remembers preferences for your next getaways. The booking platform has … Continue reading Hotels.com announces mobile concierge app

Hotels.com has announced its new mobile concierge app for visitors to its partner hotels.

The app offers taxi services, directions, suggests nearby restaurants and activities and can arrange for deliveries to guests’ hotels.

Powered by contextual commerce platform Button, the app tracks your location and remembers preferences for your next getaways.

The booking platform has teamed up with well-known suppliers such as Uber (taxis), OpenTable (restaurant reservations), Hungryhouse and deliver.com (both delivery) and Groupon (activities) – only in the countries where those businesses operate.

Hotels.com is confident that consumers have the appetite for a mobile concierge, as it has recently run a survey which found that 46% of global respondents would use it.

It found that 62% of those keen on the app would use it to book a table, 51% for directions, and 48% for tickets and activities.

The survey, of 8,377 respondents from 28 countries, also asked about more unusual concierge requests. It found 25% would use the app to have a barista make their morning coffee, 17% would get someone in to do their ironing and 12% would use the app to request someone read tem a bedtime story.

Daniel Craig, senior director of mobile at Hotels.com, said: “When travelling I’d love a service where I can make a request from my mobile for someone to come and iron my shirts. While our app isn’t quite at that stage yet, we are amongst the first to develop a full concierge service that’s a one-stop-shop for travellers’ local needs.

“Mobile is changing the way people travel, and at the forefront of that we’re constantly innovating and investing in mobile, to offer more than just hotel bookings. We want to make our customers lives easier before, during and after their trip.”

Michael Jaconi, chief executive and founder of Button, added: “The travel industry has always been powered by links – whether that is meta search linking to carriers or hotels or linking consumers to complementary experiences around their travel plans.

“The innovators at Hotels.com have shown how Button’s technology can be used to enhance people’s travel – and we’re thrilled to be playing such an integral part in their fastest growing booking channel.”

The app is available to download on iOS, Android and Amazon Kindle devices.