InterContinental Hotels Group claims to be the first major hotel company to offer an app for the Windows Phone operating system
InterContinenal brings rewards app to Windows mobile OS
InterContinental Hotels Group claims to be the first major hotel company to offer an app for the Windows Phone operating system.
The Priority Club Rewards app is to appear on Windows Phone a year after its iPhone and Android debuts, in April and July 2010 respectively.
The app allows users to find and book rooms, check rates and view or cancel reservations for IHG’s brands, InterContinental, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.
It is the latest in a series of mobile applications introduced by the company:
> InterContinental Concierge Insider Guides (iPad, December 2010)
> Priority Club Rewards app (iPhone, April 2010; Android, July 2010)
The company claims to have seen an almost 1,000% increase in room night bookings from mobile devices, surpassing the 2010 total in the first five months of 2011.
Sixty five percent of IHG guests who book through a mobile device are staying at a hotel within a day. The Windows Phone booking app includes location functionality to assist travellers in finding and booking hotels close to their location.
IHG sales and marketing senior vice president EMEA Matt Luscombe said: “Creating a booking app for Windows Phone is an essential part of our mobile strategy, as we continue to develop our mobile booking options for our 58 million Priority Club members.”
Todd Brix, senior director, Windows Phone Marketplace at Microsoft, added: “Windows Phone is backed by a rich developer ecosystem that is creating a variety of quality games and apps, like IHG’s Priority Club Rewards, that take advantage of the phone’s unique features.
“With its panoramic design and location aware capabilities, IHG’s Priority Club Rewards app is a great example of the rich applications that people will find on Windows Phone Marketplace.”
