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Expedia.com announced two new milestones in mobile shopping for travel. The company launched a hotel booking app for Android devices called “Expedia Hotels.” Expedia® also released a set of major upgrades to the hotel shopping experience for Expedia mobile web customers. Collectively, the investments are designed to help travelers find and book the perfect trip, whether they are at home, on the road or anywhere in between.
“Nothing is more intrinsically mobile than travel, which is why investing in mobile is a key part of our Expedia Everywhere business strategy,” said Scott Durchslag, president, Expedia Worldwide. “Whether it from be their mobile phone, their tablet, or their PC, Expedia customers can book the perfect trip from nearly anywhere, at any time.”
Expedia Hotels is a mobile booking app designed to give travelers an easy way to research, filter and book hotel rooms from a mobile device. This is the first Android app introduced by Expedia since the company acquired Mobiata, the mobile app powerhouse. Mobiata will be on hand in the Developer Sandbox at Google I/O from May 10-11 in San Francisco to debut the app.
xpedia Hotels automatically uses GPS to find available hotels within close range of the traveler and then displays everything that traveler needs to find the perfect room. The Android app lets users easily research and book hotels anywhere in the world, filtering by price, rating, distance or popularity. Key features of the Android app include:
- An interactive map view shows all hotels in the area, with a variety of sorting options.
- Hotel ratings are provided by TripAdvisor®; the highest rated hotels are clearly marked.
- For each hotel, amenities and details have been beautifully summarized, complete with a vivid display of hotel images.
- Just four taps are required for a traveler to move from research to purchase.
- Once booked, travelers can tap for directions to the hotel and share their confirmation via email.
- The Android version of Expedia Hotels also features all-new Android-specific landscape views for flexibility on a wide range of Android devices.
The app is being released worldwide, with 20 local currencies supported.
Expedia also continues to invest in best-in-class mobile web capabilities, and has released a set of major upgrades to the hotel shopping experience for Expedia’s mobile web customers. Travelers visiting www.expedia.com from any mobile device, on any mobile platform can now search via one-finger navigation. They can use location-enabled search to find “Hotels Nearby Tonight” and then find and explore images, guest ratings, user reviews and greatly expanded details for each property and room. A single tap to the hotel map guides travelers directly to their chosen hotel.
These upgrades to the Expedia mobile site are live today for customers in the United States and will be rolling out to travelers in other counties in the coming weeks. Expedia Hotels is also available as a free iPhone and iPod touch app developed to give travelers an intuitive, quick way to research, filter and book hotel rooms from their mobile device.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
