Expedia Launches New App for Hotel Bookings

Travelers around the world that want to book a hotel room no matter where they are will soon be able to use a booking app from Expedia. The online travel agency is set to launch its first hotel booking app for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch in just a few weeks. A version of the app will be released for Android a month later.

This new hotel booking app, Expedia Hotels, will be free and will allow consumers to search for hotels via a simplified version of Expedia’s standard web interface. It will include maps and photos, and the details about a customer’s hotel stay will be automatically added to the calendar on their device after the booking is made.

Upon downloading Expedia Hotels, consumers will have to create a profile with their billing information, and it has to be done on the device using the app. Also, the only way to store information about booked trips is if they are made through the device with the app on it. So if users want to use the app, they basically need to do everything from the app instead of on the agency’s website.

The app, though not that innovative and a little late to the game, is worth downloading. This is because no other app can offer the amount of accommodation choices, which is combined with hotel ratings from TripAdvisor, the user-review giant.

Expedia Worldwide president Scott Durchslag says that they want customers to think of them as TripFlix in 3-5 years. They want to be a company that streams the best travel offers to consumers on whatever screen they are using at the moment, he explained.