Startup Hotel Tonight claims its iPhone app can handle the world’s fastest hotel bookings.
Get your stopwatches ready.
The company produced a YouTube video of the four-click searching and booking process. Once the app is fully loaded, consumers can book a hotel room in 8.5 seconds, the company claims.
Here’s the video — you be the judge.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjEg-uJ5Vko
Of course, the video assumes that you already know which property you want to book so there really is no searching for a hotel in the above example.
Hotel Tonight says it was able to streamline the process because it is the first travel company built from the ground up for mobile usage and mobile hotel transactions, you can only book a room for that night so there’s no need to enter dates, and Hotel Tonight also makes certain assumptions about the customer.
For example, the Hotel Tonight app assumes that the person making the reservation is the device owner.
Hotel Tonight’s choice of properties are limited at this point, but more hotels and additional cities are on the way, as is an Android app.
Other hotel-booking apps require a lot more clicks, Hotel Tonight says.
Ha! Cool. Funny and cool. But I think this is a hot concept and I think it will spread like wild fire.
Great job Hotel Tonight!
Crazy stuff
There’s an app for everything!
I can’t download this because you have to be American (?!) but from the looks of the video, the customer details have already been added at some point. So assuming, (again because I cannot download the app) that this is the case, the fastest booking app claim is excluding all fo the stuff the takes the most time? Unless the app pulls the info it has on the phone already, in which case there would be bookings for “X’s iphone, UDID XXXXXXXXXXXX”
Can someone who can download the app let me know how it works?
@graham – you have to sign up the first time you use the app. so it stores your personal and payment details – i’m not sure where it stores the payment details. on the phone or the server. i didn’t care to find out. and there are no dates, rates or room selections possible or needed. and so tap tap tap tap and you’re done.
but when you need a room for tonight, it’s the way you’re going to want to book the room : fast.
sweet, except that this overlooks the biggest time consuming assumption, i.e. that you know which hotel you need. Quite cleverly the video starts from the hotels availability display page thus skipping through the 1st click, the search page. To me intuitive hotel search is clearly the biggest step in the process and the remaining booking process is all admin
This is a farce, the video conveniently assumes that the serch and decision making part and customer detail plus payment part is already done. if all assumtpions are taken into cosideration…there are many other apps and sites that would let you click 3 times in less than than 8.5 seconds…. so this app is quite crap!!!
If you have just 8.5 seconds to book a hotels you might as well walk-in….
Silly you tube vid . . . but thats it…
Mr. Bond: I don’t think the video is a “farce.” Yes, it assumes you have already done a hotel search. As I wrote in the story, “Of course, the video assumes that you already know which property you want to book so there really is no searching for a hotel in the above example.”
As noted customer detail and payment information does not need to be inserted because the app assumes the booker is the device owner and payment information is pre-loaded.
With the Hotel Tonight there is no need to input desired dates of stay or number of nights — because you can only book the hotel tonight, and for one night.
I think the app is pretty cool and I don’t think the app, as you put it, is “quite crap.”
I could n’t watch the video. But the concept is good. Can we use this application to book hotels from multiple vendors/ hotel booking sites? or just one? Does this application follow any standards in communicating to the hotel booking site(s)?