Booking.com launches impulse-friendly app

Young Man Using Smartphone In Park At Sunset
By Hannah Edensor


More than 600,000 accommodations ready to book in just two taps? We like that.

And now it’s a reality, with booking.com bringing its new app ‘Booking Now’ to Aussie shores.

Great news for the spontaneous travellers, this app ensures that those of us looking to book accommodation within 48 hours of fronting up no longer have to sacrifice on quality.

Booking Now incorporates user behaviour data as well as GPS technology to showcase more than 600,000 properties worldwide, as well as offering custom accommodation recommendations.

The app will be available in 42 languages as it launches in countries around the globe in the coming days, keeping things as easy as possible for the worldly jetsetter.

The launch of the app comes at a key time in mobile technology, with data from Booking.com showing that almost 50% of reservations made within 48 hours are booked on a mobile device.

A total of 54% Aussies took to their smartphones for researching and booking travel in 2014, with this figure expected to jump to 86% in 2015.

“With the launch of Booking Now, we’re increasing our investment in mobile by leveraging our global scale, assets and partnerships to accommodate the growing number of customers who are booking reservations within two days or less of their stay,” Booking.com’s chief executive Darren Huston said.

“The new App puts users at the centre of the booking experience, drawing from our vast database of properties to meet their specific preferences at the very moment they need to book. Booking Now is designed to deliver a seamless mobile experience spontaneous consumers, fitting perfectly into their multi-device, on-demand lifestyle.”

Booking Now personalises real-time search results based on the unique traveller profile created by each first-time user, to indicate specific accommodation preferences, such as desired price range and options like parking, breakfast and WiFi.

The app also encompasses predictive analytics, so the more frequently customers use the app, the more personalised their recommended matches become.

“We are increasingly finding that more and more Australian travellers’ are booking their trips, for either business or pleasure, on a much more spontaneous basis,” Booking.com Australia’s regional hotel manager Alberto Yates said.

“Booking Now is the perfect solution and travel ‘buddy’ for our more impulsive and on-the-move travellers. They are able to land in a destination and instantaneously book accommodation that fits their every need and desire, in as little as two taps of their finger.”

The app’s GPS technology can also provide step-by-step directions from the current location directly to the user’s accommodation of choice, a first for hotel booking applications.

Booking Now is now available for download in the Apple App Store.

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