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Expedia-owned travel management company Egencia announced an iPad version of its TripNavigator app, which helps travelers book hotel accommodations and flights plus make other trip plans.
Features include the ability to view all trip details while on the go, including offline access to itineraries, and the ability to view trips by date or itinerary.
Users can compare accommodations across 200,000 hotels with the company’s TripNavigator. The tool offers comparisons across attributes, including price, amenities and star ratings.
“Technology has fundamentally changed the way business travel is conducted. Mobile technology has made it easier and faster to plan, book or rearrange travel plans on the fly,” Mark Hollyhead, senior vice president of Egencia Americas, told eWEEK. “It has also created proficient ways to engage and develop strong relationships with the traveler after their initial purchase. For instance, TripNavigator provides real-time information to your smart phone or iPad regarding flight status, thereby allowing the traveler to manage their time more effectively and avoid unnecessary frustration.”
Users also can complete hotel booking and view mobile-only deals, allowing them to book a last-minute hotel on the app that could have been out of policy otherwise.
In addition, an intuitive map- based hotel search lets travelers select a hotel near their preferred location.
“We envision a scenario when one day, we see these intelligent assistance capabilities evolving to cater to more day-of- travel needs,” Hollyhead said. “For example, providing ground transport options to your hotel as soon as you land at the airport or using current location to provide alerts or reminders to leave for airport if a traveler is still away from the airport and traffic is getting worse.”
The new app lets travelers search five billion annual flights across all Expedia leisure and business brands, and provides features such as flight cancellation (in North America only); the ability to change flights, check in and find similar flights in the U.S. only, and check flight status and other trip alerts.
The app is available in 15 languages and offers automatic itinerary updates using the company’s global technology platform, personalized search options, and customized preferences and past trip data plus directions and interactive maps. “Thanks to social media, it has never been easier to access information about the place you are going to stay. Social media’s curated content around reviews has ensured travelers have a first-hand, unfiltered, account of the experience,” Hollyhead said. “Our travelers now find it easy to make a decision of where to stay thanks to the hotel reviews specifically from TripAdvisor, which are highlighted in almost all hotel details within the app.”