Mobile hospitality: massive cross-platform launch for Premier Inn

More and more hotels are getting used to the idea that mobile technology can really make their lives easier when it comes to managing their residents. Today has seen a great example of that, as the biggest budget hotel chain in the UK, Premier Inn, announces the launch of a new cross-platform mobile app.

What’s the story?

If, like me, you consider Fujitsu mostly a hardware manufacturer, then think again. The company does a huge amount of IT and software work as well, and it developed the application for Premier Inn. First of all, and perhaps most importantly, it is being released simultaneously for iPhone, Android Nokia and Blackberry. Premier Inn has a huge and diverse customer base, and it’s not taking any chances by limiting itself to a single platform.

What does the app do?

There’s very little messing about with this app. There are no fancy bells and whistles – it just does what you would want your hotel app to do: you can check availability with any Premier Inn hotel, make a booking through the app, and check up on your reservation status afterwards. You can search for a specific hotel, or just use your location to find the nearest one, and view pictures of that hotel on the app.

One other thing…

It wasn’t really Fujitsu that developed this application. Fujitsu was responsible for making sure it all went smoothly, but to do the actual development it contracted UK developer Grapple – which has previously been responsible for impressive cross-platform apps for both the UK government and gaming developments from Microsoft and Lionshead Studios.

What we think?

The mobile industry really is heating up for the travel and hostelry markets. There are some interesting and slightly bizarre emplacements out there – my favourite is the one that uploads an NFC key to your phone so you can use it to open the door to your hotel room. This application is the kind of thing we really want to see, though: solid, working apps that provide a good service.