In the spirit of making these reviews more interesting, I have developed a scale of greatness for the hospitality apps. Each app will be rated on three basic categories:  appearance, functionality and amount of information for guest. By creating a simple platform to evaluate the different apps, we will start to develop an understanding of makes a truly great app. Our scale of greatness will range from somewhat mediocre to awesome. The levels from worst to best are somewhat mediocre, a bit better, pretty good and awesome.

Now let’s move on to my thoughts on the Marriott app.

I will begin by introducing you to the opening page of the app.

I am not moved by the graphics but the color theme fits the brand. It offers you an easy to navigate menu at the bottom of the app where you can find a hotel, look up reservations, sign in to your Rewards account or more options.

Once you select your dates and location, you are presented with this menu. It is easy to navigate and I like that they can share new information such as “New Lobby”.

You can then select a hotel. I really like that each hotel has a photo gallery. This is a great selling feature as visuals are so important. Also, the hotel highlights provide pertinent information for the traveler.

Finally, we are to my favorite part of the app – the “More” menu.  I think this is a great idea as it sells the whole experience rather than just being a booking app. The guest can find important phone numbers and city guides. You can also provide feedback on the mobile app, helping Marriott to improve its service and making the guest feel important. Well done!

I would like to conclude with my ratings of this app on my newly developed scale of greatness.

Appearance – Pretty Good

Functionality – Pretty Good

Amount of information for guest – Awesome! – due to the City Guides!

Hopefully, you have found this review helpful. Stay tuned for more reviews. Please let us know if you have an app you would like us to review.

Mobile

Mobile marketing is growing at an alarming rate. As more mobile devices flood the market, people are using them to shop, buy, and search the web. Forty percent of Google mobile search queries are local, according to Screenwerk. You simply must incorporate mobile into your marketing strategy, no excuses.

Also, the time has come to create a mobile website for these devices. Your big flashy site may look great on a PC but when viewed on a mobile device it probably doesn’t render correctly or it may involve lots of scrolling putting off your potential customer. Again, we aren’t joking, this isn’t going away and you must stay relevant.

Let’s use Hotel 718 as an example of a standard site and a mobile site:

Main site:

Mobile Site:

Social Media

As more smart phones flood the market, more people are going to find it easier to participate in social media. Facebook is everywhere with advancements in the Facebook Open Graph. In case you haven’t noticed when you are signed into Facebook and traveling around the web, sites cater information to you and address you personally.

Here is an example of the open graph in action:

You can see what are friends are doing from the TripAdvisor site when you are signed into Facebook. It has personalized the experience for you so that you can do more than just “Like” something or share it. With Facebook integration appearing on many sites, it is essential to integrate social media in your own website.

Hotel 718, a boutique hotel in Brooklyn NY is an excellent example of social media integration with their CONNECT page. The guest is able to connect with Hotel 718 on the various social networks and even sign up for email marketing, providing the hotel a simple way to develop relationships with their guests.

With wondrous new smart phones’ advanced video and photography capabilities, there will be growth in multi-media social networks like Instagram, Viddy, Pinterest and more are sure to come.

Also, keep your eyes out for more QR codes. I expect with more people owning mobile devices and smart phones, we will see those popping up in advertising and marketing materials everywhere. You will first want to have a dynamic mobile website and then you can venture into the world of the funky little QR codes. Use your QR codes to provide interesting content to your customers and be sure to include all pertinent information. There are sites to help you build a QR code or you can always contact an expert, like us at Screenpilot.

2012 is going to be an interesting year with an overall increased mobile emphasis across all marketing and advertising initiatives.

We hope that 2012 is a joyful and prosperous year for you, your family, and your business. Happy 2012 from all of us at Screen Pilot!

If you would like to read more about what to expect in 2012, check out the sources that helped us put together our predictions:

http://socialmediatoday.com/johnserpa/414660/social-media-and-2012

http://socialmediatoday.com/jasonbaer/410876/4-nearly-guaranteed-2012-social-media-predictions

http://mashable.com/2011/12/27/5-tech-trends-to-watch-in-2012/

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2133514/Search-Mobile-Marketing-Trends-SEO-Apocalypse-2012

My first impression of the Hilton app was simple, easy to use, and basic. Overall, I would say this app is designed for already loyal guests as I didn’t feel like its goal was to entice new customers. It is a straightforward booking app.

When you open the app you are presented the main menu to Find a Hotel, Lookup Reservations, Sign in to HHonors or Book a reward stay.

Since we are looking for a hotel we chose “Find a Hotel”. You have the option of finding a hotel by your phone’s GPS location, by City, by Airport Code, by Address.

 This menu is nothing spectacular, but functional nonetheless. After you have decided on how you want to search you can then move on to enter your dates, details, promo codes, corporate account info, etc.

When you finally arrive to the page with hotels, you find small thumbnail photos and brief descriptions. I noticed immediately that not all of the photos were formatted correctly so some displayed with white lines above and below the photos. I think this is a simple area where this could be approved visually with correct formatting.

I did like that each chain within Hilton has its own color theme on the app.

I consulted a Frequent Traveler Expert for his opinion on the app, and he said that for the most part he liked it. He did have two complaints. Once you log in to the HHonors, you have to return to the main menu in order to move forward with booking a reservation. It seems it would be more functional if it would progress into the booking screen after you logged in. His other complaint was that it didn’t remember you so each time you want to book or check a reservation you have to log in again. I’m sure this is considered a way to ensure your security, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t annoying.

So in summary, the app is functional but isn’t over the top flashy and has a navigational challenge with its HHonors log in process.

We would love to know your opinion of the app too as this is just our humble opinion. Feel free to comment on this post.

While back at the office grindstone we caught sight of a great little article thats particularly relevant to our mornings activities. And co-incidentally ties together 2 of our core agency functions – mobile and analytics. Including online to offline. The article link is below gives tips on:

1) Optimizing your website for mobile

2) Aligning calls to action with search behaviour

3) Tracking both online and offline conversions

Take a look at the article itself here on marketingprofs.com and let us know if it gives you any thoughts or ideas. Are you already doing any of this yourself for instance?

Take for example the most obvious place to start – Phone wide Twitter intergration. This will see more photos and other rich media tweeted by iPhone users making twitter a more valuable tool for digital marketers. It could also see a surge in Twitter sign ups as new iPhone users jump on the bandwagon.

However the biggest marketing challenge will be the new Notification Center that is visible on users lock screens. This update has come about because of the number of notifications iPhone users receive has ballooned over the last 12 months. This led to a number of complaints to Apple. The Notification Center has been built to remedy this.

The user can see all notifications in a single place via the Notification Center from the home screen or from any app by swiping down the status bar. When the user gets a new notification it will appear at the top of the screen rather than a popup. The lock screen also displays the notifications so you can respond to them quickly with a swipe of your finger. From a marketing standpoint this change certainly makes the iPhone a less useful tool. We can imagine that deal apps like Groupon and Living Social will suffer as their daily updates go unnoticed more often. Its worth keeping an eye(phone) on when the new OS and iPhone 5 is released.