Meet Your New Mobile Butler: Hotels.com Concierge Will Change How You Travel

DALLAS, Jan. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ordering a pizza, booking a ride, finding local activities, and reserving a table at a top restaurant are now all possible in just the touch of a button through the new Hotels.com® Concierge, powered by the Button Marketplace. Launching today, the Hotels.com Concierge is available through the award-winning Hotels.com smartphone app, giving travelers a one-stop-shop for all their local travel needs.

Available on iOS, Hotels.com Concierge is like having a local expert in the palm of your hand, offering fast access to services such as transportation through Uber; on-demand food delivery through delivery.com; restaurant reservations through OpenTable; and activities through Groupon. With ticketing also coming soon.

The concierge is powered by Button, a contextual commerce platform that connects consumers to the products or services they need at the touch of a button, leveraging the extensive range of partners in the Button Marketplace. Button's technology makes it possible for users to seamlessly request and receive their favorite products and services on mobile through the Hotels.com Concierge.

For Hotels.com customers, all available local services will appear in the app on the day their hotel stay begins, leveraging key location data, such as the customer's hotel address, to make the process of enhancing their stay with complementary services seamless and intuitive.  Everything you need for the perfect trip is right there all in one place.

Travelers love the idea of having a mobile concierge that can tend to their every need. New global research by Hotels.com* revealed that almost half (46%) of travelers would happily use a mobile concierge service, with requests such as restaurant reservations (62%), directions (51%) and tickets to tourist attractions (48%) topping the list of what they'd ask for.

The survey also revealed some more fun and unusual requests travelers would like to make from a mobile butler type service. A quarter (25%) wished for a barista to make their morning coffee, almost one in five (17%) wanted someone to come and do their ironing and more than one in ten (12%) wanted a person to come and read them a bedtime story!

"When travelling I'd love a service where I can make a request from my mobile for someone to come and iron my shirts! While our app isn't quite at that stage yet, we are amongst the first to develop a full concierge service that's a one-stop-shop for travelers' local needs," said Daniel Craig, Senior Director of Mobile at Hotels.com brand. "Mobile is changing the way people travel, and at the forefront of that we're constantly innovating and investing in mobile, to offer more than just hotel bookings. We want to make our customers lives easier before, during and after their trip."

Michael Jaconi, CEO and Founder at Button, explained: "The travel industry has always been powered by links – whether that is meta search linking to carriers or hotels or linking consumers to complementary experiences around their travel plans. Today, Button is thrilled to launch the first mobile linking solution for the travel industry in partnership with Hotels.com, and now with Button, those same opportunities can be pursued in mobile.  The innovators at Hotels.com have shown how Button's technology can be used to enhance people's travel – and we're thrilled to be playing such an integral part in their fastest growing booking channel." 

The Hotels.com app is available to download on iOS, Android and Amazon Kindle devices. Customers will also have access to special Secret Prices** to help them save even more on their next stay away.

Editor's notes

The constantly expanding partner list and localities available with Hotels.com Concierge currently includes:

• Travel
  • Uber: Available globally
• Reservations
  • OpenTable: Available in more than 20 countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom and the United States
• Delivery
  • hungryhouse: Available in the United Kingdom
  • delivery.com: Available in the United States
• Activities
  • Groupon: Available in the United States and United Kingdom

*OnePoll survey commissioned by Hotels.com, conducted in October and November 2016, 8,377 respondents from 28 countries.

** Secret Prices are available to Hotels.com app users, Hotels.com® Rewards members and individuals who unlock Secret Prices on the website by subscribing to Hotels.com by email. Secret Prices will be shown where the "Your Secret Price" banner is displayed on your search results. Available on selected hotels and selected dates only. Subject to full terms and conditions.

About Hotels.com 
Hotels.com L.P. operates Hotels.com, a leading online accommodation booking website with properties ranging from international chains and all-inclusive resorts to local favorites and bed & breakfasts, together with all the information needed to book the perfect stay. Special apps for mobile phones and tablets can also be downloaded enabling customers to book on the go with access to 20,000 last minute deals.

© 2017 Hotels.com, LP.  All rights reserved.  Hotels.com and the Hotels.com logo are trademarks of Hotels.com, LP.  All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. CST #2083949-50

About Button 
Button connects consumers to what they want – when they want it – with the touch of a Button. Focused on better connecting the mobile economy, Button provides the easiest way for mobile brands to partner with one another, facilitating discovery and transaction among consumers with a contextually-relevant experience. Current partners of the Button Marketplace include industry leaders such as Uber, Condé Nast, Refinery29, OpenTable, Hotels.com, Foursquare, and more.

The company was founded in 2014 and is based in New York City. Button has raised more than $14 million in seed and Series A funding from Redpoint Ventures, Greycroft Partners, DCM Ventures, Atlas Ventures, VaynerRSE and others.

Media Contacts: 

For Hotels.com:
North America
Taylor L. Cole, APR at [email protected]

EMEA
Simon Matthews at [email protected]

For Button:
Natalie Gerke
Head of Corporate Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE Hotels.com

Related Links

http://www.hotels.com