For Travelers, a Personal Concierge on Your Phone

For Travelers, a Personal Concierge on Your Phone
By MARTHA C. WHITE
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: December 21, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/business/22apps.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1261490540-1diFdhm2pZ8CSKR12zLn+w


Downloadable applications for the iPhone, Blackberry and other smartphones are fast becoming indispensable among business travelers who use their phones to help them organize and navigate trips with little more effort than a few taps on a touch screen.

And looking ahead, technology experts envision tools that will be, in effect, personal concierges — handling everything from reservations to reimbursements.

Even with the applications available today, Chris Selland, a technology development and marketing consultant who travels frequently for business, is a fan of smartphones. “Basically, you’ve got everything in your pocket,” he said, adding that he switched to the iPhone specifically because of the greater number of applications.

Alan Warms, a technology entrepreneur and a former vice president at Yahoo, said travel applications were the third most popular type of download after social networking and gaming apps. Roughly a third of the members on his Web site, Appolicious.com, which reviews mobile applications, have downloaded one or more travel-related tools, he said.

This proliferation of downloadable applications can be attributed, in a large part, to the pervasiveness of GPS functions in smartphones. Previously, if a visitor to an unfamiliar city wanted to find, say, a Japanese restaurant, he would have had to type in the starting address. Now, the phone automatically knows its current location, eliminating one step and streamlining the process.

In interviews, business travelers indicated that the most popular travel-related apps fell into two categories: organization aids and location-based tools. Apps like TripIt, for example, allow travelers to consolidate their itineraries into a single digital version that can be shared with co-workers or an assistant.

“To me, the most valuable thing is you have all this itinerary information in one place, and it’s easy to get to,” said Pete Davies, who travels several times a year for his job at a clean technology company. “A year ago, I would carry a whole sheaf of printouts and confirmations with me, and now I have them in one simple place.”

Tools like iReceipt allow travelers to store and organize receipts for expense reporting, reducing the number of hard copies that need to be shuttled around on a trip.

Location-based apps use GPS technology to give users information about restaurants, tourist attractions and even taxi services in their immediate vicinity. Some, like Urbanspoon, focus exclusively on restaurants; others, like Yelp and Google Maps, offer information about everything from dry cleaners to coffee shops. Some also include user reviews.

Downloadable applications have some advantages over their digital alter egos, mobile browser versions of company Web pages. Since the apps are stored on a phone instead of on a distant server, the information can be accessed even when the phone is not connected to the Internet. This means that travelers in an airplane or other location without Internet access can still use the program.

Companies that produce and sell travel management software have taken note of the increasing popularity of mobile apps. Some of the larger companies are introducing tools for smartphones that integrate with corporate office travel software.

“We found that nine out of 10 of our business travelers were using mobile apps,” said Tony D’Astolfo, vice president for worldwide sales and travel at Rearden Commerce.

Rearden created an application for BlackBerrys about 20 months ago and is developing one for the iPhone that will be available in the first quarter of 2010 in response to its growing popularity among business travelers. Using the application, travelers can aggregate schedules and reservations as well as find places to eat or receive travel-related alerts about flight delays, for instance.

Another travel management software provider, Concur, has released BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile apps to support its travel and expense platform. Users do not need to save receipts and file expense reports because the tool tracks and automatically submits charges for flights, hotels, meals and even cab rides.

Concur’s co-founder, president and chief operating officer, Rajeev Singh, said the applications also tap into business travelers’ desire to have more autonomy in arranging their itineraries.

Travelers prefer to choose from various options rather than be told where they have to stay, Mr. Singh said. To this end, Concur has set up a tool that allows travelers to review hotels and leave notes about amenities, like Wi-Fi and fitness rooms, for company colleagues.

Lodging companies, including Choice Hotels, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Omni Hotels and the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort have begun experimenting with apps that let guests find and book other properties under the same management umbrella.

Norman Rose, senior technology and corporate market analyst for the travel industry research company PhoCusWright, said there was still untapped potential for hotels. “The biggest opportunity for hotels is automating the concierge function,” he said. “Hotels recommend restaurants and activities. Being able to deliver this via a virtual concierge is a natural extension.”

Loren Gray, director of e-commerce for Ocean Properties, a company that owns and manages hotels, said app technology offered a lot of potential, but was limited by privacy concerns.

For instance, an application could automatically check travelers into their hotels and register their preferences when they turn on their phone as the plane lands. But travelers might not want to give their phone permission to automatically submit information, which could include credit card data.

Perhaps a greater challenge lies in the fact that an application like this would require access to different hotel companies’ networks; some chains might be reluctant to allow that, citing competitive reasons, Mr. Gray said.

Despite the challenges, industry analysts predict that smartphones will soon be as important to business travelers as credit cards.