Users Can Now Search Rooms in Thousands of Hotels in Nearly 30 Destinations
Mountain View, Calif. – August 10, 2011 – Room 77, the world’s first hotel search engine to reveal room-specific details, today announced its popular, free mobile application is now available in the Android Marketplace and works with the most popular Android devices available today. Now, travelers with Android devices as well as the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can find and share important information on hotel rooms to secure the best room for their needs.
Room 77’s mobile app is particularly useful while checking in at a hotel’s front desk – a traveler simply enters the room number offered by the clerk and Room 77 instantly advises whether to “take it” or “leave it” and presents alternate room suggestions. Users can also search nearby properties, based on their current location, or browse hotels in another destination. As with the website, travelers using a mobile app can also search a range of rooms best-matched to their preferences and check out the simulated Room View, which uses proprietary mapping technology to generate the actual view as if you were standing at the window.
The Room 77 Android App also includes several new features that have been added to the mobile platform since the company’s public beta launch in February, including user registration, which validates the user’s info and makes sharing room data, images and exit floor plans with Room 77 via the app easier and faster. Users simply register with Room 77, snap photo(s) of the room and add tags, rate the room on a few key measures, and then click submit to share their review and photos with other Room 77 users. Mobile users also now have access to Room 77’s Look Inside feature, which provides interior photos, either submitted by a hotel or a traveler, allowing travelers to peek inside a particular room before they check in.
“Android now powers almost half of all smartphones around the world1, and we’re thrilled to be able to help even more travelers find a great room with the Room 77 Android app,” said Kevin Fliess, general manager and vice president product, Room 77. “Your hotel room can often make or break an experience, and we’re offering travelers more transparency and control over their hotel stay. We’re just getting started and expect to roll out new features, functionality and destinations in the months ahead.”
Room 77 is working to index every hotel room at every three- to five-star hotel and resort worldwide and has data on more than 500,000 hotel rooms in nearly 30 markets, including the most recent destinations added earlier this month: Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; and Toronto. Additional cities include: Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Denver; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Honolulu; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; London (UK); Maui, Hawaii; Miami; Minneapolis; Montreal; New Orleans; New York; Orange County, Calif.; Orlando, Palm Springs, Calif.; Philadelphia; Phoenix/Scottsdale; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose / Silicon Valley, Calif.; Seattle; Vancouver (CAN); and Washington, DC.
To commemorate the Android app launch, Room 77 is giving away one $25 gift card per day from August 10-31 to a randomly selected traveler who submits hotel room photos or room views during the month of August through the Room 77 mobile app (includes Android and iOS users). Winners will be notified by email.
For more information or to search a specific property and room details, visit www.Room77.com. To download the new Android app, visit the Android marketplace, [pending placement]. The iPhone app can be downloaded from the App Store.
1 Canalys, August 2011: “Of the 56 countries Canalys tracks around the world, Android led in 35 of them and achieved a global market share of 48%.”
About Room 77
Room 77 is the world’s first hotel search engine to reveal data down to the room level, providing consumers with unprecedented detail about each guest room at thousands of three- to five-star properties. Its proprietary Room Rank algorithm scores every room, based on the traveler’s preferences, and the virtual Room View simulates the actual view from each room through patent-pending mapping technology, helping travelers identify the best rooms for them. Currently accessible through the Web and its mobile apps on Android and iPhone, Room 77 is designed to go where travelers do and also offers tools and features that enable travelers to “sleuth” room data and help contribute to its growing database. Officially founded in 2009, Room 77 has raised $13.5 million to date from leading entrepreneurs and institutional investors, including: the company’s founder Brad Gerstner, Rich Barton, Bob Pittman, Hugh Crean, PAR Capital Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and Felicis Ventures, among others. For more information, visit the Room 77 blog or follow the company on Facebook (www.facebook.com/bestrooms) and Twitter (@Room_77).