Tech Tuesday :: Hotel Tonight

[trip style = weekend getaway + budget conscious] If you travel to or within the US and like to A} save on hotel stays and/or B} procrastinate, then you need to know about this travel app. Its name pretty much sums it up. Hotel Tonight allows users to book hotels at the last minute---after 12pm to be exact---for that evening until 2am. Some hotels can be booked for one night, others will allow a five-night stay.

Hotel Tonight came about in late 2010, but I've been waiting to feature it until the functionality, number of cities and offers were robust enough to make it worthy of your screen's precious space. This is now and the app holds a permanent position in my iPhone's travel folder.

With 22 cities and counting, Hotel Tonight offers three hotels per city unless it's a large and/or major vacation destination like New York or San Francisco, in which case there will be three hotels per "area." Each hotel is categorized as hip, modern, elegant, classic, boutique or basic and includes the price after tax as well as photos, a map and info {essentially, a short review written in bullet points for the time-starved, spontaneous booking!}. If you think the last-minute savings will only be offered on tired, 2-star airport hotels, think again. Even 4-star hotels need to fill space.

Are the eleventh hour savings actually cheaper than Kayak, Expedia or Hotwire? Would Trip Styler's editorial team use it? Yes and yes. On Saturday I played around with a few cities and compared Hotel Tonight's prices to other major online travel agencies, and in every case Hotel Tonight's prices were better. The best part: it's not even a blind booking scenario, you know what you're going to get and don't have to scroll through a zillion hotels to decide which one you're going to book. FYI, book early on weekends, as in, between noon and 4pm, because deals can sell out.

We love this free app so much that we've added it to Trip Styler Recommends.

More Tech Tuesday Getting There Direct Airline Alliance Apps Google Hotel Finder

Tech Tuesday :: Airline Alliance Apps

{Editor’s Note: Last week we interviewed Dr. Murad, aka the father of internal skin care, and he’s given us a 4-piece Radiant Renewal Kit to give away! Enter here. Contest closes today, August 16, at noon.}

It seems like e-v-e-r-y major airline has an app, except maybe Hawaiian. No complaints here. Aside from the multiple travel apps adorning my iPhone screen like an intricately woven quilt, I haven't found it necessary to install an app like Delta, AA or Alaska each time I fly those airlines. I only install my primary airline's app, and given my homebase is Vancouver, my main squeeze is Air Canada.

But, I will make one airline app exception in the name of loyalty---aka: free flights, upgrades and lounge access---for my preferred airline alliance. Aside from SkyTeam, two major airline alliances it makes sense to be part of in North America, if not worldwide, are OneWorld and Star Alliance.

A few weeks ago the world's first and largest alliance announced their first app: Star Alliance Navigator. It only debuted eight months after OneWorld's but who's counting anyway. After all, it's about quality. The Star Alliance app does a lot of tasks you'd expect it to do: flight status and search, airport info and member airline destination profiles {perfect for when you're flying to Istanbul and haven't had time to research the city}. However, I find this app most valuable for the following features: airport guides and downloadable maps, lounge info and city guides. I'm seriously impressed with the city guides {located in the Airport Info area}. I read through some of the guides for cities I know well and appreciate the level of detail and thorough neighbourhood overviews. My only criticism would be the info appears to be slightly outdated, therefore I'd use it as a starting point, not as your latest and greatest guide.

PS - The OneWorld app, also available on Blackberry, has a flight search as well as showcases partner airlines. Once the flight search results are rendered for your query, it offers a Book Now option, not available in the Star Alliance app, taking you to the partner airline's mobile booking site. This is a nice feature, but I'd prefer to use my Kayak app for flight search. For now, I'll just download Star Alliance's app until OneWorld makes a significant update!

What airline apps are must-haves for you?

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More Tech Tuesday Google Hotel Finder Travel Apps :: Flightboard Summer Travel Gadgets [1/2] Summer Travel Gadgets [2/2] Travel Apps :: Tiffany’s New York

Tech Tuesday :: FlightBoard

[trip style = any] Aside from people watching at Heathrow, one of my favourite airport pastimes is looking up at the flight status boards that decorate and inform airports around the world. Where and when in and outbound flights are headed is like reading a page-turning book you just can't put down.

Recently, an app was launched that not only displays flight status reports for over 4000 airports and 1400 airlines worldwide, but does so mimicking the timeless design of the Charles de Gaulle airport status screen.

FlightBoard turnes your iPhone, iPad or Android into a real-time arrivals and departure screen, provided you have a data plan or access to wifi. It's not cheap, starting at $3.75, but I guess that's the relatively small price you pay to monitor flights from Seattle to the Seychelles. Don't worry, we'll get there one day.

Other Flight Status Apps In October of 2010, we wrote about a few other flight status apps, one of which is FlightTrack {$4.99}. As it turns out, FlightBoard is made by the same company. The two apps function in a very similar way; one just looks and operates like it would at Charles de Gaulle. If free apps are more your bag, casual jauntsetters will appreciate the FlightAware app.

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More Tech Tuesday Summer Travel Gadgets [1/2] Summer Travel Gadgets [2/2] Travel Apps :: Royal Tour Travel Apps :: Tiffany's New York

Travel App Tuesday :: Royal Tour

[trip style = varied] If you like the Royals and armchair travel, this app's for you.

Will and Kate are beginning their first official trip as husband and wife in Canada on Thursday. And no, their not-so-secret honeymoon in the Seychelles didn't count as business. For the record, I could not be more excited for Their Royal Highnesses to visit to Canada, and wish I was going back to Ottawa this year to see them at the July 1st celebrations!

Not surprisingly, the app for that was created just in the nick of time by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Documenting the young couple's ultra-packed, Canadiana-filled, 9-day visit to cities in Ontario, Quebec, PEI, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, Monarch-lovers will be able to view the itinerary, look at pictures and video, check the #RoyalTour Twitter feed, RSVP for public events via Facebook, as well as send e-postcards about the trip.

Note, the app is mostly a portal to online resources like the Royal Tour website and the Flickr page, but having a Royal reminder on your phone is a great way to keep up to date with Wills & Kate.

Details

• Free
• Available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
• Wifi connection is required to take full advantage of the app's links and resources
• If you're not using an iphone, there's a mobile site

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Other Travel Apps Every Tuesday we feature a new travel app. Don’t forget to peruse the other 75+ travel apps we’ve reviewed from travel first aid, to luxury and boutique hotel finders, to border waits and trip itinerary management. Here are the most recent:

• What Makes True Love {Tiffany's NYC Guide}
• WindowSeat
• High-End Camp Cooking
• Vancouver Street Food
• livingsocial escapes

Travel App Tuesday :: Tiffany's New York

[trip style = urban] Before you think I've lost my 18k rose gold marbles featuring a love-themed Tiffany & Co. app for travel, read on...

Daydreaming about Tiffany & Co. usually involves key necklaces, diamond rings and of course, the iconic little blue box. Now, there's a little blue app for that including a lovely surprise for travelers who favour trip style = urban: a guide to New York. {Also see Trip Styler's guide to NYC here.}

With 21 refined Tiffany-inspired suggestions for couples seeking cocktails and canoodling, magnificent meals, cultured activities and/or grand gestures in the Big Apple, I'm head over heels for the selections. And if you think everything's expensive, think again, much like the everyday and special occasion pieces the NYC-based jeweler offers, the picks follow the same pattern.

I have another trip to NYC planned in the late-fall with my sister, and even though this app is geared at couples, we look forward frequenting suggestions like art and city gazing at the MET's roof-top garden, and having a drink at the deco Bemelman's Bar.

PS - Navigate to The Art of Romance, then Tiffany's Tips: When Love Gets Serious to find 40 ways to better understand and impress your significant other---simple but helpful little reminders.

Details

• free
• no wifi connection required
• available for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
• to access the NYC travel suggestions, navigate to "Tiffany's New York" in the app, and view by list or map
• though the app is designed for couples, the NYC restaurant, lounge and things to do suggestions could be used for anyone who appreciates curated suggestions

— Get more travel tips & updates like this by subscribing to RSS or email, liking us on facebook or following us on twitter. —

Other Travel Apps Every Tuesday we feature a new travel app. Don’t forget to peruse the other 75+ travel apps we’ve reviewed from travel first aid, to luxury and boutique hotel finders, to border waits and trip itinerary management. Here are the most recent:

• WindowSeat
• High-End Camp Cooking
• Vancouver Street Food
• livingsocial escapes
• Free Wifi Finders