Travelodge, the UK Hotel chain has this morning launched a free GPS room booking service for Apple's iPhone.

'Travelodge iBooker' is a free application available from the iTunes Appstore. To locate Travelodge hotels simply launch the application and allow it to use your GPS location.

It will then offer you the five nearest hotels that have room availability as well as room rates.

You can also use the application in non-GPS mode to book Travelodge rooms anywhere in the chain.

This is one of many new location aware applications coming to market. Travelodge are the UK's first hotel brand to launch a free GPS application and for those who use the chain regularly this makes identifying the nearest locations and finding availability very simple.

There are currently more than one million Apple iPhone users in the UK and ten million users across the world and this is set to rise to 45millon by the end of 2009. The Apple iPhone is set to become the UK’s most popular mobile phone this year.

www.travelodge.co.uk

Comments Posted by MaFt on Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:51 am hmm... a nice idea but...: 1) it just sends you to the travel lodge website in safari with the location already filled out and 2) where's this non-gps mode?! the app is literally 'click here' which gets your coords and then takes you to https://www.travellodge.co.uk/iphone/LATITUDE,LONGITUDE i suppose it's a start though.... MaFt "Every time you make a typo, the errorists win."   Posted by Darren on Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:55 am MaFt Wrote: hmm... a nice idea but...: 1) it just sends you to the travel lodge website in safari with the location already filled out and 2) where's this non-gps mode?! Click the 'change this search' link at the top? Quote: the app is literally 'click here' which gets your coords and then takes you to https://www.travellodge.co.uk/iphone/LATITUDE,LONGITUDE What more did you expect? It's a GPS applet that squirts location data into a Mobile version of the website, does it need to be more complicated than that? Darren Griffin Editor, PocketGPSWorld.com PocketGPSWorld.com supports Help for Heroes - Read More   Posted by MaFt on Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:18 am ah, i see! i was thinking the non-gps mode was in teh app itself as opposed ot just on the travellodge website! i was expecting the hotel info etc to show up in the app itself rather than just opening up their normal website in the browser... still, hopefully others will follow suit! MaFt "Every time you make a typo, the errorists win."   Posted by mostdom on Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:17 am Darren Wrote: What more did you expect? It's a GPS applet that squirts location data into a Mobile version of the website, does it need to be more complicated than that? Shame the hotels are generally rubbish. Exp taken from Alton with no running hot water and no heating. Beds were too hard and room was filthy. Otherwise a good hotel Dom HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace. Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot   Posted by Darren on Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:21 am I favour Premier Travel Inn where poss and to be honest, for very little additional outlay Holiday Inn is miles better. Darren Griffin Editor, PocketGPSWorld.com PocketGPSWorld.com supports Help for Heroes - Read More