The Best Western to Go iPhone application is meant to cater to the growing number of travelers staying connected via smartphones. Consumers are able to book reservations at more than 4,000 Best Western locations worldwide.

“Best Western wants to be everywhere our customers want to book,” said Troy Rutman, director of external communications for Best Western International, Phoenix, AZ. “You can’t talk about online anymore without talking about wireless devices and the iPhone is the natural place to start.

“We will have mobile apps for other handhelds in the near future,” he said. 

With the Search and Book feature, consumers can find and book reservations at more than 4,000 Best Western hotels in over 80 countries worldwide.

Application users are also able to create an itinerary and input addresses of attractions and restaurants.

Once these have been entered, users can easily find their location using the application’s GPS-enabled map.  

Additionally, users can capture and categorize favorite locations in specific destinations.

Travelers can also upload photos and descriptions to remember the region.

The application lets users stay connected with family and friends by sharing an experience, such as a lunch at a kitschy diner or a souvenir purchase.

Travelers can push this information directly from the application to their Facebook page, email or to other iPhone users.
 
Best Western prides itself on being available to travelers no matter their location, which is why mobile accessibility was a natural next step for the hotel chain.

The mobile application is meant to be a resource for guests, particularly those who are making decisions on the fly.

Best Western plans to unveil multiple upgrades to its iPhone application throughout 2010, as well as introduce applications for other mobile platforms including BlackBerry and Android.

The hotel chain will work closely with application users to incorporate helpful features that best meet their travel needs.

A lot of hotel chains have been turning to mobile this year.

Mega hotel chain Westin Hotels and Resorts rolled out a mobile-optimized Web site to let consumers make reservations via their handsets, anytime, anywhere (see story).

Additionally, Hilton Hotels has launched a new mobile Web application giving iPhone users accessibility to the hotel chain’s Internet features (see story).

Also, Omni Hotels has launched an iPhone application to extend its reach and also to complement the luxury hotel chain’s mobile site (see story).