Consumers can search by city, address or ZIP code via the application. The application is available for free download in Apple’s App Store.

“Our goal is to make it easy for travelers to get information and book our hotels by whichever method they prefer,” said Amy Bartle, director of media and digital marketing at La Quinta Inns & Suites, Dallas. “Travelers are early-adopters of technology that makes their lives easier and more efficient, so mobile has been in the mix for several years.”

La Quinta Inns & Suites provides franchise services to more than 800 hotels in 46 states, Canada and Mexico. The mobile offerings are powered by Usablenet.

Mobile booking
Consumers can find hotels near their current location and get driving directions to and from hotels.

In addition, customers can view photos and get detailed service and amenity information for each hotel.

Via the application, users can access their La Quinta Returns account to earn rewards and book free nights online.

“We simply need to be sure we enable the channels our customers want to use,” Ms. Bartle said. “While the percentage of mobile bookings are still a small portion of total bookings, mobile has shown tremendous growth this year.

“Smartphones have had a tremendous impact in the number of mobile users, probably due to the better user experience they provide,” she said. “Currently we are enhancing our mobile platform and WAP site to enable a more robust user experience and feature set.

“We are also developing an update to our iPhone app, and looking into building an Android app as well.”

Consumers can check their reservations

Guests can check their accounts

Mobile offerings
In addition its mobile application, La Quinta also has a mobile site.

Consumers can access the site by entering http://www.laquinta.com on their mobile browsers.

Customers can book rooms and check out special deals.

In addition, consumers can check existing reservations.

“Our site auto detects when a visitor is on a mobile device, so there is no need to do anything differently to reach the WAP site,” Ms. Bartle said. “We simply serve the best site for their device,” she said. “We communicate the availability of our app via emails, LQ.com and our social channels.”

Final Take
Rimma Kats is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York”