The company is letting customers search for hotels by city, ZIP code or GPS location. Consumers can choose from more than 100,000 hotels worldwide via the HotelPal application.

“Our goal is always to make the best possible tools for travelers,” said Jeremy Xavier, vice president of marketing at Mobiata, San Francisco. “We want to make their lives easier and also hopefully make travel a bit more fun.

“With HotelPal, the aim is to provide a booking process that’s the easiest possible path to booking while also creating a luxe experience,” he said. “The great thing about mobile is that we can immediately pull up hotels for your location so we can show what are very likely the most relevant hotels right away.

“With a few taps, you can see rates, read descriptions and see full-color pics and once you’ve picked your room, you can book easily right in the app.”

Mobiata creates mobile travel applications and offers mobile travel design and development services.

Book me
Consumers can view full-screen hotel photos, select display currency, compare hotel locations with built-in maps and use the map screen feature to search from a specific location.

Additionally, customers who have already booked with HotelPal do not have to re-enter their information – it is already saved.

“The iPad is becoming the traveler’s new best friend,” Mr. Xavier said. “We set about making the most luxe app possible and I think we succeeded that the extra screen space gave us the ability to incorporate beautiful details into the browsing and booking experience.

“HotelPal for iPad has details like wood paneled accents, lifelike page-turning views of each hotel that feels like an actual brochure and a really elegant drawer that allows you to scroll through hotel choices and then easily expand them for more detailed viewings,” he said.

Consumers can browse different rates

Consumers can type their booking information

Additional features
Consumers can check hotel availability and rates, browse amenities and descriptions to find the perfect hotel and save favorite hotels to revisit later.

Additionally, customers can get hotel directions from their current location.

“Mobile and travel are really a perfect match because as people are on the go, the phone is something that is always with them,” Mr. Xavier said. “It’s the perfect device to execute travel needs.”

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