IHG Mobile Pays Off

IHG Mobile Pays Off

InterContinental Hotels Group recorded $10 million in mobile revenue in April–up from $1 million during the same time last year. IHG has plans to launch seven new iPhone apps, one for each brand. The first app to launch was the Priority Club app in 2010. Some of the information IHG shared in a recent press release included that 65 percent of bookings occur within one day of the actual visit, roughly half of users book their reservations through the app while the other half use the app as a mobile browser and the most frequent users book through the app. Since the Priority Club Rewards app was launched, it has been downloaded 200,000 times for the iPhone and 60,000 times for the Android. The new apps being rolled out will feature the ability to find and book hotel rooms, check rates and view or cancel reservations. Last-minute rooms that are available will be identified based on the location of the app user and geofencing will be used to identify when a guest is getting close to the hotel to push out a coupon for dinner, for example, hoping the customer might choose to stop off for dinner on the way to the hotel.