With so many smartphones available on the market today – and the number of smartphone users worldwide expected to exceed one billion by 2013¹– there has never been a better a time for hotels to embrace the mobile marketing revolution. In the countries known collectively as the EU5 – the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – 2010 saw notable increases in smartphone adoption. While the UK market experienced the fastest growth (up 21% from 2009), Spain lead all markets with a smartphone adoption rate of 37.6%, up 10.3% from 2009.²

So how can hotels affordably tap into this expansive market and promote their brand to guests worldwide? Say hello to the Smartstay^SM app for hotels.

Smartstay is a leading mobile application developed exclusively for the hospitality industry. Designed for iPhone and Android,^* this easy-to-use mobile platform allows hotels to create their own hotel apps by adding property-specific logos, special offers, images, videos, hotel information, and even an interactive map of nearby tourist attractions. Guests can use your hotel app to make a reservation at your hotel, find their way around your city, and receive updated news posts. Hotels can easily control their own content and send real-time messages to guests, alerting them of events at the hotel, or last-minute deals at the restaurant or spa.

The Smartstay hotel app is equipped with advanced mobile features to meet the needs of the hotel and its guests. The multilingual functionality allows hotels to provide their content in multiple languages. Hotels can opt to install Google Analytics to help them monitor user behavior. The hotel booking integration allows guests to make a reservation from their phones. Other features include virtual postcards, high-quality images and videos, one-touch dialing, integration of Yelp reviews, integration of Twitter and other RSS feeds, an interactive map of area attractions, and fully customizable tabs.

To date, the Smartstay app has been adopted by hotels in 9 countries across 4 continents, including Ireland, England, Denmark, Australia, Japan, The Philippines, Israel, Canada and the United States. Through this dynamic mobile marketing channel, these hotels can now effortlessly connect with guests before, during, and after their stay. What’s more, Smartstay’s multilingual functionality enables hotels to provide mobile content in a variety of languages, allowing guests from across the globe to benefit from Smartstay’s unique technology. International travelers are now more likely to share the app with their friends and family, helping to spread the word about your hotel.

“With the record growth of iPhone users globally, this app gives us another way to communicate with perspective guests and continue to engage returning guests as well,” said Michelle Maguire, Marketing Manager for Ireland’s Blue Book. “We know that embracing new technology and new ways to communicate can initially be a little intimidating, but the Smartstay app offered Ireland’s Blue Book our first app without any development headaches or hassles. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to create an app with O’Rourke and the Smartstay team, as they have made the process extremely simple and have worked with us to focus on and deliver what our travelers really want – the freedom to wander.”

The Ireland’s Blue Book app has been downloaded by more than 2,600 users across 32 countries since its initial launch in August 2010. It also received a 2010 Appy Award for “Best Tourism/Travel App.”

“Since smartphone adoption in countries like the UK and Spain is steadily on the rise, we knew the time was right to introduce Smartstay to the European market,” said Tom O’Rourke, founder and CEO of O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing. “We’re excited to provide hotels with more opportunities to reach a global audience and increase their business through upgrades like Smartstay’s new multilingual functionality.”

In addition to Ireland’s Blue Book, several other world-class European hotels have already created their hotel apps with Smartstay. These include Zleep Hotels in Denmark, Cheval Phoenix House and the Landmark London Hotel in London, England, Delphi Mountain Resort in Connemara, Galway, Ireland, and Fota Island Resort in Cork, Ireland. You can download these hotel-branded apps by searching on the hotel name in the Apple App Store or the Android Market. You can also download a Smartstay demo app for iPhone and Android based on a fictional hotel.

Though initially developed for hotels, the Smartstay mobile app platform has been upgraded to encompass all other hospitality sectors. Hospitality professionals can use Smartstay to create custom restaurant apps, golf resort apps, casino apps, cruise line apps or special event apps. With the flexibility to create custom pages, the possibilities are limitless.

The Smartstay hotel app was developed by O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing, LLC, and DeCare Systems Ireland, Ltd. O’Rourke is an award-winning marketing firm that provides hotels with a complete range of services, including hotel website design, Internet marketing, print design, and hotel mobile app creation. O’Rourke wanted to provide hotels with a cost-effective way to create high-quality, customizable apps for their properties and found a proven and forward-thinking partner with DeCare Systems Ireland, Ltd. (DSI). DeCare is an enterprise software development company specializing in architecting, developing, and integrating custom .Net and Java applications. Smartstay is the result of combined expertise in hotel marketing and technology.

If you are interested in creating an app for your hotel, Smartstay can provide you with a high-quality, fully customizable app for a fraction of the cost of creating an app from scratch. Since the app platform is already built, it is easy to set up your app. You just need to populate the app with your content, logos, videos, and map entries. Smartstay will collect this content from you, help you enter the initial content, and submit your app to the Apple App Store and Android Market. The entire process takes just 4-6 weeks. Your guests can then download your hotel app to their mobile devices for free.

Once your app is up and running, your hotel has full control of your content and can make instant updates and send unlimited messages to alert guests of last minute deals or special offers at your hotel. This is done through an intuitive mobile content management system (CMS). There is no programming involved, and hotels don’t need to worry about technical skills, hardware, or hosting. As Lauri Howe, Director of Communications at the Seaport Hotel in Boston says, “The content management system is very straightforward and simple to use. The process was quick and our team picked up the process easily, making it something many people in our office could handle.”

To learn more about Smartstay, please visit www.smartstayapp.com, or call us toll-free in the U.S. at 888-965-5966, or outside the U.S. at 978-465-5955. You can also send an e-mail to info@smartstayapp.com.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

¹Source: Informa Telecoms & Media – September 20, 2010
²Source: comScore – February 14, 2011

^*Smartstay is compatible on devices that run Google’s Android 2.0 or higher mobile operating system. It is optimized for devices with medium or high density normal-sized screens and is not compatible with low-density devices. It has been validated on the following devices: Motorola Droid – Android version 2.0 – WVGA (480 x 854) (High density 240dpi, Normal screen); HTC Legend – Android version 2.1 – HVGA (320 x 480) (Medium density 160dpi, Normal screen); Samsung Galaxy S I9000 – Android version 2.1 – WVGA (480 X 800) (High density 240dpi, Normal screen).