HOTELMARKETING.COM

How hotel technology providers tap Apple’s Passbook app

January 23, 2013 | Hotel Marketing

Hotel and hospitality companies are taking advantage of Apple's new Passbook app, which stores a user's membership cards, tickets coupons and reservations on iPhones and iPod Touch devices.

ZDirect, for one, is developing new integration that links directly from a hotel's property-management system to the Apple iOS 6 Passbook digital wallet. Using the ZMail electronic communication platform, a guest's hotel confirmation becomes a mobile "pass" that is sent to an iPhone or iPod Touch and added to the mobile Passbook file. Since Passbook is time and location based, hotel confirmations automatically appear on the lock screen when and where the information is needed. As travelers get close to the hotel, their confirmations pop up for easy viewing.

And Checkfront Inc., a cloud-based real-time Online Booking System Checkfront for tours, activities and hospitality, has also integrated with Apple Passbook. When a customer adds a Checkfront booking to their Passbook, it stores the reservation on their iPhone or iPod. As a customer nears your location on the day of their booking (based on your longitude and latitude), the electronic ticket automatically pops up on their phone. Upon arrival, you can can scan, validate and check-in the customer using the built-in bar-code scanner in our native Mobile Apps (iPhone, iPad, Android). This is all communicated to your central system, in real time. As an added bonus, if the booking is changed, the details are updated automatically in the customers phone.

Get the full story at Hotel Management

Visit our sponsors: