Expedia.com, one of the world’s largest full service online travel sites, has released the all-new Expedia app for tablets. It is available now for free download from the App Store and Google Play.
Shop for hotels and flights on one screen
Expedia’s app presents a fresh way for travellers to shop destinations: the new search tools enable consumers to shop for both hotels and flights on one screen, simply by entering or selecting a destination. This is a stark contrast to the user interface seen across the industry, and Expedia made the leap to create an experience specifically for tablets.
PhoCusWright data shows that about 40% of people use tablets when they are browsing for a travel destination. For Expedia, this data – paired with internal findings – marked the time to provide content geared towards tablet users.
Status Quo is Unnatural
Through internal user testing and ethnographic studies on tablets, Expedia concluded that travellers using tablet devices were frustrated with website designs that forced users to pick a flight or hotel separately.
“The problem is pretty basic: tablet apps to date haven’t actually been designed for browsing on a tablet. Travellers expect an easy, convenient way to explore potential travel destinations and browse flight and hotel details and they expect to be able to do it in a way that feels right for them when they’re on their tablet,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, President of Expedia Worldwide and CEO of Expedia, Inc. “They deserve this experience without sacrificing the in-depth industry knowledge and personalised insights our powerful Expedia search engines provide.”
Expedia’s new direction with unique features
To address travellers evolving needs, the new Expedia tablet app is specifically optimised for mobile exploration and browsing and introduces a handful of unique features:
- Single Search Box: To eliminate hefty search interfaces, the new tablet app offers a single search box to do the lifting. When a traveller enters a city name, landmark, or airport code, the app will surface hotels and flights relevant to that query – no dates or specific details are required at the start.
- First-Ever Combined Hotel & Flight Travel Search: For the first time in the industry, combined search has arrived for the travel market. Rather than searching for trips in a rigid, linear progression of flights then hotels, or hotels then flights, Expedia is introducing one combined search that provides both hotel and flight results simultaneously, available all in one glance.
- Collections: Expedia presents various themed travel destinations to spark interest in future journeys. Collections offer customers the opportunity to explore vacation destinations they may not have otherwise considered. Beautiful locations come to life in a particularly compelling way on tablet devices. Collections offer a rich combination of design, mobility and travel research. Content is catered to various regions and will be updated based on traveller feedback.
- Integrated Trip Planning, Booking, and Data, shared across devices: Earlier this year, Expedia introduced Scratchpad in certain markets around the globe. Scratchpad is an easy way to keep track of your travel searches. When a traveller is signed into an Expedia app, trips researched on a tablet device will appear on the desktop or mobile Scratchpad. This allows travellers to begin their travel planning from where they left off – on any device.
Download the new Expedia app for tablets today, free from the App Store and Google Play. For more information on the Expedia app for tablet, including an overview of all product features click here
About Expedia.com
Expedia.com is one of the world’s largest full service travel sites, helping millions of travellers per month easily plan and book travel. Expedia.com aims to provide the latest technology and the widest selection of top vacation destinations, cheap tickets, hotel deals, car rentals, destination weddings, cruise deals and in-destination activities, attractions, services and travel apps. With the Expedia Best Price Guarantee, Expedia.com customers can get the best rates available online for all types of travel.
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