I first learned about HotelPal from my friend Anil, who publishes the travel blog foXnoMad.com. This free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch allows users to search for accommodations at more than 100,000 hotels, inns, resorts, and B&B’s worldwide, making it’s among the most complete hotel databases available anywhere.
HotelPal app for the iPhone and iPod Touch
Immediately, I downloaded it and browsed around the interface. It seemed fairly easy to use: I simply needed to choose a hotel, type in my billing info, and tap “Book Now.” This week I finally had an opportunity to test it out during my tour of the Tampa Bay area. While my experience with the application was excellent, I found myself using it in a totally different manner than the developer intended.
Because I prefer not to be locked into structured itineraries, I rarely pre-book accommodations before leaving home, and this instance was no different. I left Sarasota at 4:30 p.m. in order to have plenty of time to find a hotel, check in, and still on time for my 8 p.m. Yo-Yo Ma concert this past Wednesday. Once I was in the neighborhood of the concert hall, I whipped out my iPhone, opened HotelPal, and clicked on “search.” The iPhone’s GPS automatically determined my geographic location and returned a list of nearby hotels and motels that had rooms available, sorted by price. For each, I could view full-screen photos of the property and see real-time availability and rates. With a touch of the screen, I could change the sort criteria from price to location, or even flip to a map where red pins represented the location of each property.
Rather than booking online, I simply chose the cheapest motel, confirmed that the photos looked OK, and drove to the property. On my first night, the lowest priced rooms were at Days Inn in Clearwater, advertised at $38 per night. Sure enough, when I walked-in, I was offered the price quoted in HotelPal. The following night it was a Days Inn in St. Petersburg, which HotelPal represented as $55 per night. Here, the manager quoted me $59, but when I showed her the HotelPal price it was honored.
Using HotelPal sure beats driving up and down the street and stopping at half a dozen hotels and motels to see of they have availability and are affordable. Not only has it simplified the process of finding accommodations, it has already saved me a lot of money. I love this application and anyone else who prefers unscheduled travel will too!
After years of working 70 hours a week at jobs I detested, I felt like the proverbial "hole in the donut" - solid on the outside, but empty on the inside. Searching for meaning in my life, I abandoned my successful but unsatisfying career and set out on a six-month solo backpacking trip around the world to pursue my true passions of travel, writing, and photography. 
October 31st, 2009 - 10:38 am
This sounds like a great app, I must look into getting it.
October 31st, 2009 - 3:56 pm
Barbara,
For your untech savy friends, can you see if Cape Pines is listed? I am curious if it feeds off of the Utell/Pegasus travel agent database.
xo
October 31st, 2009 - 4:54 pm
Wow, something that works like advertised. This could alter how some people book hotels.
October 31st, 2009 - 8:25 pm
Any recommendation from Anil is usually a good one.
And this one sounds pretty freaking cool. Off to download…
October 31st, 2009 - 11:06 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by holeinthedonut: If You Travel and Have an iPhone, You Must Try This App http://su.pr/33w4JA #travel…
November 1st, 2009 - 2:20 am
sound good. I am also interested. good information
November 1st, 2009 - 3:55 am
I used this app and I like it a lot.
November 1st, 2009 - 4:02 pm
Just downloaded the app, could come in handy. Btw, we are headed to Chicago for the first time over Thanksgiving. We plan on watching the parade. Staying at the Amalfi Hotel. I read this was your hometown and enjoyed your posts about the city.
November 1st, 2009 - 9:24 pm
Hey cool app! really handy for those of us who travel a lot. Thanks for sharing!
November 1st, 2009 - 11:48 pm
Hmph, me and my Blackberry are jealous of the iPhone apps. This especially sounds like a useful one for frequent travelers. Oh well: Until the iPhone unlocks so I can use Verizon on it, I’m sticking with my not-as-fun PDA.
November 3rd, 2009 - 7:36 pm
This sounds like a handy app to have. Now, if I only had an IPhone.
November 4th, 2009 - 4:19 am
Don’t have an i-phone but it seems to be the tool of choice for the traveller and this app looks the business.
Personally, my style of travel is to stay for a few days in one place and choose my lodging carefully in advance, not only on a price band I can afford but on character and charm. However, if I was on the road a lot, with a flexible itinerary, I can see how useful it would be and by your account it seems to work really well.
November 4th, 2009 - 7:27 pm
[...] You find the original post here holeinthedonut.com/2 … | Barbara Weibel [...]
November 4th, 2009 - 11:02 pm
HotelPal was one app that worked and was very useful I found. I’m glad to see it’s doing good on your iPhone as well Barbara
November 8th, 2009 - 2:14 am
Having info so many hotels (100,000) is quite impressive for HotelPal. for example, most of the GPS units I’m aware of have less (50,000-80,000).
November 12th, 2009 - 6:28 am
I could have used this two years ago when driving across the US! Sounds like a great app and even better since I plan on getting an iphone when I return to the US…can’t wait to use all these great new travel tools!