New Hostelworld Android App Takes Customer Experience to the Next Level

By: Robert Diamond Sep. 23, 2014

Hostelworld, the leading budget travel site, today announced the launch of a brand new native app for Android. The app, available to download for free from Google Play, is the second new mobile app from the organisation in recent months. Their native iPad app launched earlier in the summer and was chosen by Apple for a coveted spot in the Best New Apps category in over 49 countries on the App Store.

"Android is a really popular platform for our customers, doubling in growth over the past year. Given the importance of the platform and its popularity we decided to redevelop the app from the ground up to be faster and more intuitive to use" said Breffni Horgan, Head of Mobile at Hostelworld.com.

Over 3 years of customer feedback, from existing Android app customers, was taken on board and this was used to create new features and an engaging user experience customers will be delighted to use.
The new app is image driven and showcases over 30,000 properties from all over the world - large images on the listing page combined with an infinite scroll is central to the new design offering a more in-depth look at the unique accommodation that Hostelworld has to offer. Handy filtering by price, rating or location is a key feature of the app helping to narrow down the extensive choice. Customers can log in to their account, leave a review, check out with a saved card and choose aflexible booking if they think their plans might change.

The new app also comes with a few innovative features. "We worked with PayPal on implementing a new card scanning feature which takes the hassle out of typing in numbers on a small screen. It's completely secure and makes the checkout process even faster than before. And we worked with Samsung on supporting Samsung Wallet. Now all of our Samsung customers can add their bookings to wallet for offline access."

In addition to the exciting new features, the company has recognised the importance of Android in key Asian markets adding Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese versions of its new Android app bringing the total number of supported languages on the platform to ten. English, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian and Swedish make up the remainder of the portfolio. There are lots of exciting new features in the pipeline and another new app coming very soon. We know that the world of mobile is a rapidly changing one. Our aim is to constantly keep up with that change providing our customers with the best possible user experience on all devices and on all platforms no matter where they are or how they choose to engage with us.

Find our new Android app on the Play Store here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hostelworld.app

Find our new iPad app on the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/hostelworld/id720087908?mt=8

Find our iPhone app here:
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/hostelworld.com-hostels-budget/id348890820?mt=8

Or visit our website http://www.hostelworld.com

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