Argo App Test: HIP Hotels HIP Guide

First thing this #TT Travel Tuesday a Tweet from HIP Hotels mentioning their smartphone app put me in testing mode. So, without further eloquence (not much anyways), the HIP Hotels HIP Guide download to doing HIP Hotels.

If we were making a checklist, downloading this app would go like this; “easy and simplicity – check.” There’s no point of pain getting right down to business seeing what HIP Hotels is all about, and mostly what they are about is beautiful and interesting places to stay. Asked to download all 4,000 plus images if I wanna, I opted to just stream photos on my iPad. The one below is of me holding said tablet looking at images of Hotel Arts in Barcelona.

Clearly HIP Hotels made the app optimized for iPhones and other small devices, but even though a few of the texts are a bit blurry, as you can tell the iPad use comes through inspiring. As HIP puts it themselves:

“A Comprehensive, Compact, Compendium of Stylish Places to Stay”

And that it is. Don’t you love things as advertised? Next we went to (the app feels like that) Hotel Bratsera on the Island of Hydra off the Peloponnese in Greece. HIP Hotels’ app is actually pretty advanced, tapping the screen on any image brings up the text and usually another call to action, you can even contact the hotels via your smart device on nearly any page.

Like I said, HIP has made it as close to “being there” as I have seen. Hit “Call” and you connect directly to the hotel you seek, this is so clean, direct connect is where it is at. What travelers want and need is an app that brings full frontal what a hotel and/or destination has to offer. HIP Hotels showcases on their website and via this app hotels around the globe, “hip” ones actually. Machu Picchu’s Sanctuary Lodge to the Bay of Fire Lodge in Australia, HIP Hotels’ HIP Guide is actually just one component of a super media and marketing outfit.

If you need in depth info on places and stays, HIP Hotels Magazine (screen above) compliments and is complimented by the app we tested. Perhaps the only failing I see in the app is actually not connecting to the magazine and other HIP elements (hint). When they develop the iPad optimized version (another hint) I hope there is full integration with social media, the website, and all the great elements HIP Hotels offers there. Oh, and especially the service HIP calls Vhip, or Virgin Holidays via HIP.

With that service you get the best of all travel and tourism worlds including your own travel guru to advise. I am seeing this with a direct connect on the app, not only to hotels and services, but to a traveler’s own “guru” on call, so to speak. (still more hints, you owe me for this one Hip).

Here’s my final thought on HIP Hotels’ little discover app. So you are booked at San Domenico Palace on Sicily. Walking along in a pristine garden, once the center of an eternal monastery, you wonder; “Is there a tour of the ancient Greek and Roman sites nearby?” The mashup above shows the future of mobile travel devices, and HIP Hotels has a leg up on this in my view. (hints galore)

Great App – HIP Hotels could easily have gotten all five stars with the suggested utility. Argo Travel highly recommends this app not only because of its utility and sex appeal, but because of the hotels it ultimately links to. Check it out via iTunes or Nokia.