inProximity announced today its launch of a new web-based proximity search engine for hotels, bed and breakfast and lodges covering more than 100,000 properties in the U.S. The system is designed to provide the guests and residents of these properties— free of charge — information about what is in proximity to that hotel faster and more accurately than all other mobile solutions without installing an app.
Guests with near field communications (NFC) enabled smartphones can touch it to a display at the front desk, in the elevators or on posters hanging in the lobby. Within a few seconds the phone will display a list of nearly every restaurant, shopping mall, convenience store, grocery store, things to do, transportation, gas stations, local discounts and more neatly divided into categories, with the nearest being displayed first.
Guests who do not have a NFC enabled smartphone can simply text a keyword to a number found at each location. Guests can also visit our desktop website to request a link almost instantly to one of more than 100,000 locations.
inProximity has also partnered with online travel agencies and hotel booking companies, as well, providing consumers who book reservations through one of these partners to receive the keyword and number to text directly in in their confirmation email.
According to Michael Thompson, President and CEO of inProximity, “Nearly everyone can relate to staying at a hotel and not knowing where to go in the area to eat or do other things. Current alternatives are to ask the front desk attendant for help or use an online search engine which often returns restaurants and other places that are not near by. Many times, places just don’t show up in the results. It’s not the fault of the online search engines because they were designed for wide area searches. inProximity was specifically designed for searching within the proximity of the hotel, apartment community or RV park & campground. We provide the best and closest results, and we do it without an app. Many smartphone owners are suffering from app fatigue and they do not want to install another app. And this is why our solution does not require an app although it looks and performs like an app. We do however have a app that will be available to those that insist upon having an app installed or deployed”.
Hotels can greatly benefit from inProximity because they have what is called a Guest Satisfaction Score (GSS). Being able to provide guests with access to local information almost instantly goes a long ways in the minds of guests. Guests can also complete surveys near the time of checkout on their smartphones via SMS. Local businesses especially restaurants can provide money saving mobile coupons to guests via inProximity.
“Sure everyone has a GPS or can download another app that they may rarely use, but once you see how easy it is to use inProximity and the way the data is arranged you will agree that it’s simple and easy to use. There’s no need to over build or over design a solution making it unusable. Sometimes simplicity is elegance. Everyone’s looking for ways to interact with guests using smartphone technology without the expense of developing a in house solution and maintaining staff to support it. This is what inProximity does. Hotel managers can go to our website and search for their property to see how it works” Thompson added.
