Lodging.mobi - Setting a new global standard

[Scandiman]

I've frequently discussed here and elsewhere that in order for .mobi to excel then its websites must set the highest standard, and in that spirit I'm excited to announce the launch of Lodging.mobi, the world's first hotel availability search and reservation website for mobile web.

This project launch is the culmination of an idea I began pursuing over two years ago, with almost a year of intense development spearheaded by my good friend and business partner, arguably one of the best and brightest mobile developers today, our very own Pilot.

Lodging.mobi has access to over 75,000 hotels in cities across the globe. Simply enter the destination city along with your basic travel details and our system will find for you those hotels with availability in that city and then you can reserve the room of your liking using your credit card. Such a simple concept that we take for granted on our PC's that has been sorely missing for mobile web users...until now.

When I say this is for mobile users I mean it. A Ready.mobi score of at least 4 is a given, but it doesn't end there. If you are visiting via your PC or a newer smart phone you are unaware that this site uses dotMobi's Device Atlas technology to deliver content customized for 6 different display sizes starting at the very tiny width of 128 pixels and moving up from there. Also, Lodging.mobi is built to be completely functional without the use of client side scripting like Javascript, enabling compatibility with as wide a spectrum of mobile devices as possible. Basically, as long as your phone is able to make a secure connection via SSL, you can use this website to it's fullest.

This launch is just the beginning, we've got a lot of improvements coming that we will certainly announce as they are released. Things like star ratings and reviews and so much more. But rather than wait until everything was ready, we felt it would be useful for the mobile web users of the world to have access to this game changing tool today.

We invite you to take a look, try it out and we welcome any feedback, comments and/or suggestions you may have. Today begins a new chapter in the world of online travel and for .mobi as well. The world's first mobile website for hotel availability search and reservations is a .mobi. Welcome to Lodging.mobi.

[Andres Kello]

Stunning! Very thorough, with breadth and depth of results, clean, simple, and easy-to-use design and UI, and the perfect domain. Looks gorgeous on the iPhone too!

A great addition to the .mobi ecosystem and a site that will surely prove lucrative to both you and Michael.

Congrats to both of you on a job very well down. I'm going to be exploring the site more thoroughly this week.

This is best-in-class material right here, folks. Needless to say, Rep+

[acc]

Congrats Scandi and Pilot - Great example of the direction to take with clean, useful .mobi sites

In a quick try from my desktop (the largest of the 6 different screen sizes I take it) I entered a few city names and I like how it brings up a full list of the same city name in different states to choose from. I also tried a city, st name I knew would not work and it came up with the appropriate message.

The easy-to-read room rate results are nice. IMO this format is much easier to deal with on the road than the bloated PC sites out there.

One thing I expected and missed immediately was a map of the hotel location. I think that would be nice to have it come up or a link to appear when comparing hotels.

Excellent first release. I'm sure that you guys will have a winner here.

[hawkeye]

Just to make sure I'm getting things right, is this a file that we're supposed to open and download to view the site, or should it be a direct link to a live site? I'm getting the 'download this file' popup.

[Scandiman]

Just to make sure I'm getting things right, is this a file that we're supposed to open and download to view the site, or should it be a direct link to a live site? I'm getting the 'download this file' popup.

Thanks for the heads up Hawkeye, looks like our host has made a change unknown to us that is causing the Microsoft aspx pages to be considered a download in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Until we get that resolved with the host you can use firefox just fine or of course try it out on your mobile phone.

[Pred]

awesome job scandi
love it
great domain, great site, great logo, great idea

had a little play and very user friendly

im viewing on firefox, i'll ley you know when viewing in safari lol

but when i check the images link for a hotel it serves up loads of images.
will it be served diff. on a mobile?
as it only gets 2/5 on ready for an example link
http://ready.mobi/results.jsp?uri=ht...D&locale=en_EN

******

[Scandiman]

Stunning! Very thorough, with breadth and depth of results, clean, simple, and easy-to-use design and UI, and the perfect domain. Looks gorgeous on the iPhone too!

A great addition to the .mobi ecosystem and a site that will surely prove lucrative to both you and Michael.

Congrats to both of you on a job very well down. I'm going to be exploring the site more thoroughly this week.

This is best-in-class material right here, folks. Needless to say, Rep+

Thanks for the glowing remarks Andres and everyone else, and I look forward to any future feedback, especially being the globe trotter that you are. We want to be the best mobile hotel site running today and into the future.

One thing I expected and missed immediately was a map of the hotel location. I think that would be nice to have it come up or a link to appear when comparing hotels.

Yes, maps are definitely on the way among our other upgrades. Very glad to know our plans includes features that people already want.

but when i check the images link for a hotel it serves up loads of images.
will it be served diff. on a mobile?
as it only gets 2/5 on ready for an example link
http://ready.mobi/results.jsp?uri=ht...D&locale=en_EN

Thanks for checking the ready score on that page, TBH I'm not sure we had checked it. Some hotels offer no images while some have dozens, we'll have to sort out some pagination for that down the road. I doubt we'll ever get a 5/5 on that page since it is pretty data intensive with photos but we should be doing better than 2/5 on that page I agree, and we will... just not sure when yet since we've got a lot on our plate.

******

Thanks but please be sure to fire your gun again in Pilot's direction once I can get him to come here and take a bow for all his amazing work on this project. It wouldn't be what it is today without him.

[Scandiman]

Just to make sure I'm getting things right, is this a file that we're supposed to open and download to view the site, or should it be a direct link to a live site? I'm getting the 'download this file' popup.

We believe this issue is resolved now, please give it another try as before.

[MyWebSearches]

Great site!!!

It's definately on the best I seen in a while. Good luck with it.

[pcaero]

One word



WOW !

[Gerry]

two words

WOW WEE!

[gogo]

Great site, congrats to both of you.

Some hotels offer no images while some have dozens, we'll have to sort out some pagination for that down the road. I doubt we'll ever get a 5/5 on that page since it is pretty data intensive with photos but we should be doing better than 2/5 on that page I agree, and we will... just not sure when yet since we've got a lot on our plate.
.

you could by default just display one image and give users the option to see more, possibly even show them the file size, and title or contents of the alt tag, and let them just click on links to see individual images if they want to.

the concern would be imo not so much the ready score as what happens to the user experience if they can't load a page - will they be put off by that?

[hawkeye]

Very nice Scandi. Love the way it works, and taking orders..., will be so key!! Kudos to you for this one, and double kudos for pilot!

[blitzpotz]

Great work. I checked my hometown and there is nothing that I am missing. And the site is pretty fast, too.

One thing are IDNs. The search doesn´t recognize München, but only Muenchen. No big problem, though most German speaking clients will prefer the ü against the ue. I assume the IDN recognition is a future development step.

[Scandiman]

Thanks again everyone for your comments and input.

you could by default just display one image and give users the option to see more, possibly even show them the file size, and title or contents of the alt tag, and let them just click on links to see individual images if they want to.

the concern would be imo not so much the ready score as what happens to the user experience if they can't load a page - will they be put off by that?

Yes, there are different ways to approach this issue. I agree that failed page loads could be an issue, but forcing all users to click for each image could be annoying as well. Device Atlas may provide a way to differentiate depending on device, will need to investigate more in the future.

One thing are IDNs. The search doesn´t recognize München, but only Muenchen. No big problem, though most German speaking clients will prefer the ü against the ue. I assume the IDN recognition is a future development step.

You bring up a very valid issue of servicing multiple languages, something we haven't overlooked as far as future issues. Currently the database only uses the English spelling of cities but we do want to expand this. One concern we have is that if we provide usage in other languages we want to make sure all the content is available in that language and unfortunately some of our content comes from an outside source, and performing accurate translations for over 75,000 records is not a minor task. How would you feel if the site primarily remained in English for now but we found a way to recognize city names in different languages? Would that be confusing or helpful?

[coast]

Congratulations! You and Pilot have raised the bar significantly on how .mobi sites will be judged from here on out.

Can the site process actual orders now?

[Scandiman]

Can the site process actual orders now?

Yes indeed!

[blitzpotz]

How would you feel if the site primarily remained in English for now but we found a way to recognize city names in different languages? Would that be confusing or helpful?

From the German point of view English language in the site won´t be a deal breaker. However, city names in several translations can only be helpful to improve results. Italian visitors would look for Monaco di Baviera (Munich), a German type in Peking (Beijing), think about Prague/Prag/Praha/Praga etc.

[Scandiman]

From the German point of view English language in the site won´t be a deal breaker. However, city names in several translations can only be helpful to improve results. Italian visitors would look for Monaco di Baviera (Munich), a German type in Peking (Beijing), think about Prague/Prag/Praha/Praga etc.

All good points, thanks for the input.

[newdomainer]

I've frequently discussed here and elsewhere that in order for .mobi to excel then its websites must set the highest standard, and in that spirit I'm excited to announce the launch of Lodging.mobi, the world's first hotel availability search and reservation website for mobile web.

This project launch is the culmination of an idea I began pursuing over two years ago, with almost a year of intense development spearheaded by my good friend and business partner, arguably one of the best and brightest mobile developers today, our very own Pilot.

Lodging.mobi has access to over 75,000 hotels in cities across the globe. Simply enter the destination city along with your basic travel details and our system will find for you those hotels with availability in that city and then you can reserve the room of your liking using your credit card. Such a simple concept that we take for granted on our PC's that has been sorely missing for mobile web users...until now.

When I say this is for mobile users I mean it. A Ready.mobi score of at least 4 is a given, but it doesn't end there. If you are visiting via your PC or a newer smart phone you are unaware that this site uses dotMobi's Device Atlas technology to deliver content customized for 6 different display sizes starting at the very tiny width of 128 pixels and moving up from there. Also, Lodging.mobi is built to be completely functional without the use of client side scripting like Javascript, enabling compatibility with as wide a spectrum of mobile devices as possible. Basically, as long as your phone is able to make a secure connection via SSL, you can use this website to it's fullest.

This launch is just the beginning, we've got a lot of improvements coming that we will certainly announce as they are released. Things like star ratings and reviews and so much more. But rather than wait until everything was ready, we felt it would be useful for the mobile web users of the world to have access to this game changing tool today.

We invite you to take a look, try it out and we welcome any feedback, comments and/or suggestions you may have. Today begins a new chapter in the world of online travel and for .mobi as well. The world's first mobile website for hotel availability search and reservations is a .mobi. Welcome to Lodging.mobi.

Awesome site... it does everything it should and without any headaches; this is what the mobile web is all about.... congrats to Scandi and Pilot for putting this one together. Good luck with it.... hopefully one of the industries 'key players' will see it, like it... want to buy it!

[Pred]

hopefully one of the industries 'key players' will see it, like it... want to buy it!

i've seen it, just can't afford it right now

[Tim]

Beautiful site! I am getting duplicate results for each hotel atm

Super 8 Ocala
View available rooms
View hotel info
Starting at -          61.00 USD         
 
Super 8 Ocala
View available rooms
View hotel info
Starting at -          61.00 USD

really sweet site, Scandi and Pilot

[Scandiman]

I am getting duplicate results for each hotel atm

Super 8 Ocala
View available rooms
View hotel info
Starting at -          61.00 USD         
 
Super 8 Ocala
View available rooms
View hotel info
Starting at -          61.00 USD

Thanks for the feedback Tim, can you tell us what computer/browser combination you're using? Does it always happen for you?

[gogo]

The logo at the top doesn't seem to be consistently clickable - on some pages when you click on it nothing happens and your only way to exit the page is the back button.

Also for a large city like London it really would help if the initial results showed the postcode, if you can extract that separately from the data - it's there when you go to the full individual entry for a hotel. The postcode gives you some idea where the hotel is within a large city.

Also do you cache the results? It seems if you reorder them that is instant, but if you repeat the original search it is just as slow as the first time. In fact I think the message saying it takes time needs to be more prominent.

[Scandiman]

Awesome site... it does everything it should and without any headaches; this is what the mobile web is all about....

That was the goal glad to hear overall feedback indicating we pulled it off. The challenge is adding more useful features without sacrificing usability.

.... hopefully one of the industries 'key players' will see it, like it... want to buy it!

I guess you never know what can happen in that regards but our focus is on building the business. But like I said, you never know..

[Scandiman]

The logo at the top doesn't seem to be consistently clickable - on some pages when you click on it nothing happens and your only way to exit the page is the back button.

Ah, thanks for catching that, funny how something simple like that can sneak by.

Also for a large city like London it really would help if the initial results showed the postcode, if you can extract that separately from the data - it's there when you go to the full individual entry for a hotel. The postcode gives you some idea where the hotel is within a large city.

We've got some things already in the works to help narrow results in major cities, postal code is among them.

Also do you cache the results? It seems if you reorder them that is instant, but if you repeat the original search it is just as slow as the first time. In fact I think the message saying it takes time needs to be more prominent.

We need to limit our use of caching since we're dealing with real time room inventory. It's a balance between the need for speed and the need to provide actual availability, with accurate data being the greater priority. I can see what you mean about the waiting message, will make some adjustments to that soon.


Thanks everyone for the detailed critiques!!!

[youmo]

Good job guys!
Not only nicely put together but very useful. Definitely raising the bar.

Its so great that an individual or partnership can get themselves a high quality generic domain and build a site/business that can compete head-to-head with other large and well established commercial sites. With the benefit of massively lower overheads it makes it realistic that your site can be very profitable.

A bit more precision on the locations would be good, postcodes or districts. And maybe differentiate hotels that are near airports. Many traveller, me included, find themselves in transit in random cities and in need of a nearby hotelfor the night.

Looking forward to watching this site grow.

[Gerry]

Yup, a very well constructed site.

It delivers content immediately when viewing.

This is what people want.

Believe it or not, people want those "watered down" sites that are not three-forths of the monitor filled up with ads.

[tophatter]

Scandi & Pilot.. I absolutly LOVE IT !!! Funny thing is I just booked a couple of rooms earlier today because I'll be going to a play & don't want to drive home. I just went on your site & have to say everything I saw on the Hotel site & then booked is on Lodging.mobi ,in the terms of rates etc.

Best of Luck & I will be using your site as I freaquently book hotels.

Great Job Guys !!

[GetSmart]

A beautiful site, Paul/Pilot! Well done!