Thanks to World Traveler's Hotelzon plug-in, the days of frantically and blindly calling hotels for an available room are over. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
The Hotelzon plug-in promises to be an exciting new addition to the World Traveler open platform. Why? Simply because this is an app that is going to simplify travel.
Personally speaking, it’s difficult to imagine now just how much stress I have experienced over the years while trying to find a place to stay at the last minute. In my youth I was a much more spontaneous traveler, and sometimes I would just pick up and go with nothing but a ticket, a toothbrush and a change of clothes. The one cloud in these “accidental trips” was finding a place to stay once I actually got where I was going. I would make phone call after phone call, frantically trying any and every advertised number. Hotels. Hostels. Private room. You name it. Sometimes it got pretty late before I found an available room, and looking back, I count myself lucky. Some colleagues have vivid memories of failing to find a place to stay and sleeping awkwardly on the legions of hard plastic chairs bolted to the floor that seem de rigueur for airport terminals—chairs which are highly recommended as a way to discover pain in parts of your body you never knew existed.
Times have changed. I like to book in advance—in fact, I actually like to plan my trips. But the specter of an overbooked hotel and late night scrambling to find somewhere to stay is still with me. That’s why I’m so excited by this new plug-in. I miss the spontaneity of my youth, but I don’t miss late-night speed dialing to find somewhere to stay. Now with the Hotelzon plug-in for world Traveler, I can have that spontaneity back whenever I want. What’s more, if something should go wrong with my plans I have instant access to alternative accommodation.
It’s actually easier to search for accommodation using the plug-in than it is to search the Internet using my computer. I searched for accommodation in Warsaw tonight and found two pages of available rooms in less time than it took you to reach the end of this sentence.
It couldn’t have come at a better time. Like I said, times have changed. These days I tend to travel on business slightly more than I travel for pleasure. Which means I cannot have anything upset my itinerary—and just having Hotelzon on my phone is a huge relief.
By Bulent Akman
