March 14, 2011 - Smartstay, the leading mobile app for iPhone and Android^TM designed exclusively for the hospitality industry, has been revamped to include more advanced features that give hotels greater command over the content, look and feel of their mobile app. Working with development partner DeCare Systems Ireland, Ltd., O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing has redesigned their successful Smartstay mobile platform in direct response to customer feedback. Among the benefits of these exciting new upgrades is the possibility for hotels worldwide to reach more guests than ever before by utilizing Smartstay’s new multilingual functionality. By offering an app that can switch between multiple languages, guests of your hotel from any country can reap the rewards of your hotel’s mobile app, even if English is not their primary language.
 
In all, Smartstay 2 includes the following new features:

• Multilingual functionality to easily connect with guests across the globe

• Google Analytics tracking to see who is using your app, and how

• Custom-designed landing pages to showcase your hotel’s distinct brand

• Custom navigation tabs for complete control of your app content

• RSS feeds for real-time weather forecasts, local news and more

Smartstay 2 can enhance your hotel’s mobile marketing strategy by providing a more flexible framework for content creation and expanding your hotel’s reach into the global marketplace. To see how this is possible, let’s explore these new features in greater detail.
 
A Mobile App That Reaches Beyond Borders
The Smartstay app has already been adopted by hotels in 9 countries across 4 continents, including Japan, The Philippines, Israel, Australia, Ireland, England, Denmark, Canada and the United States. These hotels can now employ the multilingual feature to provide their guests mobile content in their native language, as well as offer language options for international guests. Smartstay 2’s new multilingual functionality will be attractive to foreign travelers, and they will most likely share the app with their friends and families in their own country.
 
Using the Smartstay 2 mobile platform, hotels can enter their hotel information, special offers, image captions, and news feed content in multiple languages. Once a guest downloads the hotel app, he or she can choose to view the content in any of the languages provided by the hotel. Users can choose their preferred language by accessing the language tab, as shown below:

Use Mobile Analytics to Track Guest Behavior
With Google Analytics tracking built into your hotel app, hotels can now monitor user behavior, view app usage statistics and access reports. By reviewing this data, you can easily learn things like how many people downloaded your app during a particular period, or how many people used the app to make a hotel reservation.

This valuable information will help you to uncover opportunities for improving your mobile marketing strategy that can potentially lead to increased ROI for your hotel, as well as provide added benefits for your guests.
 
Get Creative With An Inspired Welcome Page
Custom-designed landing pages allow hotels to distinctly showcase their brand or property by incorporating custom graphics into a new app welcome page that will appear when the app is launched. This page can be regularly updated to highlight seasonal promotions or upcoming special events. Utilize this fun new feature to get creative with your marketing and personalize your app to meet your changing needs. 
 
A sample welcome screen is shown below:
Customize Your App With Versatile Tabs
The addition of custom navigation tabs allows hotels to add multiple tabs and corresponding pages to their app. With this new feature, hotels can add and modify custom app content, such as wedding, restaurant, or spa information. Meeting planners could even customize the app to coincide with a specific meeting or event by adding an agenda page, floor plans or guest speaker bios.
Hotels can also re-name existing tabs for further customization.
 
The image below shows how the addition of a custom “Packages” tab will alter the navigation bar:
Add RSS Feeds For Real-Time News
With Smartstay 2, RSS feeds can now be included in the app’s News section. With this enhancement, hotels can provide real-time weather, news and other informational updates by choosing to incorporate RSS feeds that are relevant to the hotel and the local area. These feeds can supplement the hotel’s Twitter feed and other news updates that also appear in the News section.
 
Fantastic Features At A Flexible Price
These exciting features unique to the Smartstay 2 hotel app are available as a complete package for a competitive price. Or, hotels can choose to purchase individual features separately. Hotels that are currently using the Smartstay mobile platform can also opt to upgrade their app with the new features. Whichever option you choose, your hotel is sure to see impressive results from incorporating the brand new Smartstay 2 app into your mobile marketing strategy.
 
To learn more about Smartstay 2 or for pricing information, please call 888-965-5966, visit www.smartstayapp.com, or e-mail [email protected]. You can also complete this form and we will send you more information.

About Smartstay:
Smartstay is the result of combined efforts between O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing, LLC, and DeCare Systems Ireland, Ltd. An award-winning marketing firm that focuses exclusively on the Hospitality Industry, O’Rourke recognized the hotel industry’s need for a sophisticated mobile platform that would allow hotels to effectively communicate with their guests before, during and after their stay. O’Rourke found a proven and forward-thinking partner with DeCare Systems Ireland, Ltd, and together they combined the best marketing and hospitality knowledge with the best technological expertise to deliver Smartstay, a high-quality, robust, unique mobile solution for hotels. Smartstay Website: http://www.smartstayapp.com/

About O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing:
Founded in 2001, O’Rourke is an award-winning Hospitality Marketing firm headquartered in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Serving national and international clients, O’Rourke provides hotels with a complete range of services including hotel website design and development, Internet marketing, print design, and hotel mobile apps for iPhone & Android. O’Rourke services world class brands including Marriott International, Renaissance Hotels, and Winegardner & Hammons, Inc. O’Rourke Hospitality Website: http://www.orourkehospitality.com