Hilton Hotels is launching a mobile web application that will offer customers full booking capabilities, initially in the UK and Germany with a view to a global roll-out.

The solution, created by Mobile Travel Technologies, enables travellers to search and select a hotel, view hotel information and images, plus make and change bookings. It will be launched this Friday and also includes a dedicated version for the iPhone.

“By launching local mobile services for Hilton customers in the UK and Germany, we not only improve customer service, but create a new distribution channel for our products,” said David Boni, Hilton Hotels.

The iPhone Downloadable and Web App versions of the site maximise the use of iPhone multi-touch technology. For Hilton HHonors members, they can follow a simple log-in to view a points summary and have the added benefit of quick booking, with certain fields pre-populated.

Hilton Mobile (mobile.hilton.co.uk and mobile.hilton.de) use MTT’s mobile hotel platform, m2bed, to automatically directing customers to a view of the site optimised for their particular device. A free-text search allows travellers to quickly locate a particular hotel, find directions or check hotel facilities, and the site has ‘click to call’ capabilities throughout for those users who want to speak to the Hilton call centre.

With network data speeds increasing and smartphones taking a large chunk of the new mobile device sales (Apple’s iPhone, RIM Blackberry), mobile search is rising exponentially, particularly in travel, as typified by city.mobi – the world leader in mobile city guides for destinations such as london.mobi, dubai.mobi, tokyo.mobi, nyc.mobi, berlin.mobi, rio.mobi, sanfrancisco.mobi to name a few.

city.mobi allows travellers to find out everything they need to know about a destination using just their mobile.

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