onefinestay (www.onefinestay.com), the world’s first unhotel, which lets guests live like a local by staying in a distinctive home while the owner is out of town, today launched a new version of its iPhone app. The only service of its kind, the onefinestay guest iPhone app is designed to enhance the experience of onefinestay guests who wish to immerse themselves in the local neighbourhood. Stocked with personal recommendations from the homes’ owners and featuring new tailored tips along with a new design, the app provides a unique way to explore cities and provides access to valuable hotel-style service for guests during their stay.

onefinestay is a new category of accommodation that redefines city travel, pairing distinctive homes in London and New York with all the comforts and conveniences of a hotel including 5* linens, fluffy towels, and toiletries. Every guest is also lent an iPhone for the duration of their stay, giving them exclusive access to the onefinestay app along with free local calls and data.

With recommendations sourced from over 1,000 resident Londoners and New Yorkers who have joined onefinestay to list their homes, it is an unprecedented collection of crowd-sourced local city knowledge, the likes of which doesn’t exist anywhere else. onefinestay’s app comprises over 19,000 local reviews, which is more than the Zagat Restaurant guides for London and New York, Lonely Planet London, and Lonely Planet New York put together, three times over.

A new feature of the app is the ability to view recommendations not only from the owner of the home where you’re staying, but also from dozens of other onefinestay members in the vicinity. Along with access to this increased content, every recommendation is now mapped and the redesign facilitates navigation of hundreds of tips.

An additional new feature of the app is the tailored tips which are generated for each guest. These encourage guests to explore the neighbourhood fully, prompting them with suggestions tailored to the time of day and the group they’re travelling with.

“Helping people enjoy a real local experience of city life is at the heart of our service,” says CEO and co-founder Greg Marsh. “The idea for onefinestay originally came to me after a trip to Pisa. A tip from a friend who had grown up there transformed my visit from a generic touristic one, into something unique, authentic and memorable. Our mission as a company is to help people live that type of local experience every time they travel.”

The app also helps guests access onefinestay’s own suite of services, along with those of selected third parties including a maid service, airport transfers, and taxi reservations. And onefinestay is always on call 24/7 throughout every guest stay.