TRAVELCLICK®, the leader in hotel ecommerce, announced today that it has teamed with Mobiata, the developer of today’s best-selling mobile travel applications, to launch a new free mobile application called StayHIP™. The partnership combines the best in mobile app design from Mobiata with hotel search expertise and award-winning booking technology from TRAVELCLICK to create an app designed exclusively for a niche community of travelers. The first bookable app for boutique hotels, StayHIP caters to travelers who want to search for and book a more stylish or chic hotel stay experience. It features hundreds of hotels across more than 170 cities in 45 countries worldwide and is available for free download to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as Google’s Android.

With a sleek, engaging, ultra-friendly interface, StayHIP offers mobile guests multiple ways to search for the coolest, chicest, most unique hotels in the world, including search by city name, price, or keyword (for example, “contemporary, luxurious, urban”). And for exceptional convenience, the “Hotels Near Me” feature on StayHIP instantly finds the nearest boutique hotels using guests’ GPS location. 

Each hotel listing features property details, including a description, photo gallery with images viewable at full screen with one touch, as well as streaming video. StayHIP users can also choose to view rates, room types, and availability – all accessed in real-time directly in the application.  When a guest decides to book a stay, the booking is completed 100 percent within the application. Email confirmations are sent based on the user’s personal contact information. Guests have the option to quickly share their booking information with friends on Facebook and Twitter. For future reservations, user information is stored on the user’s device for a faster, more efficient booking process.

“StayHIP is the future of mobile travel applications,” said Robert Post, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at TRAVELCLICK. “We expect the emergence of more and more targeted mobile apps like StayHIP – enabling consumers to find and book the perfect stay, and at the same time, hotels can stand out from the crowd while engaging directly with their target guests in a highly personal way. All with a secure, time-saving booking experience from the consumers’ preferred device.” 

“All of us at Mobiata are thrilled to add StayHIP to our suite of elegantly designed, native mobile apps for travelers,” said Ben Kazez, president and founder of Mobiata. “Our users will appreciate the artful combination of TRAVELCLICK’s expertise in hotel booking with Mobiata’s know-how in mobile commerce transactions and user experience—creating the best possible application for boutique hotel seekers.”

StayHIP works with iHotelier®, the Central Reservation System platform from TRAVELCLICK, providing a complete reservations solution for boutique hotels targeting guests in the mobile space. Hotels stand out among hundreds of options while developing a direct relationship with targeted guests—all without using a third-party travel application.

To access the app, go to www.mobiata.com/stayhip or download it directly from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Android marketplace.  Consumers can also stay connected with the StayHIP hotel community of hotels and travelers on Twitter or Facebook.

StayHIP is part of TRAVELCLICK’s holistic mobile solution, which also includes mobile websites, mobile booking engines, and mobile advertising—all designed to help hotels reach the rapidly expanding mobile market. Today, nearly two-fifths of smart phone owners are researching leisure travel on their mobile devices, according to web analytics company Compete, Inc., while more than one-fourth have used their phone to book a hotel room. Mobile booking revenue for hotels is expected to surge to $76 million in 2010.