Are App Update Blurbs For Travel Apps Accurate Enough?
Skift Take
If you are super-interested in what new features might be incorporated into a travel app update, don't trust the description. Instead, download the app and try it because there may be some sleeper features and surprises in there that perhaps the company didn't want to publicize yet.
When it comes to the way travel companies describe "what's new" in their app updates in iTunes and Google Play there is often much more than meets the eye.
While most companies say they try to be as transparent as they can be with their customers about updates to mobile apps, sometimes companies sneak in important features for testing, feedback or public relations purposes, or perhaps the updates only affect a portion of users and don't get mentioned.
Then again, it is impossible to fit in every tweak into the few paragraphs of space allotted for "what's new" information in Google Play and iTunes.
Conrad Hotels & Resorts
Take Hilton Worldwide's Conrad Hotels & Resorts brand, which in November 2012 launched a mobile hotel app, Conrad Concierge, in iTunes and Google Play.
The feature, which spokesperson John Walls describes as the first "pre-check-in" feature in the luxury segment, enables guests to enter their estimated time of arrival any time after completing the booking, and was updated several times over the course of the year, but Conrad Hotels didn't start publicizing Conrad Concierge until almost a year later in October 2013.
"Versions of pre check-in were initially introduced in a previous app update to users only in the Americas, and after receiving overwhelmingly positive comments from both guest and hotels we then launched the feature across the entire portfolio of 23 hotels and resorts worldwide," Walls says. "The pre check-in functionality is now one of the most frequently used feat
