NEW YORK — While new technology and mobile applications have made old-fashioned road trips easier, the thrill of spontaneity and surprise still remains. If travelers are flexible, apps can offer ease with last-minute deals, especially good for day trips and overnight stays.
Need a hotel room immediately? There’s an app for that. Or for a quick turnaround — when you just need a space to rest for a few hours — there’s an app for that too.
Here are three handy mobile device apps that I often use on weekend trips.
• HOTELTONIGHT: HotelTonight offers discounted rooms at more than 10,000 hotels in nearly 400 destination cities including Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston to international hotspots like London, Paris and Barcelona. Reservations are for the night of the day you select the discounted rate and can be booked up to five nights.
The app recently launched Express Check-in, which allows guests using iPhones to immediately pick up their keys at the front desk at select hotels. It will roll out to Android users this month.
Over a recent holiday weekend in New York — when tourists take over — HotelTonight still offered substantial deals, especially for the early worm checking as new postings go live at 9 a.m. Rooms can be booked until 2 a.m.
• BREATHER: If you’ve checked out of the hotel room already and don’t depart until later in the day, or take a day trip and have some leisure down time, there may be a private space for relief in your city — or coming soon.
The Breather app launched in New York City this year lets you check-in to a commercial space complete with a table and couch to “meet, work or rest” for 30 minutes to several hours at a time. Some rooms are available as early as 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for $25 an hour, and may accommodate up to 10 people. Reservations can be made via the app on iPhone and Android devices, or online.
Co-founder and CEO Julien Smith said Breather is a welcome alternative to loud, bustling coffee chains where travelers often fight for space and outlets.
“You’re just constantly wandering around in cities that you don’t know very well and you feel like you have no place to go,” said Smith, who came up with the concept after frequently traveling for business and speaking engagements. “There’s this huge scarcity of space going on in any major city of the world … so, in a lot of places, people are just feeling that pain and when you don’t have a lot of time, you don’t mind paying for valuable time, or time that has what you want.”
• TKTS: New York is best known for big lights and live shows on Broadway, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay hundreds for top-notch seats. The Theatre Development Fund has TKTS Discount Booths with locations in Times Square, South Street Seaport and downtown Brooklyn that sell Broadway and off-Broadway show tickets for 20 to 50 percent off.
Though discounted tickets must be purchased in person, a TKTS app lets customers see availability in real time for evening shows that day and matinees (South Street and Brooklyn sites only), before reaching the cashier window or even getting in line.
