AFTER witnessing an almost 1,000-per-cent increase in mobile bookings, IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) recently announced the global launch of its Priority Club Rewards app for Windows Phone. The new app provides customers with the functionality to find and book hotel rooms, check rates and view or cancel reservations for all seven of IHG’s brands and the company is the first major hotel supplier to offer an app for Windows Phone. The new solution follows the highly successful release of the iPhone booking apps for each of IHG’s seven brands, announced in June 2011; the InterContinental Concierge Insider Guides app for iPad introduced in December 2010; the Priority Club Rewards app for Android launched in July 2010 and the Priority Club Rewards app for iPhone which became available in April 2010. 'Creating a booking app for Windows Phone is an essential part of our mobile strategy as we continue to develop our mobile booking options for our 58 million Priority Club members,' said Matt Luscombe, IHG’s senior vice president, sales and marketing, EMEA. Most IHG guests – 65 per cent – who book through a mobile device are staying at IHG hotels within one day. To cater to this guest, the Windows Phone booking app includes location-aware capabilities to assist guests in booking hotels close to their location and navigating to the property. The app also contains the following booking and reservation management features: • Find and book hotel; • View photos and amenities for each hotel; • Click-to-call front desk for each hotel; • Use Priority Club Rewards account informa- tion to facilitate bookings; • View Priority Club Rewards member details (number, level, points balance); • Manage account profile; • View and cancel upcoming reservations; • Redeem points for Priority Club Reward Nights; • Use corporate IDs to get corporate rates; • Quick enrollment into Priority Club Rewards and • View special offers IHG continues to be focused on growing its mobile strategy, as the company has seen nearly a 1,000-per-cent increase in room night bookings from mobile devices and had surpassed the 2010 total number of room night bookings from mobile devices in only the first five months of 2011.