Platform helps hotels build custom mobile apps

We’ve seen several efforts already to help equip businesses with branded mobile apps — Blue Shoe’s service for restaurants is one example — and recently we came across something similar for hotels. Targeting the hospitality industry, SocialStay is a platform for building, managing and growing a custom mobile environment. Using a turnkey service, California-based SocialStay lets hotels create their own cutting-edge, branded mobile apps in minutes without having to do any programming. Apps created with the platform are fully customizable, and they’re also automatically integrated with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Linked-In for ongoing customer engagement. Push messaging can be used by hotels to notify guests of discounts or other related special offers in real time, for example, while SocialStay’s local features help make guests feel at home during their stay. Features including a “wall” and a “Who’s Here?” section, on the other hand, help guests connect with each other. Robust statistics and reporting help hotels understand their guests’ evolving interests, while SocialStay’s ongoing addition of new features and innovations aims to help apps grow with their users. Perhaps most of all, SocialStay stresses branding and elegance. A video on YouTube explains the premise in more detail. So that’s restaurants, hotels and bands covered. Who will make it easy for brands to create mobile apps in other industries and niches? (Related: Simple web page creator highlights businesses’ social networks — App lets consumers open and pay a bar tab by phone.) Spotted by: Annie Dunham