The company has also rolled out a mobile-optimized site. The applications are available for free download in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market.

“In the last few years, there was a lot of buzz around mobile and every year was the year of mobile,” said Christelle Chan, director of marketing at Hotels.com.

“With the growing penetration of smartphones, 2011 is the year of mobile – not only from a usage perspective – but also from a mobile commerce perspective,” she said. “The objective of our strategy has always been the same – to provide our customers with the best hotel shopping experience.

“It was then only natural that we launch our mobile-optimized site as well as our iPhone and Android apps to accompany our customers at all times, wherever they are, and provide them with the best service when they need it.

We see our mobile platform as an extension of our product which fits our customers’ pockets.”

Hotels.com provides lodging worldwide, offering more than 135,000 properties in over 60 countries from national chain hotels and all-inclusive resorts to local favorites and bed and breakfasts.

Find me
Customers can search from more than 20,000 last-minute deals via the app.

Additionally, the app is available in more than 30 languages and lets consumers sort and filter hotels, browse over two million user reviews and find any last-minute deals close to their locations.

Consumers can book rooms via the app

“At Hotels.com, we see mobile as a complementary channel to the Web,” Ms. Chan said. “Mobile is fully integrated in our marketing mix – this means that we are deploying full marketing campaigns using all the traditional digital and offline marketing channels and adding mobile as a third dimension.

“We launched our global press release yesterday and our mobile display, CRM, search channels are also launching this week,” she said. “Again all the remaining channels are also integrating within their media plan a mobile component.”

Book me
Consumers can book as a guest booker or create an account via the app.

The “sign in once” feature remembers the email and password.

“Mobile is a very strategic channel for Hotels.com and we have a full roadmap moving forward,” Ms. Chan said.