I’ve stayed at The Maslow many a nights before, in fact the last time I was there was a mere week ago. And ahead of Thursday’s Official App launch, I had to take advantage and book a room using the iOS version of the app.
The Maslow App
Platform : iOS, Android and Blackberry
Price : Free
Where : App Store, Google Play, Blackberry App World
The Maslow has been rather quick (locally) to catch on to the potential power of apps for people wanting to book a room or a holiday, overnight business visit or like me; attending another launch event. With versions available for iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Android, the company (under Sun International) has thankfully, however, realised that different products serve different purposes.
Any frequent traveler will tell you the value of sticking with one hotel chain and one airline as much as you can. It’s all about the points! Sure there are times when it makes more sense from a location and price factor to stay at a different hotel, but when all things are equal it pays to stay at the same chain as often as possible. One of the perks (and trust me, there aren’t many of them) business travelers often get is the ability to keep their points/mileage. This really comes in handy at vacation time because it often means that you can go to a nice place and stay for free! Although I’ve traditionally been a Radisson guy whenever I visit Jozi, I’m finding myself more at The Maslow these days than ever before. So I went in search of an App and yep, The Maslow has one.
It doesn’t really take much to make a good Hotel App. Think about the things you would want. You probably want to be able to do a search, see the rates, book your stay, see your upcoming reservations and view your points. The Maslow app does all of these things plus a couple more. The App is pretty straight forward. It’s Free and does what I need.
Some of the tools and features included in this app is the ability to make reservations within the app itself. This means no matter where you are, you can easily launch the app and book a stay. view the hotel’s amenities and multiple meeting facilities, check out the map, and view pictures of the hotel.
For this hands on review, I tried the app on all three platforms using the BlackBerry 9720, iPhone 5s, Samsung GS4 and tablets; iPad 3 and Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10. I love how the app recognizes and adjusts to your model of smartphone handset. On the other hand the tablet and iPad version needs some working on. Navigation on the app feels sturdy yet it freezes and tends to be slow at times. Then there’s also the tempting but annoying Specials tab which leads you to a rather enormous web page (found on the hotels homepage), while this is convenient it’s highly annoying for some of us on our mobiles having to browse a desktop size page.
One thing that I think is pretty neat is that you can pre-order amenities to be in your room upon arrival. For example, let’s say you know you’re going to be getting in late. Probably too late for dinner. So you can order a couple of snacks to be on hand (room service) to tie you over until morning. Nice! The App also has that Specials section with deals I mentioned earlier and most importantly offers the option of remembering your username and password. If you frequent Sun International properties, this is one app you should have.
Surprisingly, the guys at Veronica Group IT Strategy (the developers) managed to implement play-for-free games on the app. Well, for, perhaps when you’re stuck at the airport or waiting for a friend to check out at The Maslow. Downloading the free games is easy, you simply press on the start download tab and you wait for the notification to prompt completion on your screen. Great stuff!
To conclude; we love The Maslow app, seeing that it’s the only SAn Hotel app with substance and the ability to cater for your basic booking needs it comes out tops in our SA Vibe App of the Year awards.. Only if there were such.
*In the initial draft of this review we mentioned a certain competitor as group owner of The Maslow Hotel. Fact remains, as mentioned in this review, The Maslow is owned by Sun International. Thanks to Veronica for pointing this out in the comments section.
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