APPS MAKE TRAVEL PLANS A SNAP

If you've reserved a hotel room over the Internet with websites such as Travelocity and Expedia, you know how easy it is. Enter your travel dates, select your destination and watch as a list of area hotels appears, sorted for you according to star ratings, distance from a central point or cost.

The app versions of these programs are even more convenient. There's no need to type in a date or fiddle with a mouse and tiny dropdown calendars; instead, use your finger to tap the start and end dates of your visit, then swipe your finger to quickly scroll through hotel listings, photos and map details.

I have a slight preference for Travelocity -- it provides an expanded view of lowest room prices over three months, so if your travel dates are flexible, you can often tweak your plans for an even better deal. This option, regrettably, is available only if you visit the site through a browser; the app does not offer these listings.

Expedia's recently improved display is the more attractive of the two apps. Its app shows instant glimpses of maps, prices and images on a single screen. Searching through hotels and related information is a breeze.

A word of caution: You should always confirm prices and dates with your hotel directly after finalizing a deal at one of these sites. A Travelocity agent recently told me that the cost of parking was included at a hotel I planned to stay at; turned out he was wrong. Repeated calls failed to get anyone to get back to me, not even a press relations office.

This could have been an isolated slip-up -- I've had good dealings with Travelocity in the past -- but this kind of error and the failure to return calls are major negatives in my book. It underscores the need to double-check all reservation details with the hotel before you leave home.

Kayak is similar to the above sites, but it is an aggregator, collecting the best prices from several online sites for its hotel listings. It does not always beat the prices obtained through Travelocity and Expedia, but it can sometimes yield a good deal and is worth checking out before making a final decision.

I've never been a fan of priceline.com, the site that requires you to pay in advance for hotels in a particular neighborhood, where you can get a great rate but with one catch -- you don't learn the name of the hotel until after you pay. Reservations are non-refundable.

I want to know where I'll be staying and don't like the idea of gambling. But I have a colleague at The Record who swears by priceline.com site and who has gotten some outstanding deals.

A couple of new utilities offer different approaches. Tingo.com, which draws its listings from Expedia resources, will guarantee not only a refund if you cancel your plans -- some sites hit you with steep penalties for cancellations -- it will also automatically credit you for the difference in price should the hotel drop the room rates as your reservation date approaches. Such price cuts happen more often than you think. Tingo promises you'll pay the lowest price regardless of how early you made your reservation and what initial price you paid. The site sounds like a winner.

Tingo does not yet offer an iPad or Android app.

Last, for those who want more details on the actual room they've reserved, consider Room 77. This app gives you a bird's eye view of rooms you reserve.

First find a hotel in a price range you like, then zero in and tell Room 77 what exactly you are looking for -- a great view, a high floor, a connecting room for the kids, wi-fi -- and it will list room numbers that meet or come close to meeting your criteria.

It will even display images of the room and views from windows that users send in, or, if no actual photos have been uploaded, it will post approximate views from the room gleaned from Google Maps.

There are many gaps in Room 77's listings; relying so heavily on user input means it will be some time before it compiles a thorough database. But with data already on several hundred thousand rooms and gaining in popularity, this could become an invaluable app for those who have specific room needs and demands. It is available online, and on iPhone and Android platforms.

Credit: Contact Peter Grad at [email protected].