Have you ever heard of app fatigue? Apparently, it’s a real thing. Ben Schippers of Tech Crunch, in fact, just released an article saying consumers are tired of apps. They’re annoyed by push notifications and repetitive apps that do similar things, and they are beginning to opt out.
So, why another article about popular apps? If you are a business traveler looking to make travel easier for you, you might just need to hit the app store a few more times. Maybe delete a few first. Then, check these out:
1. LoungeBuddy
The LoungeBuddy app is useful for anyone—from the occasional traveler to the hardcore road warrior. With LoungeBuddy, users can quickly access information about airport lounges, including user reviews, photos, and a list of amenities (showers, smoking rooms, included cocktails/food, phones, TVs, and more.) For many of these lounges, users can also instantly book their access to the lounge within the app.
How It Works
The LoungeBuddy app has a GPS feature, so it will automatically pull up the nearest airport for a digital tour of available lounge offerings. You also have the option of selecting a different airport or syncing the app with your Concur itinerary.
showing available lounge offerings.
The app functions similar to Yelp, with users describing their experience at the lounge and giving it a star rating. The interface is intuitive and sleek, and you can quickly determine which lounges are currently available for you and where they are located inside the airport terminal. The app will will tell you the cost of paying for entry at the check-in desk, and for select locations, you can instantly book your access using the app.
It’s clear LoungeBuddy has thought about being responsive to users’ needs and maintaining quality of reviews. For example, users can crowd-source images. If you think a user-uploaded photo of a lounge is not relevant or useful, you can vote the photo up 🙂 or down 🙁 and photos with several frowny faces will be removed from the review.
The Fine Print
There are a few things LoungeBuddy app users will want to be aware of. I would recommend filling out your profile because the app stores lounge memberships and elite statuses to help determine which lounges you might have access to. Travelers should also note that they will need to arrive at the lounge within one hour of purchasing access through the app. Some of the lounges lack many ratings, so if you are not traveling at a major hub, you may not have many reviews to help you make decisions.
Yet, LoungeBuddy is working at a rapid pace to grow user reviews. Brent Griffith, LoungeBuddy’s VP of Marketing, tells us that they recently held a photo and review contest to increase user reviews of lounges. “We are extremely happy with the results of the competition, and our team is discussing additional ways to help incentivize travelers to contribute even more,” Griffith notes. “We’re fortunate to have a fantastic community of global travelers who love to help each other out by posting photos, ratings and reviews.” In fact, Griffith tells us that they have recently surpassed 500,000 total members in the community.
What to Look Forward To
LoungeBuddy already has excellent coverage. They offer information on over 2,500 lounges in more than 800 of the busiest airports around the world, Griffith says, and their instant-booking service is available in 100 locations across more than 40 major airports around the world. “In 2016,” he tells us, “we plan to expand our coverage to even more airports.”
Over the next few months, LoungeBuddy has additional plans to expand and enhance user experience. According to Griffith, the team is working on a new website redesign, “an enhanced in-app trip creation experience, simplifying and unifying the in-app experience across all of our platforms.”
LoungeBuddy appears to have found a true niche that can help them fulfill their mission of building a service that helps travelers have a better experience at the airport.
2. DUFL
DUFL is more than an app—it’s a service. DUFL stores your business attire, professionally cleans it, and ships it to your next business meeting location. Oh, and did I mention they pick up your suitcase at your hotel and ship it back to their storage facility until your next trip?
How It Works
To get started with DUFL, you download the app on your smartphone, and you’ll receive an email with some simple instructions. You first need to order the welcome kit, and you’ll get a DUFL suitcase shipped to you within a week. You have two weeks to pack up the suitcase (or longer if you let them know), and then you log in to the app to schedule a free pickup.
The suitcase is picked up by DUFL, and your clothes are cleaned, folded, and pressed. Then, the clothing is inventoried—they take photos of each item and load the photos into the app. (They create a descriptive list for personal items such as underwear.) When you’re ready to travel, log in to the app and enter your destination and travel dates. If you don’t want to bring all of the items you originally packed, just use the virtual closet app on your phone to browse pictures of your clothes and select what you’d like to pack. Your DUFL suitcase will be shipped via FedEx to your travel destination, and when your business trip is complete, schedule your luggage pickup through the app and leave your baggage at the hotel’s front desk before you catch that taxi to the airport.
The Fine Print
Currently, a round-trip service (within the U.S.) costs $99, and DUFL charges $9.95 per month for your items to be stored at its facility, which has 24/7 security. Your card won’t be charged until your first round-trip service is complete. While the cost may be off-putting to some, it does include shipping to and from the destination as well as cleaning and processing upon your suitcase’s return. You will want to keep in mind that the process requires three-day shipping, so planning ahead when scheduling is important.
DUFL does not yet have the ability to operate for all types of international trips, but they are available in select destinations. For international trips, you can request a quote within the app, and a DUFL member will contact you within 30 minutes.
DUFL users are not limited to packing clothing, which makes your traveling life even easier. They can include hair dryers, shoes, toiletries and more. Travelers will want to note, though, that the FFA does not allow DUFL to pack aerosol cans, and users are discouraged from sending medications or valuables.
What to Look Forward To
You may be wondering if there really is a market for this service. After all, the cost may be off-putting to some travelers and some may not want other people handling their clothing or packing their luggage. Yet, DUFL’s CMO, Andrea Graziani, tells us, “we’ve processed over 3,000 shipments, delivered to almost 500 US cities and 8 countries (and counting) since our launch in May.” Clearly, DUFL is gaining traction.
Using DUFL saves you time (no more laundry and less packing) and money spent on dry-cleaning. Likely the most important thing for frequent travelers is that it saves you the hassle of dealing with luggage at the airport. It seems like DUFL might work best for the true road warrior who doesn’t want to spend the weekend between trips doing laundry and packing again.
DUFL appears to be rapidly expanding. Graziani says they have a robust roadmap, which includes “opening additional warehouse facilities, possibly on the East coast and in Europe or Asia.” Another exciting innovation is that DUFL will be launching DUFL Sport, which will “allow our users to send things such as golf clubs and snowboards,” Graziani affirms. Also on the agenda: a quick-start kit, which will allow users to start their DUFL closet while on the road.
3. GateGuru
GateGuru, a TripAdvisor Company, initially launched in 2009; however, they seem to be taking off as more users contribute valuable reviews to their system. Similar to LoungeBuddy, Gate Guru has user-review features. Travelers can, for example, rate the quality of service at an airport restaurant. Its main function, though, is to help travelers know where airport amenities are located and stay updated about their flights.
How It Works
You start by entering information about your upcoming trip, and the Gate Guru app provides information about your flight in real time (including terminal and gate information, flight delays, and security wait times.)
The Airport Card portion of the app helps travelers navigate the airport. It shows airport amenities, tips about the airport, and maps of concourses. Their website indicates that if you enter your itinerary into the app, the display of amenities is automatically tailored to your travel and gate location. The tips are a really unique feature because travelers who are
new to a particular airport can learn if security checkpoints are quick; which car rental locations have the best customer service; how tricky parking is, and more.
Travelers can also use Gate Guru to track their travel statistics.
The Fine Print
The GateGuru app is free and relatively easy to use. Their partnership with Avis leads to a slightly spammy link at the bottom of the Airport Card, encouraging users to book a rental car through Avis. However, according to their website, because they have partnered solely with this one company, GateGuru can offer discounts up to 35% lower than other travel sites, and users can book their cars “in just two taps.”
Some of the amenities do not have many reviews yet, and users cannot click on a reviewer’s name to discover a profile and learn about the credibility of that user. However, it’s nice that users can rank up or down a user’s review of an airport amenity or their tips. This crowd-sourcing feature will hopefully control the possible transmission of bad information.
What to Look Forward To
While we were unable to reach GateGuru for a comment about their plans for 2016, it seems that the app is poised for growth. The app currently lists almost 200 airports, but some of the lesser-known airports have very few reviews. It is likely that GateGuru will focus on growing airport coverage and building its community of users over the coming months. If they do so, the app will easily serve as a valuable resource to travelers of all types.
As business travel apps come and go, the team at 30SecondstoFly thinks these apps solve genuine travel problems, and we are excited to see how they grow this year. So, before you let app fatigue get the best of you, consider the potential benefits of a few additional downloads.