Priceline.com goes mobile, priceline.mobi

Priceline.com has cloned its own Mini-Me. But unlike Dr. Evil’s tiny sidekick in “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” the Internet travel seller plans to do good.

The news: Priceline on Thursday launched a scaled-down version of its website for Web-enabled wireless devices. You can’t yet book online or bid for travel at www.priceline.mobi, the best-known service of Priceline, but you can do a lot of other stuff: search for hotels, cruises and trip packages, view restaurant ratings, check your flight’s status and book travel by phone. You can also access e-mail and telephone links to Priceline’s customer service.

“As they travel the country, a lot of people need to add hotels on the way,” Brett Keller, Priceline’s chief marketing officer, explained. So instead of heading for an Internet cafe or switching on your laptop (oops, you forgot it?), you can search for sleeps on your PDA, which will automatically route you to the mobile website.

Stumped about where to eat? You can call up Zagat Survey’s ratings of restaurants in the city you’re visiting but not, as yet, full reviews. Keller said Priceline plans to add reviews in the next week or so. But don’t expect to do online bookings or bidding on the wireless site anytime soon. Keller said the company wants to see how popular the site is before adding features.

— Jane Engle, Assistant Los Angeles Times Travel Editor

[Image: www.priceline.mobi]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 3:21 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Business Travel, Frequent Flier, News, Tips & Advice, Travel Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.