Rocking up in an unknown city, rucksack on your back and minimal cash in your wallet is one of life’s ultimate sinking feelings. Fortunately, the Budgetplaces iPhone app is here to change all that. Or at least it wants to. Can it live up to its claims of being able to deliver low-cost, centrally located hotels in a multitouch-based jiffy? Read our Budgetplaces iPhone app and find out.
The Budgetplaces iPhone app is free and is aimed at those who need a bed for the night that won’t break the bank. Covering off 60 cities, from Andorra to Vienna, its makers say you’ll be able to get into accommodation just through a few taps on your Apple blower.
There’s no getting away from the fact that the Budgetplaces iPhone app is a neat service. However, when you first fire it up, you’ll find the implementation of Apple’s rolodex style date selection tool is pretty poor. You can only book up to a year in advance, so having the option to scroll to through every year of the 21st century is pretty pointless and can cause confusion. Surely day and month would have sufficed?
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Finding accommodation is easy. You either search by city or choose your current location. The latter didn’t work out so well for us, refusing to give us any options for hotels near our South London pad. Seeing as the Budgetplaces iPhone app says in its promo material that “all accommodation is centrally located”, we were willing to forgive it. That was until we searched London and were offered rooms in New Cross and even Croydon. Hardly handy for a quick whizz around the West End.
The troubles didn’t end there. Search for Melbourne and you get just one hotel. It’s not as if the second largest city in Australia is lacking in places to lay your head. It seems Europe is better served, so if you want to load the Budgetplaces iPhone app up before a global jaunt, beware. Prices also seemed well above the claimed €30 average.
That said, the Budgetplaces iPhone app does have some cool features. It offers realistic hotel pics rather than Photoshopped efforts which lull you into thinking you’re staying at the Plaza when in fact you’re in something more resembling Bates Motel. The integration with Google Maps is also great, letting you see just where your favoured place is in relation to the sites.
The Budgetplaces iPhone app does have good intentions at heart. And being free it’s worth a whirl. However, we’d suggest packing a Lonely Planet guide too just in case.
Not got an iPhone to try all the lovely apps? Get yours by visiting www.phones4u.co.uk
