Expedia adds Media Lounge offering free travel apps

Martin Ferguson

Travellers who download the Expedia app to their iPhone or iPod Touch will be offered a host of other free travel apps from today.

The online travel company has unveiled a new feature called Media Lounge where Andy Washington, managing director of Expedia UK, said users would find premium apps and content to complement their travel experiences. 

The company said the development marked a shift from driving transactions and only engaging with travelling consumers to offering a richer content-based service.

Until now Expedia’s app pushed out practical trip information, such as flight alerts. 

Now it will, on the first Wednesday of every month, offer users a paid-for app free of charge.

The first app available in the Media Lounge is Over, a photo-editing app that enables travellers to personalise photos by adding text and artwork.

Outside of this offer it would cost £1.49.

In addition to the free apps, Expedia said it would recommend other apps, such as flight trackers and Wi-Fi finders.

“It is a way of making a trip easier, more relevant and enjoyable,” said Washington. “We’re in a digital age, and engaging with mobile and tablets users is so important.”

Washington said the marketplace was heavily defaulted towards Apple products. He acknowledged Android was growing in popularity but could not put a timeline on when the Expedia app would be available on this operating system.