Durban Tourism recently launched a new app, Durban Accommodation, which is available for download on Android Play Store.
The locally developed app lists hundreds of Durban’s accommodation venues, including hotels, B&Bs, airports, banks, garages, hospitals, police stations, restaurants and shopping malls all within the city.
Permission is needed by the app to access a user’s location, to assist with navigating them to their destination.
The app also provides contact information on numerous tourist attractions, as well as the tourism offices. Emergency numbers and foreign exchange places are also listed on the app.
Roshni Mehta of Durban Tourism told Traveller24: "The app was developed based on compliance audits at all accommodation sectors, both formal and informal, in the Durban area, in terms of business licensing, and CTO registrations. We included grading, pet-friendly and universal accessibility."
She said they had created a database on the accommodation establishments that were compliant. She said, based on their youth travel study, the majority of travellers below the age of 35 are the adventurers who just buy a ticket to a long-haul destination and only then do they look for accommodation, once they are there.
“We wanted to make finding accommodation easier – keeping with international trends – hence the accommodation app was created," Mehta said.
The app took roughly three months to develop and it is still in its initial phase. Mehta told Traveller24 that they are still working on modifications, updates, add-ons and improvements.
