Was wondering if there is a "Find a nearby hotel with vacancies" function available?

[Aquineas]

I drove my G70 to the Richmond metro area from Texas (roughly 22 hours of driving time), spent about a week there on business, and returned on Friday night. While I had my hotel booked for the mid-trip stop on the way there, on the way back, I figured I would play it by ear and stop and find a place when I became fatigued. Well when my "fatigue point" hit, I happened to be near Meridian, Mississippi, and every hotel I stopped at was filled to the rim with humans. I even asked the Google Assistant over Android Auto, "Find me a hotel with vacancies", and that didn't work. I began to try Genesis connected services, asked for Concierge, but in their terminology "concierge" means service pickup and return, so that was out. I was getting pretty tired at that point, but even my phone's internet connection was a little flaky so even pulling over and manually searching was taxing at the level of patience I had (and I use Verizon!) I finally pulled over at a rest stop and got about an hour's worth of shut-eye in which was enough to carry me through the dark overnight hours. It was not ideal by any means, but it was better than running off the road because I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

Which brings me back to the question, is it possible via Carplay or Genesis Connected Services, or any other known vehicle-technology integration (I already discovered that it's not available on Android Auto, or if it is, I didn't ask the right question in the right way) to ask for things like "hotels with vacancies"? More features could be added such as "Highest rated restaurants near me", or similar. I fully realize that this was due to my own lack of planning.

 

[EdP]

Which brings me back to the question, is it possible via Carplay or Genesis Connected Services, or any other known vehicle-technology integration (I already discovered that it's not available on Android Auto, or if it is, I didn't ask the right question in the right way) to ask for things like "hotels with vacancies"? More features could be added such as "Highest rated restaurants near me", or similar. I fully realize that this was due to my own lack of planning.

Highest rated restaurants is easy. Hotels with vacancy changes by the minute. There are 54,000 hotels to track.
I've used the "find hotels on route" and then called on the way.

 

[Aquineas]

I realize the vacancies can change by the minute, but reservation systems can (mostly) keep up with it, I would expect it to be attainable from an automation perspective.

 

[EdP]

I realize the vacancies can change by the minute, but reservation systems can (mostly) keep up with it, I would expect it to be attainable from an automation perspective.

Nothing like that is impossible but you now have to link every reservation system from every chain and independent and give access to the system by third party entities.

It comes down to money. Who is going to pay for it? Would take a lot of referrals that you'd not otherwise get. Unless you can show me how joining your system profits me.

I've used the "find hotel" and it brings up choices and the contact information so you can push a button and call for availability and rates. Especially if you have particular requirements for handicapped room, no stairs, etc.

I'd really be annoyed if the system told me the Hilton 20 miles away had an opening and it was filled when I got there so you still have to call.

 

[Aquineas]

Was that "Find hotel" initiated from Bluelink Genesis Connected Services or AA or CarPlay?

 

[EdP]

Was that "Find hotel" initiated from Bluelink Genesis Connected Services or AA or CarPlay?

I did it from the POI search in the navigation. Should also work from the Connected Services but not sure if they would give a radius rather than along route.

 

[joschneider]

Expedia, hotels.com, services like that? Thats what I would use to aggregate hotels in an area if I needed a place to crash for a night

 

[Aquineas]

Expedia, hotels.com, services like that? Thats what I would use to aggregate hotels in an area if I needed a place to crash for a night

I used to use Priceline, but then I realized that the Priceline price was like 25 percent more than what I could have gotten by just walking in off the street. Maybe I should have tried Hotels.com.