Book your bed straight with the owner
You're pulling into a small town after a long day. You want a bed before dark. Tap a motel, guesthouse or cabin on the map. Does it have its own website? Then Book direct takes you straight there.
1Turn on Hotels & Motels
Tap Menu at the top left of the map. Then tap the Layers tab. Under Camping, switch on Hotels & Motels. Just above it are Guesthouses & B&Bs, Cabins & Apartments and Hostels & Backpackers. Switch those on too if you like. Their pins show when you zoom in on a town.
2Tap a motel, guesthouse or cabin
Tap a pin. Its card opens with the name at the top. You can also tap a hotel or motel the map already shows by name. The app looks it up and fills in the same card. This takes a moment.
3Tap Book direct
Does the place have its own website? Then the first big button on its card says Book direct. The website's address is next to it. Tap it to open the website. Then book with the people who run the place. The owner keeps more of what you pay. Your money stays in the town.
4Call, or compare prices
Does the map have a phone number? Then you also get a Call button. Tap it to ring the place from your phone. The Booking.com link and Compare prices are still there. They're smaller, at the bottom of the card.
Good to know
Book direct only shows when the map has the place's own website. Booking sites, review sites and social media pages don't count. So not every card has one. When a card opens, the app checks the link. Has that page gone? Then the button opens the site's home page. Has the whole site gone? Then there's no button. A caravan park card also says Book direct. Other campground cards say Book direct if the map shows they take bookings. If not, the button says Visit website. Hotel, motel and cabin pins need phone signal to load.
Also in the app: maps that work with no signal, campgrounds and free camps, and Plan with AI. It plans routes for eight kinds of vehicle, from an enduro bike to a 10-metre motorhome.