The Best Western Hotel President Berlin is the first Web 2.0 hotel in its region to launch an online booking widget for desktops, Facebook and the Web. Powered by WorkLight, the widget allows customers to check rates, book rooms at a discount and receive notifications from the hotel about upcoming promotions.

The Best Western widget, developed using software from WorkLight, is integrated with the hotel's booking systems and marketing promotions database. In addition to convenient online booking, customers can access regional conferences and cultural events, preview the hotel's daily lunch menu and follow its Twitter feed for more updates.

Developed in a single effort using the WorkLight Solution, the multi-channel widget can run as a lightweight Windows or Mac desktop application, an Adobe Air application or a Yahoo! desktop widget. The application can also be added to a customer's Facebook, iGoogle, and Netvibes accounts.

"We recently launched a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account, but we wanted to complement our social media presence with a more robust service that would allow us to stand apart and drive real business," said Zeev Rosenberg, General Manager at Best Western Hotel President. "WorkLight immediately understood our desire to deliver unique value to our loyal customer base and increase revenue. The result is a very useful widget that accomplishes both."

The WorkLight Solution provides an efficient means for businesses to create and launch secure, integrated widgets. In addition to desktops and websites, widgets can be automatically generated for the popular iPhone and Android smart phones - all with a single development effort.

"The Best Western widget is a great example of how organizations can use widgets to connect with customers in new and exciting ways, while maintaining the security that businesses and their customers demand," said Shahar Kaminitz, CEO of WorkLight. "We were pleased to partner with Hotel President to deliver real business value leveraging our innovative technology platform."