Limo apps make it easy to catch a ride

Reserving a chauffeured town car or limousine today can be as easy as moving a red pin on an interactive map.

With car-service mobile apps from companies such as LimoRes, Limos.com and Uber coming into their own, smartphone-wielding travelers looking to book a ride have handy new alternatives to making their reservations over the phone or online.

While the free LimoRes [1] (iPhone) and Limos.com [2] (iPhone and Android) apps can help you make a car-service reservation throughout much of the USA [3] and globally, Uber' [4] s free app (iPhone and Android) currently offers reservations only in New York City [5] and San Francisco/Palo Alto for immediate, "on-demand" service.

Among the whiz-bang features of the LimoRes app's "ride now" reservation in New York City and of the Uber app is the ability to view your assigned driver's location and estimated arrival time on a map.

To be sure, most town car reservations in the USA are still made with a phone call and not a smartphone app. But with new smartphone alternatives, this could change.

None of the three companies operates its own fleet. Rather, they all contract with town car and limo companies.

All detect your location, if you give your consent, using your mobile device's GPS capabilities.

The apps from New York City-based LimoRes, which is in the process of rebranding as GroundLink, and from San Francisco-based Limos.com are more similar than they are different.

With the LimoRes app you can use GPS to select your current location, depicted as a red pin on a map, move the pin to another location or manually enter your desired pickup and drop-off points.

The app then displays images of car classes and you can view the total rate, including gratuity, tax and various fees (but not the tolls).

The Limos.com app likewise plots your current location with a red pin and lets you search for rides "to airport," "from airport," "point-to-point" or "hourly." This app displays more photos of available car models than does the LimoRes app, and both companies are fairly transparent about the total price.

LimoRes stands out in providing direct customer service for your reservation, while Limos.com leaves more of that responsibility to the third-party car service.

The Uber app is sleek: You set your location and submit your request, and Uber sends the closest available driver. San Francisco-based Uber provides support information and driver-en-route texts with expected arrival time almost instantaneously.

But Uber's rates aren't as transparent as its competitors'. Although they're displayed on Uber.com, app users learn the cost only when the trip is complete and they receive a receipt.

The booking merits and demerits of various car-service apps tell only part of the story. The bottom line is how the companies actually perform when you are on the road.

LimoRes/GroundLink 

•Overview: Founded in 2004, LimoRes has handled bookings in all 50 states and 110 countries. Free iPhone app. BlackBerry and Android to launch in early August. On-demand service in New York City and advance reservations elsewhere.

•Pros: Transparent pricing, large network of cars, takes charge of customer service issues directly instead of leaving it to contracted car-service companies.

•Cons: Navigation difficulties: If you select car type and change your mind, you must clear the reservation and relaunch the search to choose a different car type.

•Takeaway: Best app from the three companies in breadth of geographic coverage and balance between direct phone support and app-only approach.

Limos.com 

•Overview: Handles scheduled service in more than 15,000 U.S. cities and 18,000 globally. Recently released iPhone and Android apps. Founded in 2007.

•Pros: Search filters: to airport, from airport, point-to-point and hourly. Photos of available car models. Transparent pricing.

•Cons: App user can't track driver's location. Leaves customer service largely to contracted car-service companies.

•Takeaway: A close second to LimoRes app.

Uber 

•Overview: On-demand service in New York City and San Francisco/Palo Alto with iPhone and Android apps, and via SMS texts. Launched in 2010.

•Pros: Attractive alternative to taxis. Map view of car's location en route. Very fast support messages. Only service of the three to work via SMS text as alternative to app. Internal company rating of individual drivers.

•Cons : On-demand service only, no advance reservations. Available in three cities, but expanding. Little pricing information upfront. No car photos. No direct call option. Must enter credit card the first time before any searching.

•Takeaway: Cool app but limited geographic coverage.

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Links

1. ^{^} LimoRes (www.groundlink.com)
2. ^{^} Limos.com (www.limos.com)
3. ^{^} More news, photos about USA (content.usatoday.com)
4. ^{^} Uber' (uber.com)
5. ^{^} More news, photos about New York City (content.usatoday.com)

source: travel.usatoday.com