Posts tagged Hotels.com
JT Holmes – Hotel Booked in Freefall
A few weeks ago, I had a fantastic time in Tahoe. Hotels.com sent me on a trip where I got to try skydiving and find out about the new mobile booking app that just launched. The app, which is available for iPhone and Android, lets you book reservations at nearly 140,000 hotels across the globe. The app also offers over 20,000 last minute deals. It’s available in more than 30 languages in over 70 countries, so no matter where you are, you can book hotel reservations on the go with ease.
To prove this point, Hotels.com enlisted the help of world-renowned stuntman and extreme athlete JT Holmes. They dropped him out of a plane at 15,000 feet and told him to use the app to book a reservation at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe while freefalling over 115 miles an hour in the air. Here’s the video:
Pretty impressive stuff. After the jump, we asked JT Holmes some follow up questions. Here’s the interview:
MJ: What’s the craziest place you’ve ever jumped from?
JT: Probably the Willis Tower in Chicago — particularly when we jumped from the corner of the building above Franklin Street. In this case, after 90 feet of freefall we’re engulfed in the architecture of the building, a 90 degree section of windows. Then, we were in a must-fly situation in order to reach the landing zone at the corner of Wacker Drive and Van Buren. The flight involved a couple of soft turns and was insanely visual.
MJ: My buddy, Richard Schneider, wants to know what wing suit do you use and why?
JT: I choose S Fly Expert because it has the fastest cutaway system for the wings, provides a ton of performance per square footage of wing, and allows me to run off of cliffs and run on landing without unzipping my legs. Further, I prefer to fly hands free and palms down, just for my own pleasure/fun. With the Expert you do not have to hold any wing extension batons.
MJ: What was it like working with Michael Bay?
JT: It was great. Michael is daring, bold, loyal, talented and commands a lot of respect. Not sure anyone else in the world could unlock the city of Chicago like him.
MJ: How did you feel right before you jumped off that first building in Chicago?
JT: Tired. I was unable to sleep the night before. I was really out of it. I knew that once I stepped off, instinct would take over and the flight would recharge my batteries.
MJ: I tried skydiving for the first time and found it to be a surprisingly calming experience. Do you feel peaceful and at ease when your skydiving?
JT: Absolutely.
Sep 2nd
JT Holmes, Skydiving, and the Hotels.com Mobile Booking App
Last week, I went on a trip to Lake Tahoe, courtesy of Hotels.com. I got to hang out with some really cool people and I even got to try skydiving for the first time (more on that in a second). Hotels.com put me up at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa & Casino, and I totally enjoyed myself.
The trip featured a skydiving shoot with extreme sports athlete JT Holmes. If you haven’t heard of Holmes, he’s a guy whose idea of a thrilling weekend is like 10 times more hardcore than whatever you or I do with our spare time. Holmes is a skydiver, free skier and base jumper. He’s appeared in multiple skiing films, 60 Minutes did a pretty sweet piece on him and his wing suit jumping skills were featured in Transformers 3. So yea, this guy knows how to have some fun.
Holmes partnered up with Hotels.com as part of a larger effort to promote the brand’s entry in to mobile apps. Hotels.com is launching a high-speed mobile booking app next month. In addition to giving travelers the ability to book a hotel in under a minute, the Extreme Mobile Booking App will also feature 20,000 last minute deals at over 140,000 hotels across the world.
Users will be able to access previous and future reservation info online or offline, and the app makes use of your mobile’s GPS features so that you can locate the closest hotels with the best deals while you’re on the go.
The app will also support Welcome Rewards loyalty points. You can track your points and redeem them right from your phone. For every 10 nights that you accumulate in hotel stays, you get an extra night for free.
So in Tahoe, JT Holmes proved just how easy it is to use the new app when he took a 15,000 ft plunge out of the sky and booked his own hotel reservation in less than 60 seconds. Here are some photos from the shoot:
I got to experience tandem skydiving for the first time during the trip, and it was unreal. I mean, I thought I’d be freaking out or just so full of adrenaline that I’d yak or piss or lose my mind, but that’s not how it went down. I’m kinda afraid of heights so I thought I’d be trippin’ out a whole lot more, but the experience was surprisingly tranquil and calming.
The freakiest part of the whole thing was sitting in a closed room by myself watching an instructional video from this freaky, monotone-voiced dude who was telling me that tandem skydiving was awesome but I could die doing it:
Before I got in the air, I jokingly asked my tandem skydiving instructor if anyone had ever met the crazy bearded dude from the video. In a very serious face, the guy turned to me and said, “That’s Bill Booth, man. He invented all the equipment that makes tandem skydiving possible.” Whoa, my bad!
But back to the jump. Like I said I really thought I’d be freaking out at the whole thing. I did a 9,000 ft jump (I totally went with the bunny slope entry package) that featured 30 seconds of freefall and five minutes of floating. As soon as we spilled out of the plane, I was just in a total meditative state. It was just so serene and peaceful. After I landed, I felt like I had just been meditating for a week. Just super clear headed and borderline spiritually cleansed. I totally expected it to be a fear-filled exercise in extremeness, but it was kinda the opposite. And I really liked it.
Thanks again to Hotels.com for a great trip and good app. When this thing out when it comes out next month, give it a try. If an extreme athlete can book a reservation while skydiving, you can probably find a pretty sweet deal on a hotel while you’re on the road.
Aug 17th
