Web Buzz: With the Lola app, personal travel advice and service are a quick text away

Need immediate advice about a flight or hotel? Here’s an instant messaging app that connects you to a helpful online concierge.

Name: Lola app

What it does: Connects travelers with travel agents who can find the best options for you based on your preferences, including favorite airlines, hotel brands, where you like to sit on a plane, preferred hotel class and amenities, hotel budget and more. Your trip chats are organized by departure date and can be archived inside the app.

Available: In the App Store, requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Cost: Free

What’s hot: Type in your trip-related question, meet your agent in a chat room, and then put down the phone and go live your life. You’ll get a ping notification when the agent has returned with your requested information. It was was impressively quick with hotel and flight info. Besides having a concierge in your pocket, a reason to pay attention to this app is for the combination use of artificial intelligence and humans. My travel agent Jeremy quickly found a good price for a flight from San Francisco to JFK for three months out and hotel options near my final destination.

What’s not: It wasn’t as quick with advice on restaurants and activities. When I asked about trendy restaurants and a kid-friendly theater show for a Las Vegas trip six days away, the agent said she’d get back to me in a few hours. When I asked about activities for families in the west Yellowstone area, the agent said they’d get back to me at the latest “tomorrow.” It was already early evening my time. This is definitely one to watch. There’s a wait list that can be upward of a month, so have patience.

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