On about one million vehicles worldwide, US automaker Ford has installed software called AppLink, which lets drivers link their smartphones to their car's voice-control system and operate their apps with it.
The purpose of AppLink is to enable drivers to access their apps without being distracted by operating their smartphone while driving.
To date, the system has worked with only a handful of apps.
But late last week the carmaker added Hotels.com's app to the catalog.
Hotels.com is the first third-party travel app to be included in the system (not counting navigation apps).
Search for hotels while you drive
The system is simple. Say "mobile apps" and "Hotels.com," and then your vehicle's software would translate your voice commands into instructions to run the Hotels.com app.
A user can say "find nearest three star hotel," and the app fetches listings. (See a video demonstration, below.)
Your vehicle's computerized voice reads out nearby hotel results, relevant to your vehicle's location. Each hotel's price and average guest rating are spoken aloud.
If you say "Book hotel", the app will remind you of what hotel you're interested in and then place a call to Hotel.com's reservation call center to make the booking through a live agent.
Unfortunately, as of now, the app has no way of passing the name of the hotel to the reservation agent, so you have to remember the name of the hotel yourself.
For what it's worth, you're promised turn-by-turn navigation to the hotel if you like.
Start of a trend?
The rollout of the technology will be slow. The software that works with the Hotels.com-app will be pre-installed on 2014 model EcoSport SUVs and Fiestas.
Yet earlier this year, Ford opened its API to developers, which could lead to further partnerships with travel and other companies.
The company unveiled Hotel.com's participation late last week at Berlin's IFA consumer tech conference. There hasn't been a Hotels.com statement yet.
The service puts Ford in a position ahead in the race for connected services. Other carmakers, such as Japan's Toyota, have in-car systems but don't partner with third-party app makers.
The US automaker's chief, Bill Ford, has spoken before about how his company aims to integrate Big Data into its vehicles.