I am trying to build a simple application using MapKit that will automatically search for a specific place when the app launches and drop pin(s) on the map at the locations(s).
iOS >= 6.1 provides MKLocalSearch, MKLocalSearchRequest to search for natural language points of interest. Sample
MKLocalSearchRequest *request = [[MKLocalSearchRequest alloc] init];
request.region = regionToSearchIn;
request.naturalLanguageQuery = @"restaurants"; // or business name
MKLocalSearch *localSearch = [[MKLocalSearch alloc] initWithRequest:request];
[localSearch startWithCompletionHandler:^(MKLocalSearchResponse *response, NSError *error) {
// do something with the results / error
}];