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Hotels are Angling For Their Foursquare Check-In Badge

March 8, 2010 at 2:38 PM | by juliana | 5 Comments

The lobby bar at JW Marriott at LA Live is not on Foursquare but their Glance lounge is.

Do you Foursquare? No, not the game you used to play on the blacktop at recess. We're talking about Foursquare, the newest darling of the social media realm that allows you to declare your exact locations via your mobile devices. That's what's called a "check-in." (Not to be confused with your hotel check-in.)

The location-based service, which can be linked to your Facebook and Twitter feeds, awards points and "badges" as sort of a game to keep users interested in playing. Indeed, accumulating (or "unlocking") badges, particularly the silly ones, seems to be part of the fun on Foursquare.

But there is valuable information sharing going on here as well. Foursquare users interact with each other by giving tips on places they've checked into (long waits, specific bartenders to ask for, etc.) And because of this tip-sharing, Foursquare is emerging as a new sort of Yelp! or TripAdvisor.

We admit it's a bit hard to understand at first. Why would you want some people to see the exact address of where you are? And also, if you Twitter that you're at the XYZ bar, shouldn't that be enough? And what do you even get for doing all this checking in besides random points and badges? Lastly, with only about 275,000 users Foursquare doesn't have quite the influence of Twitter or Facebook.

However, much like Twitter and Facebook, businesses are starting to use Foursquare to win customer loyalty by giving out rewards and incentives for checking in or for becoming a "mayor" of a certain location. (That means you check-in a heck of a lot to a specific place.) And not surprisingly, hotels are using Foursquare to give incentives to guests.

So what hotels are doing what with Foursquare? We interviewed the marketing folks at a few hotels to see how they were using Foursquare to pull in new guests and this is what we found:

It Smells Like Foursquare Spirit (in the Northwest)
Wynning at Foursquare
You Can Be The Mayor But That's Not Enough
Why Hotels Should Use Foursquare, Even if They Already Facebook and Twitter

Have you used Foursquare to check into a hotel? Were you rewarded for doing so? Share your Foursquare experiences with us in comments below!

5 Comments

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Return to » Hotels are Angling For Their Foursquare Check-In Badge

  1. gobuds

    HotelChatter Member

    not yet

    I travel quite a bit and always check in on foursquare at the hotels I am at and never received any feedback one way or the other.

    Jonah

    March 8, 2010 at 2:47 PM
    #Permalink

  1. juliana

    HotelChatter Editor

    it is still new

    Some hotels are JUST joining Facebook and Twitter so it may take a while for them to get to Foursquare. Also, I wanted to address the issue of larger hotel chains using Foursquare and whether it's harder for them versus smaller hotels or independents.

    But Doubletree just told us 10 of their hotels are doing Foursquare promos. which leads me to believe it's just a matter of them finding someone in-house who A) understands Foursquare and B) can make it work for them.

    Tomorrow, we'll be posting a list of hotels that DO Foursquare and DO offer incentives or rewards for guests. So hopefully, this will help you out.

    March 8, 2010 at 2:58 PM
    #Permalink

  1. Josh Kocurek

    HotelChatter Member

    What To Incentivise with Foursquare?

    It seems as though most hotels are going the F&B route by rewarding with food & drink. This seems to be the most obvious route, as this has a potential effect on every guest who checks-in with Foursquare. I have seen some comments on Twitter urging hotels to reward with free/discounted wifi, which I think would be an awesome incentive. The only problem is, then you skew your demographic from everyone (food and drink) to business travelers/techies who are heavy wifi users. Quite the dilemma.
    March 9, 2010 at 11:00 AM
    #Permalink

  1. JetSetCD

    HotelChatter Contributing Editor

    love it

    I would LOVE it if hotels had little rewards for those who check into them on Foursquare. I check into hotels all the time, being in Manhattan at drinking/eating/sleeping/cavorting at a variety of them. I consider it a great accomplishment when I become a hotel's mayor...so watch out for me!
    March 9, 2010 at 12:23 PM
    #Permalink

  1. WingateTuscaloosa

    HotelChatter Member

    Wingate By Wyndham - Tuscaloosa Foursquare Special

    Verify foursquare status at reception and recieve 25% off the Rate of the Day!
    May 10, 2010 at 1:31 PM
    #Permalink

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