The growing marketer interest in location-based networks has spread to the lodging loyalty arena with an announcement that InterContinental hotels Group has signed a partnership with Topguest, a digital network that ties in to all the popular geolocation services, from Foursquare and Gowalla to Loopt and Yelp!
Every time members of IHG’s Priority Club rewards program checks in on one of these geo-applications, they will receive 50 Priority Club points. Points are limited to 50 per day and will be added to members’ accounts within six weeks of the virtual check-in. Like any other points, they can be redeemed for hotel stays, flights, or dining and shopping certificates.
Interestingly, members can amass the points by checking in through the Topguest interface for activities beyond registering for an IHG property stay. For example, checking in to dine in the hotel restaurant or coffee shop will earn Priority Rewards under the Topguest campaign.
“Online innovation for the hotel space has for the last few years been focused on taking away margin from the lodging companies themselves,” says Geoffrey Lewis, founder and CEO of Topguest. “Everything from Priceline to Jetsetter.com to Kayak has resulted in margin erosion for hotels. Topguest is an antidote to that. We’re actually trying to drive incremental direct bookings for hotels by allowing them to leverage their existing loyalty programs in a new way.”
“Partnering with Topguest allows us to reward our members with priority club points each time they virtually check in at an IHG hotel, whether it’s for a good night’s sleep or for coffee in the hotel’s restaurant,” IHG vice president for guest marketing and alliances Lincoln Barrett said in a release. “We think it has the potential to further enhance loyalty with current and future guests.”
Press reports quote Barrett as saying that IHG regards the offer of points for virtual check-ins as only one possible approach to merging loyalty and location services, and that the company will evaluate the campaign over a period of time.
In June IHG began partnering with geo-network Gowalla to spread the word about a summer “Hit it Big” loyalty promotion. When Gowalla users checked in at an IHG property, they received a message encouraging them to enter the promotion by signing up for a second weekend stay and earning either double rewards points or up to $500 in prepaid gift cards for national retailers. But the Gowalla partnership didn’t offer users points simply for checking in, as IHG’s Topguest campaign is doing.
Topguest serves hotels by aggregating points for check-ins across all these location-based networks, relieving the hotels of the job of keeping multiple check-in records for their guests. Aggregating check-ins for numerous location networks also makes it easier for users to check in via mobile device.
Prior to striking a deal with IHG, which runs 4,400 properties around the world in the InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Indigo brands, Topguest only had partnerships with the boutique Standard Hotels brand and the Soho and Tribeca Grand hotels.
The company launched in June and raised its first round of funding from venture capitalists, including some backers of Foursquare and Gowalla.
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