In April 2011, foursquare, the addictive location-based service for smart phone users, announced that there had been more than a billion check-ins on the platform. In addition, 500,000 businesses are using foursquare’s Merchant Platform to create “specials,” which are location-based mobile coupons. Many of those businesses are hotels and restaurants looking to drive awareness and increase loyalty with regular customers.

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Click-through rates for travel searches on mobile are 61% higher than from conventional internet connections, research by performance marketing firm Efficient Frontier has found. However the picture is markedly different for conversion rates on mobile, which were found to be 49% lower than from fixed-line computers. Efficient Frontier said the findings underline that most searches with an ‘intent to buy’ are carried out on consoles, but it still believes travel firms have an opportunity with mobile.

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As the number of smartphone users continues to grow at an incredible rate, the challenge facing many brands is to continue to find ways of utilising smartphone technologies to effectively connect and engage with consumers. Near Field Communication technology enables smartphone users to gain instant access to digital data from another NFC enabled handset or NFC tag simply by placing or waving their phone next to the NFC tag.

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Location-based technologies are changing the way consumers engage with hospitality brands. While Marketers are always seeking avenues to build customer relationships, they must consider the challenges associated with monitoring location-based engagement across multiple locations.

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In this growing era of competition, one of the latest means of advertising is Location based advertising such as Facebook Places, Foursquare and Twitter. Over the past year, the excitement and expectation that location has generated among subscribers has been tremendous. Here is an example of how Choice Hotels are using it to reward their guests with special privileges by “checking in” to their hotels.

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Marketers who take advantage of the Internet unique capabilities have the potential to build increasingly engaged customer communities. Here’s a look at three major trends.

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Are location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla just a short-lived fad – or have they simply not yet reached their potential? A new report indicates, that despite an over abundance of online media coverage, only 4 percent of online adults use such services to check in, and only 1 percent of Internet consumers check in on any given day.

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Published by the HSMAI Foundation, this report provide a guideline for Hotel marketers to develop a location-based marketing strategy. Mobile is redefining how, where and why people connect with one another, and location is becoming one of the most powerful digital trends affecting the mobile stratosphere

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The travel industry is turning to social media in order to build relations with customers and to promote its services.
Many Hotel chains are actively using Facebook and Twitter to communicate and, more importantly, to keep customers involved, allowing guests to ask and receive answers to inquiries and requests about the hotels.

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