My first set of priority club points just posted, roughly two weeks after I started checking in.

can you "check in" and get points , without actually going there? Maybe by typing in the address on Topguest, or somewhere else.

For those of us who arent as familiar with FourSquare, can someone give us a brief overview on how this program works. Is it worth it for substantial point earnings or are we talking 2-3 points every week or so?

There is some latitude on distance. Using Foursquare I only need to get within 2-3 blocks of the property. Twitter will allow you a greater distance, I live a little over a quarter mile from a Crown Plaza and can hit it from my living room.

50 PC points per check-in. I have 2 properties I can hit on the the commute so 500 points per week with minimal effort, could easily double/triple that with some work or manipulation. I can't see it lasting as there is no revenue stream.

Are you getting more than 50 Priority Club points per day? I've got 3 PC locations on the way to work -- a Staybridge Suites, a Holiday Inn Express, and a Candlewood Suites. However, when I check in via FourSquare at more than one of those locations per day, I still only get 50 points credited. I'd be curious if you're able to hit two properties a day for 100 points total.

Thanks!

It has happened, both via foursquare. I am not as diligent as I should/could be about check-ins so my activity is erratic. I will try and monitor the results this week.

According to this article

http://www.businesstraveller.com/new...nts-for-virtua

"Users must first register with Topguest, and link their Priority Club account with the scheme. They will then receive 50 points each time they check-in at an IHG hote using a LBS app, although note that only one "geo check-in" per day will be eligible for the points. Points will be credited to the member’s account within six weeks of checking in."

Okay, I give up.

I do not understand how this works. I suspect that the term "check in" is being used differently in this thread. It does not appear to be related to checking in to a hotel stay.

I went to both the Foursquare and the Gowalla sites, but there was no useful information (to me). Gowalla doesn't support Windows Mobile devices, so that's a showstopper for me. With Foursquare, it appears that you have to post your location to some public forum.

Can someone under 20 please explain this crap?

Seems pretty straightforward to me.

I'm not under 20, but I'll give it a shot.

There are two types of "check in"s being referred to here. One is checking in to a hotel, getting a room key, having to pay the hotel. The other is essentially logging into a mobile application or website and reporting your current location to that website, which requires no payment of any kind. You do *not* need to check in (get a room) at a hotel to check in (report your location) with foursquare. Now, your "check in"s with foursquare can be public, or they can be private (as far as I can tell - I haven't checked to make sure that private check ins are still seen by Topguest), and you can link your Topguest account directly to your Foursquare account (no need to publish things through Twitter or Facebook). If you check in (report your location) at a place that Topguest recognizes as a Priority Club hotel, some hours later, they will credit your Topguest account with 50 priority club points. Some weeks later, those points actually get transferred to priority club.

Is that clearer than the press releases they've been putting out and the sparse FAQ that they've got? If not, I can try to rephrase :)

They can be private, I do not share my check in's and they are still reported to topguest.

Thanks.

So let me get this straight: I have to be within some radius (what is that radius?) of a participating location, then make the overt act of posting some status update to that effect in order to get the points? But I do not have to do any business transaction with that location? How does it determine whether I am within that radius-- by cellular triangulation or by GPS (my phone does not have GPS built-in)? Is there a way to have it automatically update without my involvement?

So the points only credit when "checking in" at a related location (PC hotel in this instance)? I was under the impression points are earned based on all credits no matter where they are. But, the hotel foursquare "checkins" make more sense. What about other loyalty program checkins...do you have to check in to their specific locations to earn the points?

I'm mid-30s but I'm hip to this stuff. In fact, I have some business ventures relating to it. I touched upon the concept in post #8 above, but this link gives a more specific overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foursqu...ial_networking)

Geo-based social networking services are quite under the radar right now, but perhaps the most explosive area of connected growth. Using GPS and other location technologies, they allow users (with permission and intent, of course) to share their location with friends, advertisers, applications, and other people and services to better communicate, shop, and live. A very basic example is using a smartphone to mark the precise spot where you parked your car so you can navigate to it later without a second thought. A more complex example is where you "check in" (press a button that records, logs, and shares your location) to various establishments and places so that your friends may know where you are (and perhaps be notified automatically if they are nearby so they may meet up), so that businesses may better target offers to you (for example, a pizza shop offering a free slice for the next 30 minutes to anyone within a 3 mile radius), or so that you may learn about or share information about the location with others.

Specific to this offer, TopGuest is simply offering points when you "check in" (press a button on your smartphone to log/record/share your location, as described above) at particular hotels as an incentive to do so, thereby growing the service user base and also driving more business to the participating hotels (in theory).

This is what baffles me about the FaceTwitSpace movement. Why do people want others to know where they are and what they are doing at all times? Why do these people think that others actually care about where they are or what they are doing? When did this big shift in the internet users' feelings about privacy occur? Personally, I like to remain as anonymous as possible on the internet, and I think that most people felt similarly until the past few years. Even offline, I have "friends" that I would never let other "friends" know existed. Viz.- Relationship George and Independent George from Seinfeld.

Oh, but thanks for the explanation, mooper.