London hotel group Radisson Edwardian has just launched its new ‘Check In, Check Out Later’ promotion in honor of Social Media Day today. The feature, which will be available until July 31, gives digital-savvy guests the opportunity to extend their checkout by up to two hours by ‘checking in’ to one of Radisson Edwardian’s twelve London hotels or Manchester hotel location-based social media service Foursquare.
Once checked in, guests just need to show their smartphone at the front desk to enjoy all the benefits of a late checkout. For Foursquare, the late-check-in will be promoted using a ‘Foursquare special offer’ which customers can see when they check-in on Foursquare.
“We’re constantly looking for ways to enrich the hotel experience for our guests and this was a great opportunity to once again connect an online interaction with an offline benefit. Checking in on Facebook or Foursquare has been popular with our guests, so rewarding them with a couple of extra hours in bed seemed like a nice way to say thanks,” Amy Clarke, e-commerce manager for Radisson Edwardian, said.
As we noted yesterday, the increased attention of hotels to the consumer power of social media is encouraging – and it also benefits us, the traveler.
The hotel has also experimented with other social applications, including Quick Response (QR) codes to restaurant menus in 11 of its London hotels. The QR codes direct diners to an online video hosted on the hotel’s website to show the ‘dish of the month’ being prepared by one of the hotel’s executive chefs. The video gives tips and advice on how the dish is prepared and the ingredients used. Honestly, we’re not sure how exciting this is to the average user – we’d probably prefer to talk to our dining guests rather than watch a phone video. But still, the hotel’s level of commitment to social media and engaging guests is impressive. Let’s see if the rest of the service during a stay matches up.