Luxury Hotels Checking-in to Foursquare

The Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is now offering destination advice via Foursquare, making it one of the growing number of luxury brands jumping aboard the geo-location, social media bandwagon.

According to Mashable, "The Ritz-Carlton’s Foursquare profile now includes dozens of tips about local destinations and landmarks from concierges at its 75 hotels — extending advice previously available only to patrons to anyone with a Foursquare account."

By doing this, Ritz is making convenient for guests to access a slew of information directly from their smartphones rather than waiting for the guest to seek it out. This is awesome customer service in that it demonstrates proactivity and care in regard to helping visitors get the  most out of their vacations. There's also the matter of exclusivity being broadened here, in regard to the hotel itself, which could aid in growing Ritz's fanbase beyond its regular constituents.

This is also big deal in that it emphasizes Ritz-Carlton's acknowledgment of growth of the decreasingly social and mobile customer. As was also demonstrated by Starwood Hotels ' recent integration of incentives for Foursquare check-ins, larger luxury brands are no longer "too good" to partake in social trends.