I’m Having Fun With TopGuest and FourSquare
Quick tutorial. For those that don’t know, Foursquare is a social networking/community site. Or, at least that’s the best way I can sum it up. As a Facebook idiot, I’m a bit unintelligent about such matters. Foursquare is an extension of sorts for the Facebook world.
Topguest is a gateway program of sorts that plugs into Foursquare and other social networking applications and relates to the travel industry. Essentially, you can earn miles and points for “checking in” via Topguest. It’s pretty easy.
I learned about Topguest from two different posts on View From the Wing:
These both serve me well in my travels, as check ins are pretty easy to come by at airports and hotels. And, the points post with a fair bit of regularity. It is kind of funny to look at my Foursquare friends and see all of us checking in at random Best Westerns around the country.
Essentially, once you connect your Topguest and Foursquare accounts, and enter some basic info into Topguest, it’s only a few clicks to earn 50 points or miles a day for each of the participating programs.
Milepoint has a great thread on what you can (and can’t do) to earn your check ins. The bar is set pretty low. There’s no time requirement necessary for how long you have to stay somewhere. The Milepoint thread details some concerns with people that check in at one hotel after another. But, as long as you don’t push the envelope too hard, there’s a good amount of points to be earned here, especially if you have some of these hotels in your local neighborhood or live near an airport.
The first thing most normal people will say is, “Why do I need 50 points?” It may not seem like much, but there are 365 days in a year, so that means you can earn 18,000+ points PER PROGRAM PER YEAR. In some of the hotel programs, that’s two free nights in a property. And, 18,000 United miles is almost enough for a free round-trip ticket in the continental US.
So, don’t wait around for this opportunity to disappear. If you ever wanted to know how some people accrue tons of points, this is how. By picking up on “bread crumb” offers such as these that take very little effort, those little piles of points become something meaningful!
Thanks for the heads-up on Top Guest, Ed!
I am familiar with Foursquare but haven’t activated it yet as the info they were requesting was too personally invasive IMO. And I don’t wear tinfoil hats.
Plus I didn’t want to clutter up with FB page with check-ins everywhere which my carefully selected friends would have to wade throuIL.
But I’ll check into Top Guest and see oif the combo of both make more sense now.
You don’t have to hook up your FB to Foursquare. I know a few people that keep them separate. There are some issues getting the United miles to post if you’re not using your name as it appears in your United account. Some sort of verification going on there.