TUI Travel‘s self-built user review and social network platform Cheqqer is heading to mobile devices in an effort to capture the check-in-isation of travel.
Cheqqer today launches Triplog, a service initially for Apple iPhones which allows users to keep track of destinations they have visited in a virtual logbook and then share with friends on Facebook and Twitter.
Nothing particularly new about that, except the Cheqqer system has also integrated a FourSquare-type system so users can check-in (“cheq in”) at destinations and earn Cheqqer badges.
Users will be able to compare badge ranking with their Facebook friends as well as obtain exclusive destination content only after they check in at one of the 55,000 locations in the system.
Reviews to the wider Cheqqer service can also be added from within the app, while image upload and itinerary building tools are expected to be added in the near future.
Cheqqer launched with a Facebook service (similar to TripAdvisor’s Trip Friends system) in September 2010 to let users see property and destination reviews being posted by friends.
The division’s managing director, Sandra Leonhard, says Facebook integration with the Triplog smartphone application is also due to be added in the future.
An Android version of the application is expected shortly, Leonhard says.
Cheqqer is 18 months old and now claims around 1.5 million reviews across six languages.
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About Kevin May
What these guys may be missing is that with check-ins it’s about developing a habit, and that requires continuous use. It’s not as easy to develop this habit for the few weeks a year you’re on vacation.if you’re already addicted to a location check-in app, that’s what you’ll use. If you ain’t, you’re not very likely to adopt this.
@Nadav: I hear what you are saying, and indeed it will be more difficult to become a habit if you don’t travel on a daily basis.
However, that is also what bores me about most location based services: the need for checking in every minute of my existence.
I rather “cheq in” when something exciting is happening: when I’m traveling!
Cheqqer Triplog is not meant to compete with Foursquare. Not at all: it’s complementary. It’s to be used when your traveling, not for daily life.
Besides that, I personally think it would be cool if there is an app that keeps track of my complete travels: how many cities, how many countries, etc… and we are working hard on the etcetera…
Personally, I am getting bored of checking places. It would be better if we can put our phone on Automatic CheckIns if the GPS is good enough to really spot you where you are.
@guillaume – one suspects there are far too many privacy issues involved in such a move. Yes, there could be opt outs, but I’m not sure of the wider popularity of a device or service constantly sharing with the world where you are.
Maybe we can tap into the secret Apple file that keeps track of all the places my iPhone went… that would make life easy, wouldn’t it?
(sorry, that wasn’t meant in a serious way)
Privacy is not the real problem. People are moving away from this privacy issue. The real issue is people don’t use their mobile phones 3g networks abroad. Its simply too expensive.
Secondly we plan travel much different then normal daily activities.
We thought of the data roaming issue! You can ‘cheq in’ to any city in the world when you’re offline as we stored all cities in the app locally. When you come online again (when you get back home) they will be synced to the server.
I am with Guillaume. Explicit cheq-in is a problem with the kind of frequency people do the travels.
How about interpreting the timezone change or location change and then do a auto cheq-in?
I am presuming atleast 7 out of 10 guys will change their phone’s time zone’s setting (which is more intuitive) and this trigger is taken to do a auto cheq-in.