Expedia’s check-in app for Facebook is designed to fool your friends, deliver bragging rights and produce bookings for the online travel agency.
But, do social media and the world really need a Facebook app geared to make it appear as if people are visiting places they’ve never set eyes on?
Does this amount to the corruption of location-based check-ins?
Or does this writer lack the humor gene? (Not thinking so.)
Well, if you are not a fan of the social graph and advertisers’ abilities to target and retarget you, then perhaps you will welcome Expedia’s new Facebook Check-In “game,” which “offers world exploration in a click.”
Hey, and if you need an alibi for the criminal justice system or an inquiring spouse, then who knows? Maybe this will work.
If you navigate to Facebook pages for Expedia UK or Expedia France, for example, you can Like the page and then click on Expedia – Check-In.
You then select a country, such as Australia, on a map and decide if you want to check-in at the Sydney Opera House, the Great Barrier Reef or the Gold Coast, for instance.
You can check in with up to three Facebook friends or check-in alone at the destination even though probably none of you are actually there.
Once you check-in, the app posts your check-in as a Facebook status update, which you can customize, on your Facebook Timeline.
There’s no reason for your Facebook friends to doubt that you are at the Great Barrier Reef or Tiananmen Square, for instance.
After all, the status update also says, “Check out my pictures from Beijing — Tiananmen Square!”
Hey, why not check-in at the Great Barrier Reef and Tiananmen Square within 15 minutes?
Now, that’s traveling.
One of the payoffs for Expedia is what comes next.
You can “fulfill your dream to go to Beijing now” and check out the Expedia travel deals for hotels in the destination, the app says, after your complete your check-in. And you can also sign up for an Expedia deals newsletter.
Expedia is running a check-in promotion for the app April 4 to 13. There will be an Easter egg hunt using the check-in app with £50 vouchers toward hotel stays being rewarded on the Expedia UK Facebook page, for instance.
The check-in app is available on all Expedia’s country pages on Facebook, a spokesperson says.
Let the check-in trickery begin — or not.
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I’ve tried to think of something witty to write about this app but at the end of the day it boils down to….. I hate this idea!
It smacks of a desperate attempt to be cool and on trend… Why do I want to trick my mates in to thinking I’m somewhere I’m not…. What’s the point?
I did lose at footy tonight so perhaps I’m still a little annoyed at that but if this is Expedia committing to social then I’d say stick to just booking hotels….
Or perhaps me and Dennis both share a lack of humor?
What’s next: fool your friends and write reviews of places you’ve never been? Yes, it’s a game, but how will your followers know that? The trustworthiness of activities, reviews and recommendations is dependent on the integrity of this information. Game or not, this is going in the wrong direction.
How lame. This is even worse than ‘Trophy Tourism’. At least there you actually visit the place…