Location-based social networks such as foursquare and Gowalla likely will soon see a flurry of integrations with hotels and other brands as travel companies tap into new mobile-marketing vehicles.

InterContinental Hotels Group says it became the first hotel company to connect with its guests through Gowalla when they check in at the property.

When guests check in for stays at two IHG brands — Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza — they can also “check-in” on Gowalla via their mobile devices and receive targeted pitches about the hotel group’s Hit it Big rewards promotion through June 30, 2010.

“We’re excited to be the first hotel company to use Gowalla’s location-based service to market at the intersection of mobile and physical check-ins,” says Del Ross, IHG’s vice president of U.S. sales and marketing.

Other chains certainly will follow suit as the travel industry gears up to take advantage of such location-based networks and their marketing potential.

The staff of La Brasserie at Le Royal Meridien Mumbai have been known to connect with dining guests and even provide a complimentary dessert or two after they checked in on foursquare from the restaurant using a mobile device.

The City of Chicago recently partnered with foursquare , offering points and badges when tourists and others check in at designated hot dog vendors around the city.

And, National Geographic and the Washington Post recently partnered with Gowalla to offer hand-picked tours.

The next horizon might be for Gowalla and foursquare actually to process hotel check-ins — would that be a king-size bed or double, and how many keys would you like, mam? — but that sort of thing might be a bit dicey for a plethora of reasons.

Gowalla, a location-based social-networking service on smartphones, concluded an agreement with the Travel Channel to integrate some of its content.

In the initial integration, the Gowalla platform, which just became available on Android devices, and was already compatible with iPhones and Blackberrys, will incorporate content about dining venues visited in the Travel Channel’s new TV series, Food Wars.

Food Wars takes well-known chefs and has them face-off against one another, with their culinary talents judged in a showdown through a blind taste test.

With Gowalla apps, users “check-in” to various restaurants and travel destinations and share their experiences with friends on Gowalla and other social networks. They can also collect “game-like rewards” at locations they visit.

When Gowalla users check in to venues visited in Food Wars, they will be able to read show-related information about the restaurant and collect passport-stamp rewards, Gowalla says.

“Catering to the loyal fan bases of these local eating establishments creates an ideal environment for consumer interaction and brand engagement,” says Chris Ackermann, director of business development for the Travel Channel.

In other developments, last month Gowalla released an API for developers.

The Gowalla homepage features a scroll of users checking in to venues around the world.

Gowalla says users have checked in at 600,000 locations in more than 165 countries.