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New app creates pop-up social networks at hotels

Charisse Jones
USA TODAY
At the TRYP Times Square South, guests can use an app called LobbyFriend that lets them network with fellow hotel guests.

Business travel can be a lonely routine, shuttling from hotel to hotel in places where you may not know a soul. The smartphone in your pocket could be the ticket to a more social experience.

Enter LobbyFriend, an app that for the length of a hotel stay will enable users to to get information on events near and at the property, as well as send messages to other guests.

"LobbyFriend is the first-ever temporary social network,'' co-founder Jason Ayoub says about the messaging tool used by roughly 40 hotels worldwide, including the Tryp Times Square South in Manhattan.

LobbyFriend is a pioneer of sorts, which has social messaging networks that allow travelers to connect within a specific space. Virgin America enables passengers to tap into its in-flight entertainment system to send texts to other fliers on board. Another app, dubbed InHotel, is being developed to focus on business travelers on the road.

Douglas Rice, CEO of Hotel Technology Next Generation, a global trade group that connects hotel companies with technology businesses, says that although there are few such apps or users in the lodging industry, he believes there's potential for such networking channels to catch on.

"Many hotel guests, particularly business travelers, travel frequently and are alone,'' Rice says. "The option to meet up with people around common interests makes sense. And it gives hotels a way to communicate more directly with onsite guests for special offers and upsells. In that sense, it can compete with a hotel's own app, but not every hotel has one, and not every guest will want to use it even if they do.''

He says, "Guests can find someone with common interests to find a meal, watch a game, have a drink. ... And yes, a temporary social network can be used to form a temporary dating relationship, which is certainly going to appeal to some people as well.''

LobbyFriend launched in February 2012, and Ayoub says the messaging network will be in four more U.S. properties by March.

The idea for the network was sparked in part by Ayoub's own experiences. He used to travel nearly every month for work and could be at a full hotel, yet feel all alone in a deserted lobby. "We wanted to find a way to break down those walls and connect people,'' he says.

Hotels pay on average $100 a month for LobbyFriend, which guests can use when they access the hotel's Wi-Fi. Users can remain anonymous, fill out a profile, sign in with Facebook or even create an avatar. In addition to messages on guests' smartphone or laptop, a digital board is available for hotels to display the stream of messages as they flow in.

A guest might want to tell the hotel community she just proposed to her fiancé, Ayoub says, or sightseers might send out the message "Let's share a cab. ... We're going to the Eiffel Tower.''

The Tryp Times Square South has a 40-inch screen that scrolls messages throughout the day, and thousands of the hotel's guests have become part of the temporary community. "Our concierge posts good deals for the day,'' says Ben Elie, the Tryp's guest service manager. "And guests interact with each other.''

Users can send personal messages through LobbyFriend, but there are protections in place. A guest can decide to block messages or a specific user. Once a guest checks out, their messaging footprint is erased, Ayoub says.

Elie says there haven't been any issues. "I get an e-mail whenever there's a post put up, so I can screen it to make sure nothing inappropriate is being posted in the lobby,'' he says. "You'll see, 'I'm going to the meatpacking district on Friday night. Anybody want to join?' And people will say sure, and they meet in the lobby, and what happens after the fact is between them. But we've never had any altercations or foul incidents as a result of it.''

Robert Cole, a marketing and technology consultant to the travel industry, says hotels have much to consider before adopting such social networking apps, particularly the security and privacy of their guests. He says the development and fine-tuning of such portals will probably take several years.

It looks like "an interesting idea with maybe some value but also a long list of potential downsides,'' Cole says. "Trading personal information for convenience and discovery — there's a bumpy road. ... It's all these unanticipated consequences.''

Robert Schukai, a member of USA TODAY's Road Warriors panel, is also skeptical.

"I don't think I would use such an app,'' says Schukai, a head of advanced product innovation, who lives in Marietta, Ga. "If I'm staying with fellow colleagues, I'd simply use existing solutions that I have like iMessage or Twitter DM. It isn't clear to me what would be particularly useful about an app that would let me message random hotel guests."

Jon Petz, a chief engagement officer in Powell, Ohio, who also belongs to the panel of frequent travelers, had mixed feelings about such a platform.

It could be positive if "we had a large portion of attendees of a conference staying at that location,'' he says. "We could have a makeshift meet-up at the bar to discuss plans or alter plans of a bus departure time.''

Such an app could also be an opening for unwanted overtures from strangers, he says. "I think this opens the door to sexual advances or offers that may be most unwelcome or threatening,'' Petz says.

Diana Leon, a field interviewer from Oakland, says such an app could be useful.

"My immediate reaction is yes,'' she says about whether she'd use a personal messaging app in her hotel. "I just attended a fairly large conference at the LAX Marriott where I interacted and met new associates with whom contact information had not yet been exchanged.''

Such an app could be helpful at weddings or fundraisers, she says, "where many are brought together for a common cause'' but may not run into each other or exchange phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

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