Since last summer TopGuest has been offering points for check-ins on Foursquare at various hotel chains.

They started with Priority Club, added Hilton and some others. And though I was initially skeptical, I quickly made it a part of my daily routine. I check in at the Holiday Inn a couple of blocks from my office each day, and also at a Doubletree a few miles away as well. And I get 50 Priority Club and 50 Hilton HHonors points daily. Unfortunately though I do this frequently I cannot become ‘mayor’ of either property, because I travel too much, there appears to be someone checking in at each hotel who literally does it every single day without fail.

Yesterday it was reported that Best Western Rewards has been added to Topguest. That prompted me to link my Best Western Rewards account to Topguest and test a checkin at a relatively sort of kind of nearby Best Western property, it worked and posted quickly to my Topguest account. And it also prompted me to link my Choice Privileges account.

There’s much discussion of the ins and out of Topguest and receiving points for free at Milepoint. The gist is that you sign up for a Topguest account and then link a social media platform like Foursquare to it. Then you also link your frequent guest programs, and each time you ‘check in’ on Foursquare at a participating hotel property, Topguest knows it and awards you points. Some points, like HHonors points, post instantly. Other points, like Priority Club, post later on in batches. But while the points for any given checkin are modest (50 Priority Club points are worth about 30 cents), the fact that you can do this day after day, and during true downtime (I do it walking to my office usually, when I’m not otherwise going to be very productive), I’ve found it worthwhile.

The Topguest partners that I find worthwhile are:

• Priority Club, 50 points per day for checkin at an Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza or Holiday Inn.
  
• Hilton HHonors, 50 points per day for checkin at a Doubletree.
  
• Best Western Rewards, 50 points per day for checkin at any Best Western hotel in North America.
  
• Choice Privileges, 50 points per day for checkin at any Quality Inn, Comfort Suites and Cambria Suites.

Ones I’m not personally doing:

• Virgin America Elevate, 25 points per checkin at a Virgin America airport terminal or baggage claim. Seems an easy one but I’ve not been engaged in Virgin America’s program.
  
• Kimpton InTouch, one stay credit for your first checkin. If you’re into Kimpton’s program, it’s a free stay credit… but I don’t really do the Kimpton program.
  
• Wyndham Rewards, 50 points per day for checkin at any Wingate by Wyndham. (There just aren’t any nearby Wingates for me.)
  
• Total Rewards, 50 points for checkins at Caesar’s in Vegas.
  
• Voila Rewards, 50 points per checkin daily at one of their network hotels.
  
• Clubhotels, a personalized reward for every 5 checkins.
  
• Avis, 10% off a rental for UK checkins.
  
• Additional offers from Standard Hotels, Viceroy Hotels, and Thompson hotels.

All in all, a whole bunch of points just a few points at a time via social media, although Starwood caught on with a recent promotion and actually required bonuses for checkin be done in conjunction with an actual reservation. That’s thinking! The bonus was also more lucrative (250 Starpoints), so it’s hard to fault them for being more restrictive. But I’ll take the free points for checking in with my phone while I’m not doing anything else, while it lasts.