Loews Hotels Launches Twitter Reservations

On November 19th, Loews Hotels and Resorts will begin letting customers book rooms through Twitter, in a program the company is calling “social reservations.” It works by tweeting @Loews_Hotels with #BookLoews to declare interest in a room, at which point a Loews travel planner will step in and DM a user a link to a chat conversation to finish and confirm the booking process. In an age where 34% of hotel revenue comes through digital and mobile app bookings, this is another big step forward in innovative ways of increasing social engagement while simultaneously tapping into a new revenue stream. The success of this system could determine whether this method of booking becomes mainstream.