Snap’s New Feature for Hotels and Destinations Shows the Promise of Visual Search
Photo Credit: Snap will soon show more short videos with a travel theme, such as one with travel influencer Nicole Gromley in Tahiti. It's part of Snap's broader aspirational moves into travel commerce. Snap
Skift Take
The messaging app bets it can leap into becoming a platform for discovering places and hotels. Odds are against the company. But odds are in favor of visual-first search becoming widespread.
Snap is working on a tool for marketers of hotels, restaurants, activity operators and other companies that have real-world locations.
The disappearing message app maker will work with Bookatable, Foursquare, Lyft, Michelin Guides, OpenTable, Resy, TripAdvisor, and Uber on a new tool called “context cards."
The cards let its mobile app users swipe up to get more details about points-of-interest within photos and videos. Within a few flicks of a thumb, a user can see maps with appealing attractions nearby, make reservation or hotel reservations, and hail a ride to get to these places.
For example, context cards may let hotels and other travel destinations receive some additional marketing impressions based on existing guests sharing their "snaps," or image-based stories.
As our colleagues at Skift Table point out, "The addition of these cards to content in Snapchat is a big deal, especially for Snap,
