We’re so excited about Foursquare Local Updates. Coming out next week, the new feature lets business owners send updates to their “best customers” when they’re nearby.

According to Mashable: “Customers nearby” can be anywhere between a one and ten mile radius while “best customers” are determined by a combination of how often they check in, how recently they’ve checked in, and whether they’ve liked the venue on Foursquare.

This is great news for the hospitality industry and hotels are already using this new feature by offering loyalty points upon check-in or vouchers for the F&B and Spa outlets. There’s also huge opportunity for contesting and it’s not a stretch to say it began with the game-changing partnership between Starwood Hotels and Foursquare that rolled out last year.

In addition to offering SPG members additional points, badges and rewards upon check in, a contest to find the hidden hotel among 1,000 participating properties sky rocketed participation in just days. Fittingly, the program was announced via its SPGInsider Twitter account, “Checking-in just got even more rewarding. Link your SPG acct with foursquare and earn bonus Starpoints, visit http://bit.ly/SPG4Square.”

Tristan Walker, Director of Business Development for Foursquare said of the partnership, “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Starwood on what will be one of the widest reaching loyalty integrations on any location-based service.”

Another aspect of this hyper local feature will be the opportunity for last minute deals and targeted marketing. For example, a property can use this tool to give away free passes to their pool via Foursquare to users who have checked in at a given hotel location. Likewise with spa treatments, food and beverage, and last minute weekend getaways.

This partnership signifies a massive shift in loyalty program strategy and online marketing and we’re looking forward to seeing what Foursquare comes up with next!