There are some great posts out there about how businesses can use Twitter, but I just stumbled across this LATimes article about a company that’s trying to get business by encouraging customers to stop using Twitter.

A boutique hotel chain, Broughton Hospitality, is promoting a “digital detox” called “Retweet With Broughton”.  They’ll give you 30% off a stay at one of their hotels if you hand over your IPhone, Blackberry, etc. when you check in.

I imagine some of the people I follow whose avatars appear regularly in my Twitter timeline might find this package enticing, if they could handle the withdrawal symptoms.

I could see this strategy working for restaurants and other places where all of us annoying mobile tweeters tend to congregate.

More on the promotion here.

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5 Response Comments

  • Will Hanke  May 27, 2009 at 10:04 am

    Interesting concept, and a nice discount too! Of course, I could hand over my Palm and still use my laptop… there’s always a loophole =)

  • Stever  May 27, 2009 at 10:57 am

    @Will Hanke – or smoke signals to a friend out on the street who’ll post your tweets for you 🙂

    Oh, isn’t there an app for that?

  • Marina Martin  May 27, 2009 at 7:53 pm

    There’s a restaurant in Seattle called Bizzarro that charges you $5 if you use your cell phone at dinner: http://www.bizzarroitaliancafe.com/

    Just a second before I read your post I was researching cruise lines. I’d go, if the Internet wasn’t so exorbitantly expensive ($24/hr) that I’d barely be able to use it, and consequently go into serious detox.

  • jlbraaten  May 27, 2009 at 9:20 pm

    That’s pretty crazy. Maybe they were getting too many people tweeting about them negatively while they stayed at the hotel?

    Take your tweet machine away so you can’t bash us while you’re here?

    Who knows.

  • Sam  August 2, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    Marvelous concept. I loathe Twitter and the mentality it fosters. One more thing that chops our lives into pieces and puts us into Time’s meatgrinder.