Search private venues with Foursquare API

Question

I'm using Foursquare API search venues call in my app for getting places to check-in. Unfortunatelly it seems this search result doesn't include private venues (like homes etc.). I saw other 3rd party apps working with private venues in search results, so it should be possible. But how?

Answer 1

The only 3 ways that I know of getting private venue information is the following:

1. You are the manager of the venue: Using endpoints like VenueGroups allows you to pull all venues, including private ones, that can be managed by you. In this situation the Foursquare app would be making user-less calls using an app created by the same user.

2. The manager of the venue has authenticated with your application: similar to #1 but in this case you would need to make user-based calls to VenueGroup end-points as the manager of the private venue. In this situation you would need the manager to authenticate to your app.

3. A user is authenticated with your Foursquare application and checks-in to a private venue: once a user has authenticated to your app. you can request that all future checkins be posted to an endpoint you create on a public server. Whenever that user checkins in anywhere, you get a ping with that information.

I have to warn you though, based on what you described, I believe those 3rd parties might be in violation of the Foursquare TOS.