NBC News: St. Regis Bora Bora “Googles every guest”
Interesting story on NBC News recently:
Quote:
The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort, meanwhile, Googles every guest two weeks prior to arrival. “We actually create a little story about them — just a paragraph or so — and share that with the heads of each department at our daily NDA [next-day arrivals] meeting,” says general manager Michael Schoonewagen. (You didn't know they had a little story about you, did you?) It’s not rocket science, Schoonewagen adds, and it doesn't cost them a thing. “The first page of Google results is usually sufficient. We’re not digging into every last detail of someone’s life — we just want a picture of who they are.”
I know a CS from one of my regular hotel check my profile in linkedin. Don't mind looking at her photo again as she has a very nice glamour shot posted in her profile.
I could swear someone posted about the W Bali doing this. He gave a very detailed review of his stay during their opening weeks and they had put a photo of him in a frame or something? I'm too lazy to use search for his post.
Google is nothing compared to when I used to do consulting for Las Vegas properties - all the major players rank and score you in Vegas and they crawl thru every social media site - even things like where you sit at a dinner reservation are impacted by your score.
I could swear someone posted about the W Bali doing this. He gave a very detailed review of his stay during their opening weeks and they had put a photo of him in a frame or something? I'm too lazy to use search for his post.
According to the NBC/T+L article, (non-Starwood) hotels are even grabbing photos of guests' families and putting them in rooms.
Sounds like a current event that could get pulled into an episode of Law and Order... a business man brings his fling to the hotel only to find a photo of his wife and kids on the desk. Hotel manager is later interviewed at the crime scene saying, "Hey all the other high end hotels are doing it!"
Programs: United 1K, Delta Gold, Cathay Pacific Diamond, SPG plat.
Posts: 371
I book my hotels under different alias names for work without using the same one twice in a row, would love to see what story they come up with for me!
The late Michael Crighton tells a story about a hotel stay. He gets his room and the desk drawers are taped shut with Scotch (tm) tape.
This was in London if I recall, around 40 years back. It was a higher end hotel that kept notes on the guests to refine their subsequent stays.
It turns out, during his last visit he was editing a book or script. This was when cut and paste meant tools that cut and things that stuck. He found it easier to run tape down the drawer knobs so he could use scissors to cut the tape between two knobs to get a right size piece of tape.
No telling what the hotel thought of that, but they were courteous enough to tape the desk drawers shut for his next visit. If I recall, he did ask the front desk what was going on, and he said they thought he had some sort of quirk about drawers.
That's attention to detail.
The wrong detail, but nevertheless, attention to detail.
It depends what they do with the information, if they use it to personalise your service thats great, but if I normally order steak, maybe this trip I would prefer the fish.
Programs: UA MM 1K; Fairmont & Starwood platinum; Hyatt diamond; Kimpton IC Elite
Posts: 16,088
Quote:
Originally Posted by jetboy787
I book my hotels under different alias names for work without using the same one twice in a row, would love to see what story they come up with for me!
What do you do when asked for a photo ID matching you to the reservation?
I book my hotels under different alias names for work without using the same one twice in a row, would love to see what story they come up with for me!
How do you get to be Plat if all your stays are on different fake names?
