You know the way when you check back in to a property previously visited, they'll often say "Welcome back"?

Well, I checked in to a certain Airport Hilton tonight, as I often do when I have early departures and I was greeted with a "welcome back" by a staff member I'd not met before now. So, I decided to ask him what his system had prompted him to do. So, he turned his screen round to show me.

Status was prominantly displayed at the top along with my membership number and personal details.

There was a big box, top left, on this hotel's system indicating a standard greeting for me - and he mentioned that he had addressed me by my first name, as I had previously indicated that was my preference. In bright red it read "Welcome BACK GoldCircle - it's nice to have you back with us once again. I hope you'll have a pleasant stay."

I could clearly see 3 boxes displaying the number of nights I had spent in three categories: property (this hotel), chain (Hilton) and <forget word> but it indicated Hilton family nights i.e. Doubletree, Conrad, HGI etc.

Below that were a whole bunch of prefs - the stuff in your profile: smoking, bed size, distance from elevator, floor height, earning prefs, MyWay prefs etc. etc.

All obvious enough, but I'd never seen it before.