Although travel sites where people can review hotels vouch for your privacy, hotels are fighting back. They review negative reviews and match the dates of stay of the reviewer with their guest lists to determine who might have made the negative remarks.
Some hotels use the intelligence to reward those who post good reviews or to win back those who made bad reviews. But some put a black mark against you.
If you write a positive review, you might expect a reward from the hotel -- a gift basket or a discount on your next stay. Pan a property, and you could get a concerned e-mail from the general manager asking you to reconsider your review. Or even a black mark against you in the chain's guest database.
"I think matching reviews with guest names is a great idea," he added.
But travelers aren't sure. After hearing about one international hotel that retaliated against travelers who slammed the property, Helen O'Boyle, a Seattle-based computing consultant, is troubled by hotels that name-match. Once identified, she said, the travelers were tagged as "problem guests" in the hotel chain's reward program.
Hotels connect the dots between guests and online reviews