This is an unquestionable violation of trust with Starwood's customers.

Similar to 1kwoman's story, I am also an SPG Platinum and Lifetime Gold--next year will be Lifetime Platinum. I am also currently staying in the MSP area, frequently at the Westin Edina--which regularly sells out, so I consider multiple MSP hotels including the last few of the Starwoods that don't sell out as often (typically the Four Points and Sheraton Midtown).

Two weeks ago I noticed that Lynn Williams, the Director of Sales and Marketing at the Sheraton Minneapolis Midtown Hotel checked my LinkedIn profile. I had previously booked and canceled several times, but had not stayed until last week.

I thought that was odd. I have worked with DS&M's before (given that I usually travel with a fair sized team), but, to me, this crossed a line.

And--to dispel any nonsense of personalization--if there were to have been ANY of this alleged "personalization benefit" from Lynn checking my profile, it was not realized last week when I checked in and (amazingly, still) had to present my business card at the Sheraton Minneapolis Midtown.

In my 14 years and over 500 stays at Starwood, I have never once been asked to present my business card--let alone when the Sales Manager had checked my LinkedIn profile a week earlier.

Bottom line, my LinkedIn info is publicly available information; but, to me, this crosses a very bright line. If Lynn Williams had contacted me based on my and my team's reservations and activities at her hotel; or if Starwood's new approach is to check all corporate IDs; that would be a different matter.

But this looking up of Minneapolis guests' info on LinkedIn is, in my less than humble opinion, sleazy and lacking in integrity. It is not the behavior of a company I want to do business with and it is not the behavior I've seen from Starwood over my years of traveling.

I will--most definitely--not be staying at the Sheraton MSP midtown again (even when other Starwoods are sold out--Starwood has lost my, very loyal, business in this case going forward).

And if other Starwoods are going to engage the same behavior, I will reconsider my loyalty with Starwood more broadly.

Yuck.