This has happened to me in some Asian hotels when I was PP. In at least one property they asked before taking the picture and told me how it would be used. In another, I discussed it with the CL clerk. In a Shanghai hotel they were stopping people at the CL door asking for names and checking them against the list, but I did not see this until after I walked in and sat myself. I asked the clerk if I needed to give him my name and he indicated he already knew who I was, which made me think he had seen a pic. I was not the only American or even the only one with a shaved head.

Another kinda creepy trick... I pulled a rental car into the SF JW and popped open the trunk. As the bellman was taking out my luggage he said something like, "We have been expecting you Mr. CJK. You have been upgraded to the Presidential Suite (or something like that)." There was a long line at check-in but he took me to a seating area on the side where they checked me in immediately. So I asked how he knew it was me and he sheepishly admitted that bellman will look at the airline luggage tags for a guest's name.

Another time on my first morning at an Asian hotel where I had stayed several times before, when I entered the CL the attendant ran over to my table and said something about CNN. I finally made out that a few months earlier they had seen me being interviewed on the CNN feed that plays in the CL. One of the women saw it and they all kept an eye out for the story to play again. My neighborhood gets spotlighted once a year when the FedEx Cup is played at the golf course across the street from my house and I had been interviewed in one of the stories. It shows that even if the staff is given pics, they get to know who guests are.