Originally Posted by
flyerCO
The systems that most hotels use, while having local databases for the specific hotel, run off a main database. Thus when you make a booking directly with hotel, the hotel is really making a booking in the centralized system. The local database just allows the hotel to still function if it gets disconnected from the main system.
You're correct, however, this doesn't fully answer my question. I understand that all information about the room reservation (name, price, hotel and/or FF #, etc.) goes into the main DB. The hotel may also have some notes on the guest (like "regular visitor" or "prefers a quiet room") that may or may not be shared with the global database. What I don't understand is the reason for sharing
sensitive information that's not really useful for your other stays - the next Chinese hotel would make another copy of your passport instead of using the one in the main database.