s0ssos

In Asia some accomodations have an awful lot of your personal information (the one I stayed at recently took a photocopy of my passport, and also my credit card). If you have an issue, and they don't like you bringing it up, would they do something to retaliate?

I heard from my friend in China that a guesthouse retaliated for a negative review by spamming her phone with a million texts and calls (there are services you can hire to do that in China, or apps you can buy, apparently). But this was a Chinese national staying in a Chinese guesthouse, which had her phone number. I try not to give out my mobile number to any establishment.

Anybody had something happen in Asia, or know any tips to be aware of?

B407

I've never had an issue or heard of anything like that. Although accommodations in Asia are quite affordable when compared to western standards so we typically stay at pretty nice places and there has never been an issue with the service.

Also many countries around the world photocopy your passport before they can allow you to stay at their hotel, so that is not an abnormal practice.

IAN-UK

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short answer: NO

Sounds like a silly concern.

CrazyInteg

No. Ain't nobody got time for that.

invisible

No.
First - nobody bothers. Secondly - Western ideas about privacy/data/personal space is not applicable here.

LondonElite

Why do you bring this up for Asia? It is customary for the hotel to have some form of ID for you (very common/mandatory in parts of Europe), and all have your cc information. The could, but who bothers? An unnecessary concern.

jiejie

No, not a worry at all. Of all the worries one could have traveling in Asia, this one doesn't even make the top 100 List.

Annalisa12

I don't worry about that. My worry is that drugs will be planted in my bags.

Last trip to Bali we had a bit of a panic. As we got to the carousel there was an official standing next to our luggage and he asked if this was our bags. We said it was. He then pointed to the back of it and it had a huge 20 cm split in the side of the case. I thought, shoot, how long has that been open with all the baggage handlers having access. The man then said....when it came off the carousel it got caught and broke. He said..."I watched it and watched it to make sure nothing happened and I even took a video of it so you could see nobody touched it". Once we saw the video of it catching on the carousel my anxiety level decreased from a 1000 to about a 5.

s0ssos

Would you ever imagine a place in America or Europe saying this:
"As mentioned, we will continue the investigation as long as we can. If you decide to blame us for it, we will have to stop looking for it and protect our reputation from false accusations."

invisible

In US probably you will get cease and desist letter from a a business/lawyer.

Now you are dragging your lost camera situation into 'hotel blackmailing' thread. These two are not related - you asked a question if your personal information can be used by hotels and everyone who answered said 'no'.

s0ssos

I stand corrected. Apparently hotels in US also do this:
A hotel punished guests for bad reviews with a $350 charge. It's now being sued by the state. - SFGate

Annalisa12

I was offered a $500 refund from a Sofitel hotelnif I look my review down. I chose to keep it up.