Serious Privacy violation at Grand Hyatt Jakarta - What to do?
#61
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While in the OP's case, additional information - check in & check out dates - was provided, it sounds like simply confirming the OP was in house would be sufficiently troublesome for the OP.
#62
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If I "expect a hotel to not give out ANY information", I would expect the property to not even acknowledge if I was or was not a guest.
While in the OP's case, additional information - check in & check out dates - was provided, it sounds like simply confirming the OP was in house would be sufficiently troublesome for the OP.
While in the OP's case, additional information - check in & check out dates - was provided, it sounds like simply confirming the OP was in house would be sufficiently troublesome for the OP.
Agreed that the case of the OP seems murky when it comes to this situation. If you have someone who it stalking you for whatever reason, be it a personal acquaintance or an overly zealous local supplier that you can't shake off then IMHO there is no other way than to stop staying at this hotel for a considerable time. Jakarta has tons of hotels and sometimes we have to make a choice as to what's more important to us, points or comfort.
#63
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This is just not a good rationale. Do you say the same thing if a guest doesn't want to get sexually assaulted - that she shouldn't rely on an FD agent not to give out her room key to a drunken stranger not registered to the room? Is OP just supposed to stay home because "devious people" are always going to find ways to continue harassment? The bottom line is that hotels have an obligation to the safety and security of hotel guests, and procedures should be in place to manage privacy accordingly. The fact that management was made aware of OP's situation and promised protection, yet this situation still happened, is quite bothersome.
#64
This is a rather strange situation. There is no clear answer to it.
1. There is a culture difference in Asia vs. Western world. Privacy is less defined in the East. So this is not uncommon. Culturally, this practice is accepted.
2. It is not unusual for friends and family to call hotel and try to find the guest. They may not know the exact room number. Some friendly hotel rep will find them for you. Thank you very much!
It is going to take a long time to educate the hotel operator to respect the more "Western" privacy. But it takes a long time.
The best way for the OP is to go under the radar. First, solve your own personal problem, the root cause. Second, stay at a hotel that the intruder would not know. There are plenty hotels in that large city and the intruder can't call all hotels to dig up the name. You can tell hotel operator for the "absolute privacy". But you know some staff may not follow the instructions.
1. There is a culture difference in Asia vs. Western world. Privacy is less defined in the East. So this is not uncommon. Culturally, this practice is accepted.
2. It is not unusual for friends and family to call hotel and try to find the guest. They may not know the exact room number. Some friendly hotel rep will find them for you. Thank you very much!
It is going to take a long time to educate the hotel operator to respect the more "Western" privacy. But it takes a long time.
The best way for the OP is to go under the radar. First, solve your own personal problem, the root cause. Second, stay at a hotel that the intruder would not know. There are plenty hotels in that large city and the intruder can't call all hotels to dig up the name. You can tell hotel operator for the "absolute privacy". But you know some staff may not follow the instructions.
#65
Join Date: Oct 1999
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Well, thats a bit my point. It happened before, and I asked them what they could do so it wouldn't happen again. They offered to mark my profile as "private" so people couldn't just call and ask if i was there. But, they ignored it this last visit when i was there and someone did call.
This is a standard hotel offering, and something they said they did for me. It's not that I'm asking the hotel to help me avoid a specific person, but that I want my privacy respected where I'm staying. Do you think celebrities and such that travel allow random people to call the hotel and ask if they're there? Or, should hotel guest registries be public?
I'm just asking what the opinion is of this group (frequent travelers) when a hotel I've invested significantly in (Diamond/Globalist for years) gives me a problem like this. Who to raise it to: Corporate, the membership program, just ..... on every public review sites, etc.
This is a standard hotel offering, and something they said they did for me. It's not that I'm asking the hotel to help me avoid a specific person, but that I want my privacy respected where I'm staying. Do you think celebrities and such that travel allow random people to call the hotel and ask if they're there? Or, should hotel guest registries be public?
I'm just asking what the opinion is of this group (frequent travelers) when a hotel I've invested significantly in (Diamond/Globalist for years) gives me a problem like this. Who to raise it to: Corporate, the membership program, just ..... on every public review sites, etc.
After this incident, your best option was to stay at a different place (and request total anonymity there). This would also at least have made it much harder for the caller to find you, as they correctly guessed you'd be staying there again.
Sorry to say but you need to become more unpredictable in Jakarta. As for the Hyatt, I'd just let it go (and never stay there again) unless you know some really powerful people.
#66
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This is just not a good rationale. Do you say the same thing if a guest doesn't want to get sexually assaulted - that she shouldn't rely on an FD agent not to give out her room key to a drunken stranger not registered to the room? Is OP just supposed to stay home because "devious people" are always going to find ways to continue harassment? The bottom line is that hotels have an obligation to the safety and security of hotel guests, and procedures should be in place to manage privacy accordingly. The fact that management was made aware of OP's situation and promised protection, yet this situation still happened, is quite bothersome.
#67
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Complaining and seeking advice about a Hyatt hotel? It seems like this part of Flyertalk is the perfect place for the OP to try to deal with this matter -- before, during or after dealing with hotel/chain management.
#68
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Since you had an issue in the past, you should have confirmed at check in that your wanted complete privacy, no acknowledgment to anyone that you were at the hotel. You could have even shown your 15 month old email from the manager to confirm it would be followed. You need to be your own best advocate. I am in no way saying the hotel was correct, but since it is an important issue to you, your should have confirmed at check-in. Just my opinion. (I ask a lot of questions, so the hotel knows my expectations, and I understand theirs). Sorry this happened to you.
#69
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: DEN
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I sympathize with OP's dilemma, having been in a similar situation. Agree that Hyatt should have a better way of handling this issue, consistently applied across all properties. At the same time, a wealth of Flyertalk expertise has weighed in here, suggesting that for whatever reason a resolution is not likely anytime soon, any Hyatt assurances to the contrary notwithstanding. FWIW, I agree with that perspective.
With all due respect, at this point the tenor of the OPs continuing posts suggests to this reader that OP is looking for validation of a predetermined conclusion, rather than simply for others' expectations "about situations like this." The good thing about FT is that you will have plenty of supportive opinions to choose from!
With all due respect, at this point the tenor of the OPs continuing posts suggests to this reader that OP is looking for validation of a predetermined conclusion, rather than simply for others' expectations "about situations like this." The good thing about FT is that you will have plenty of supportive opinions to choose from!
#70
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This is just not a good rationale. Do you say the same thing if a guest doesn't want to get sexually assaulted - that she shouldn't rely on an FD agent not to give out her room key to a drunken stranger not registered to the room? Is OP just supposed to stay home because "devious people" are always going to find ways to continue harassment? The bottom line is that hotels have an obligation to the safety and security of hotel guests, and procedures should be in place to manage privacy accordingly. The fact that management was made aware of OP's situation and promised protection, yet this situation still happened, is quite bothersome.
#71
Join Date: Dec 2003
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My opinion is hotel staff should never divulge by name, but instead if someone calls that person should have to ask for a specific room number. In this age of emails, sms, whatsapp, and ubiquitous international roaming and wifi, how many people would actually have to call a hotel on a land line to find you? Anyone close should be in contact some other way.
My opinion is hotel staff should never divulge by name, but instead if someone calls that person should have to ask for a specific room number. In this age of emails, sms, whatsapp, and ubiquitous international roaming and wifi, how many people would actually have to call a hotel on a land line to find you? Anyone close should be in contact some other way.
#72
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Maybe AirBnb is the answer.
#73
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 16
Many hotels will tell someone who calls whether someone is a guest there. It seems to be common practice. However, signing in with an alias is often done for celebrities so why not you?, or notations are made to not give out any any information if anyone inquires. Do you know whether the person giving out information about you was on the front desk or a phone operator? There could have been a mix up, with one not knowing that you wanted anonymity. Definitely talk to the GM, not just someone on the desk or a supervisor. You need to go high. It does make a difference. Low level hotel workers may not pay appropriate attention to you, or just try to appease, but if the GM knows you're a regular guest, that carries weight and workers will follow his or her instructions or face reprimand or worse.
#74
Join Date: Sep 2009
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There are some hurdles in checking in under a different name.
You are going to need to produce an ID and payment with a name on it, and most folks don't have an extra ID with a different name.
If you are a celebrity, you may have people to handle this, but most people aren't traveling with an entourage.
When I was doing some sensitive work where something could possibly go wrong if people knew were I was, I asked to be put as the secondary guest with an alias as the primary guest. They wouldn't let me check-in as the alias since I did not have an ID with that alias. However, after check-in, I was able to switch it to me as a secondary guest. The "system" then wanted to pull back all my globalist (diamond at the time) benefits because the primary guest was not a diamond (or even a person), but eventually someone was able to override that.
Even with that, if someone had called asking for me, I'm not sure if the system would have shown me as checked in since I was the secondary guest on a reservation.
With IDs and payments, it is hard to get it set up as a complete alias without your real name being linked to a reservation at some point unless you have someone else make the reservation and who show up to check-in for you.
You are going to need to produce an ID and payment with a name on it, and most folks don't have an extra ID with a different name.
If you are a celebrity, you may have people to handle this, but most people aren't traveling with an entourage.
When I was doing some sensitive work where something could possibly go wrong if people knew were I was, I asked to be put as the secondary guest with an alias as the primary guest. They wouldn't let me check-in as the alias since I did not have an ID with that alias. However, after check-in, I was able to switch it to me as a secondary guest. The "system" then wanted to pull back all my globalist (diamond at the time) benefits because the primary guest was not a diamond (or even a person), but eventually someone was able to override that.
Even with that, if someone had called asking for me, I'm not sure if the system would have shown me as checked in since I was the secondary guest on a reservation.
With IDs and payments, it is hard to get it set up as a complete alias without your real name being linked to a reservation at some point unless you have someone else make the reservation and who show up to check-in for you.
Last edited by HoustonConsultant; Mar 20, 2019 at 12:55 pm
#75
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You don't need to be a celebrity or have an entourage to be able to utilize booked accommodations in a name of someone else that isn't the same name as on say your passport.
Even if having to use your own name and ID to check-in and no one else's name/ID, using initials and partial name order swap and typos can work still. Note that some Hyatt hotels at check-in have been known to revise name on their system so as to have it match a presented passport, for example, whether or not required by law.
Booking a hotel is a bad idea if you want a very high degree of privacy. For a high degree of privacy, you get someone to book a safe house of sorts and let them handle the booking, payment and access to the house for some time before you expect to show up and use it for part of the booked period. In and around Jakarta, there are apartments and houses available for rent, even for very short periods of time. Some of them may be better for maintaining a much lower profile than staying in a a higher traffic area like a hotel.
I have known people in Jakarta to use a hired local driver for some such purposes. I also know some people in Jakarta who booked Indonesian Hyatt hotels in their own name and checked-in while soon after check-in allowing other people to occupy the rooms as the secondary guests. Some of these people are lifetime Globalists or nearly there. And some are/were personal acquaintances of some of the Hyatt GMs in Indonesia.
Even if having to use your own name and ID to check-in and no one else's name/ID, using initials and partial name order swap and typos can work still. Note that some Hyatt hotels at check-in have been known to revise name on their system so as to have it match a presented passport, for example, whether or not required by law.
There is no way to ensure the hotel will be able to promise complete anonymity. What should happen and what happens in practice are often very different. If it were really important to me to be fully incognito, I would book a different hotel and under a different name. I might wear a disguise. But expecting the hotel to be fully watertight with my identity is unrealistic.
I have known people in Jakarta to use a hired local driver for some such purposes. I also know some people in Jakarta who booked Indonesian Hyatt hotels in their own name and checked-in while soon after check-in allowing other people to occupy the rooms as the secondary guests. Some of these people are lifetime Globalists or nearly there. And some are/were personal acquaintances of some of the Hyatt GMs in Indonesia.
Last edited by GUWonder; Mar 20, 2019 at 12:42 pm