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Serious Privacy violation at Grand Hyatt Jakarta - What to do?

Serious Privacy violation at Grand Hyatt Jakarta - What to do?

Old Mar 20, 2019, 5:58 am
  #61  
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Originally Posted by skywalkerLAX
Huh? You can very well expect a hotel to not give out ANY information related to a guest.

Usually when you call a hotel and ask for a guest name the only answer is: a) We don't have a guest with this name b) Mr. X isn't answering his phone.
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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 6:24 am
  #62  
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Originally Posted by skj
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.
I think there is a level of reasonable expectations. It's very common that people call a hotel and ask for a guest by name so they can't just stop that practice because it would be simply impractical.

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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 6:40 am
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by birdiedouble
Rules keep honest people honest. Devious people will find away around them. I think you need to come up with a better strategy than relying on a FD agent who may or may not be aware of your situation, let alone handle it effectively.
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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 6:42 am
  #64  
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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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 7:02 am
  #65  
 
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Originally Posted by xinmpg
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.
Having lived in SE Asia, any promises of "it won't happen it again" made by one person in a larger organisation need to be rated under a "worst scenario case", i.e. that another lower ranking person will do it again.

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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 7:08 am
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Originally Posted by gengar
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.
I think you misinterpreted my message. The hotel (and their employees) are clearly responsible for their actions, however I think the OP needs to be more proactive here rather than relying on a conversation 15 months prior and FD agents who may or may not care (for a number if reasons) whether they respect her privacy. It's really not clear why this particular person is a "threat" to the OP and drawing a connection to a sexual assault is a stretch given what we know and don't know about this situation. A criminal assault is much different than being in a city with someone who "bothers" you for some unknown reason. I just think the OP needs to act differently if they can't rely on this particular property to respect their wishes and expectations. Sometimes you just need to move on rather than expect a situation to change after multiple attempts to change it.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 8:11 am
  #67  
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Originally Posted by freemark
With all due respect, on a serious matter like this why are you making flyertalk your place of complaint or advice seeking?
If as appears you are a VIP or known person why don’t you just escalate it with Hotel chain management or local management?


A person need not be a VIP or some known public figure in order to be the target of a stalker or some other obsessive/intrusive/disruptive individual.

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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 8:45 am
  #68  
 
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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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 9:37 am
  #69  
 
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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!
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 9:49 am
  #70  
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Originally Posted by gengar
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.
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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 9:58 am
  #71  
 
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Originally Posted by xinmpg
...
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.
+1. I am shocked that the hotel gave out ANY info to a random caller. My parents travel extensively, and if I am trying to reach them by phone at their hotel, I am always asked for the guest's name and room number before being connected. (my parents communicate the room # to me with the aforementioned email or messaging apps). I don't know what would happen if I called without the room number and insisted on speaking to Mr Jones because "I'm his daughter and it's urgent"
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 10:03 am
  #72  
 
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Originally Posted by Freebird
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.
...
I wonder if staying at a different hotel would even solve the OP's problem. If the stalker knows you will be attending these types of events and doesn't track you down at the Hyatt, then s/he will try other nearby hotels. Although another hotel might SAY they have better procedures in place to protect guests' privacy, as the OP has just discovered, you never know when an accidental privacy violation will occur.

Maybe AirBnb is the answer.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 12:05 pm
  #73  
 
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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.
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 12:26 pm
  #74  
 
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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.
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Last edited by HoustonConsultant; Mar 20, 2019 at 12:55 pm
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Old Mar 20, 2019, 12:30 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.

Originally Posted by LondonElite
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.
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.

Last edited by GUWonder; Mar 20, 2019 at 12:42 pm
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