GW McLintock

A few minutes I got a very strange email, sent to about 96 people's personal email addresses (including mine) and coming from a Gmail account purporting to be the GM of the TownePlace Suites Chelsea (NYC).

While I have already canceled my reservation, I am very concerned if this is a legitimate message or some type of scam. I am somewhat upset that my personal email address is visible to 95 strangers (possibly other guests, but who knows). Does anyone know how to contact Marriott corporate security directly? Maybe I am overreacting but this is my first time in this type of situation.

-J.

GW McLintock

And now some people are replying all. What in the actual world

-J.

WasKnown

Hotels have the ability to cancel your reservation on their end. They probably need to be careful about receiving your explicit permission to do so.

Your concerns about privacy are totally valid IMO. If this is a legit email, the manner in which this was executed was super unprofessional. Can you post which gmail address sent you this message so people googling it have a chance to find it?

twitch76

That email sends all my red flags flying… at least most of them.

Tanic

My thoughts in sequence:

1. This is a scam. The syntax reads like a shady solicitation.
or
2. Incompetent and Sloppy Hotel Management.

GW McLintock

I'm now in touch with the Twitter team, though I hope they realize how big of a deal this is.

From the reply-alls I now have someone's phone number and (crazily enough) someone's reservation number and dates of travel This all could have been prevented.

-J.

pinniped

Marriott being careless with customer data?!?

In other words, Wednesday...

ElevatorEnthusiast

Truthfully, this screams technology incompetence (as well as a bit of carelessness with the obvious lack of proofreading) on the part of hotel management, rather than a scam. Regardless, anything like this that can devolve into an annoying chain of other technology-ignorant people replying all absolutely should be shut down by either Marriott or hotel ownership (the actual party at fault here). What a screw-up...

GW McLintock

Well I contacted Marriott via the website form as well as on Twitter... both cases have now been referred to the property itself So I'm not expecting much more from this.

-J.

Jon Maiman

I think it was most likely just sloppy handling of bulk communication. E.g. the author used to or cc fields for the email distribution rather than bcc which would have kept everybody's information private. Regardless poor from on the part of the property. Not surprising that other folks have naively responded to the email with reply all. Please keep us posted and let us know if this does actually turn out to be a scam.

--Jon

GW McLintock

It does seem very sloppy. I got a reply from the social media team that they referred it to the property, and I replied to the SM team that I thought it was a mistake since they (the property) were the party at fault. Like I said I am not expecting to hear much after this... I may just try calling next week. But for now we'll see what happens.

-J.

TomMM

Maybe the GM got distracted while posting in the "Bugger ....." thread.

ShopAround

Incompetent and sloppy, yes. But not necessarily a scam. I book hotels for tour groups and have received many poorly written emails over the years from properties I'm working with and they occasionally come from Gmail addresses. Many hospitality workers, even at the GM level, are not native English speakers and that sometimes is reflected in their correspondence. They may sound fishy but they usually turn out to be legitimate.

writerguyfl

Indeed. There's also a huge difference between a General Manager (GM) at a full-service hotel and one at a limited-service or extended-stay property. Those smaller properties will have tiny staffs in comparison to their full-service siblings. It wouldn't be crazy to find the GM of a TownePlace Suites working a shift at the Front Desk. Nor would be that unusual for a GM to help clean a guest room if a housekeeping staff member got sick and had to leave for the rest of the day.

Essentially, the GM of a limited-service hotel is a jack-of-all-trades. When an owner hires someone for that job, they will almost certainly prioritize operational proficiency over written communication skills.

FYI: Any compliant regarding a hotel is going to be referred back to that hotel. That's standard operating procedure for all of the hotel groups like Marriott.

No guarantees it will work, but you can try emailing [email protected] to seek assistance regarding what is a very legitimate complaint. That is a public email address that appears on the Privacy page of the Marriott website.

Source: https://www.marriott.com/about/privacy.mi

Out of my Element

any followup on this?