Creepy Starwood Stalkers-Edina MN Westin
May 29, 2012, 6:06 pm
#91
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: AUS
Posts: 690
May 29, 2012, 6:21 pm
#92
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: DEN
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy Titanium, CX DM, SQ Gold
Posts: 1,607
But it's not just one hotel and one guest. It seems to be a mandatory chainwide program with minimal disclosure and no opt-out. Is that wrong?
Opt-out mechanisms are already there. They include not publishing stuff you don't want the public to access, privacy settings on social networking sites or not using real name on facebook.
May 29, 2012, 6:46 pm
#93
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 1,627
Social Media vs. Social Engineering
Look me up on Facebook and LinkedIn. You will now see that my profession has changed to travel author, specializing in undercover reviews of premium hotel rooms, first class air travel, and top restaurants. Here's hoping that all this "stalking" yields many room/flight upgrades and exceptional customer service for me. 
May 29, 2012, 6:56 pm
#94
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I think there's an important difference in that hotel front desk employees get your name from your reservation, not because you voluntarily decide to tell them your full name, as you might or might not if you meet someone on an airplane or in a bar.
May 29, 2012, 8:14 pm
#95
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: SYD
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But it's not just one hotel and one guest. It seems to be a mandatory chainwide program with minimal disclosure and no opt-out. Is that wrong?
May 29, 2012, 10:06 pm
#96
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Programs: AA EXP, SPG Plat
Posts: 1,472
I understand that my LinkedIn profile is public, but if I am ever asked to prove my identity other than my drivers license / passport then it will be the last time I ever stay at that property.
I have around 10 corporate badges for projects I work on or have recently worked on. Almost all of them, except when required by the government don't carry the company name as a security measure.
If I have to go to my boss or customer to get a letter stating I am on a project, etc. then I have to have the conversation as to why I'm not staying at the hotel next door to the office and why I'm driving a few extra miles to stay at SPG.
If the requirement is a business card or letter, then how hard would it really be for someone to print one of those up? All this does is inconvenience the customer - people who are using unauthorized rates will continue to do so.
I have around 10 corporate badges for projects I work on or have recently worked on. Almost all of them, except when required by the government don't carry the company name as a security measure.
If I have to go to my boss or customer to get a letter stating I am on a project, etc. then I have to have the conversation as to why I'm not staying at the hotel next door to the office and why I'm driving a few extra miles to stay at SPG.
If the requirement is a business card or letter, then how hard would it really be for someone to print one of those up? All this does is inconvenience the customer - people who are using unauthorized rates will continue to do so.
May 29, 2012, 10:39 pm
#97
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: EWR
Programs: AA, Delta, NWA,HHonors, Hyatt BF
Posts: 1,762
I would have the same reaction if I booked a rate I was entitled to.
May 29, 2012, 11:20 pm
#98
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Location: YVR
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I'm closing my linked in account.
I don't have a facebook account.
Phew!
I don't have a facebook account.
Phew!
May 31, 2012, 6:25 am
#99
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 83
Just to close the loop, I did have a call from a lovely person, Ms. H from Starwood She apologized for my discomfort and unease with the situation. This has gone all the way up the chain at Starwood and the policy and the actions of the hotel are under review. The GM of the hotel has been contacted and the matter addressed. So there is acknowledgement that something went awry here and that the process the hotel is following is not within the Starwood norms. I am guessing you will see some changes come out of this which is why I posted my concerns.
1KWoman
1KWoman
May 31, 2012, 7:09 am
#100
Join Date: Oct 2006
Programs: LAN, AA, SPG
Posts: 1,965
Just to close the loop, I did have a call from a lovely person, Ms. H from Starwood She apologized for my discomfort and unease with the situation. This has gone all the way up the chain at Starwood and the policy and the actions of the hotel are under review. The GM of the hotel has been contacted and the matter addressed. So there is acknowledgement that something went awry here and that the process the hotel is following is not within the Starwood norms. I am guessing you will see some changes come out of this which is why I posted my concerns.
1KWoman
1KWoman
OR --- you are just being humored.
May 31, 2012, 7:18 am
#101
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
Whats so creepy about others stalking you on Facebook and LinkedIn? You can bet your sweet bippy that your own employer has been doing it.
I am Platinum and Lifetime Gold. I had a reservation at the Edina MN Westin. I had a bunch of voice mails that I didn't listen to because I was really busy--my plans suddenly changed and I didn't go to MN. I called the hotel to cancel my reservation because it wouldn't let me cancel on line. Not sure why. When connected to front desk, the Front Desk Manager says "hi Mrs. 1KWoman, did you get my message? Why are you cancelling your reservation?" I said no, I did not get his message because I didn't listen to my messages. I had a change in plans. He acted very strangely. When I did listen to VM, I found this guy had left a 90 second message about my rate--that I would need to show ID to validate who I worked for, and if I was a consultant or contractor I would need to show a "proof of work" letter. If not, I would have to pay $375 vs the $175 I was booked at. I thought that was odd, since they could just ask me for ID when I got there, why take the trouble to call everyone on a corporate rate. I certainly understand if they want to get an ID. But the real weirdness happened today. I discovered that an Edina Starwood employee had gone in and looked at my LinkedIn account--on the day of my reservation. That is really creepy for certainly not comfortable. I was upset and called the GM. He stated that they check LinkedIn and Facebook to 1.) see who you are working for to validate that you are indeed with the company whose rate you are accessing and 2.) to provide a "personalized" experience as decreed by Starwood in their "Global Personalization" program. ie, to provide you with a mention of your alma mater, your pets, or what not. It totally weirded me out. I was calm but let him know that I thought it was not appropriate and way of the strange scale. Then I called Platinum Customer Service and got a great gal who thought the whole thing was weird as well and is running it up the ladder. And to top it all off, tonight I go into LinkedIn again and guess what? The GM had been in looking at my profile--after I had spoken to him and complained about the exact same behavior. Totally offputting and creepy.
I just wanted to get this out there to see if anyone had experienced the same type of thing and to get your input. If this is Starwood's new marketing strategy, I am going to stay at Marriott--as a Lifetime Platinum Elite there I have never been questioned, stalked or creeped out.
I just wanted to get this out there to see if anyone had experienced the same type of thing and to get your input. If this is Starwood's new marketing strategy, I am going to stay at Marriott--as a Lifetime Platinum Elite there I have never been questioned, stalked or creeped out.
May 31, 2012, 8:51 am
#102
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 83
Gee, that would be sad if it were just a ploy to humor me. I would hope a global organization would listen to its most frequent customers instead of just placating them with phone calls. We shall see.
May 31, 2012, 9:06 am
#103
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May 31, 2012, 9:27 am
#104
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Sidebar: has anybody in the history of humankind ever paid $375/nt. for a hotel room in Edina, Minnesota? Seems like $200 would be a max upperbound in that suburb. I've stayed in a few hotels there...corp rates are always in the $140-150 range for decent properties. It's not exactly Manhattan.
Anyway, I find a hotel employee stalking guests on the Internet for any reason to be totally unacceptable and seriously creepy. Yes, I realize it's a public profile and I purposely place content on Linkedin that I know strangers can consume, and I get strangers viewing my profile all the time (sometimes anonymously, sometimes not). Sometimes people in my industry, sometimes people who probably want to sell me something, lots of headhunters, sometimes friends, whatever. But seeing an employee of a hotel where I'm about to stay would be absolutely jarring - enough that I'd probably cancel the stay and report it to management.
And who carries a "proof of work" letter? That's ridiculous. I've traveled for work for 15 years for dozens of clients and always either showed my own firm's ID or business card or showed an ID issued by my client. That's what everybody I've known carries...the "proof of work" thing almost sounds like a military rate was being used. (Don't they carry written orders with them?) Even when I've had a Federal civilian agency as a client, we've never had written orders.
That's also really creepy, but in 2012 everybody expects that. You assume that any profile, experience, title, etc. update you make is going to be seen by your employer. If you're using social media to network for a new gig, you can turn off activity notifications to perhaps make things less obvious to your whole network, but you still expect that they *can* look.
The key difference is that I don't expect hotels to be stalking me. That is most certainly not normal behavior.
Anyway, I find a hotel employee stalking guests on the Internet for any reason to be totally unacceptable and seriously creepy. Yes, I realize it's a public profile and I purposely place content on Linkedin that I know strangers can consume, and I get strangers viewing my profile all the time (sometimes anonymously, sometimes not). Sometimes people in my industry, sometimes people who probably want to sell me something, lots of headhunters, sometimes friends, whatever. But seeing an employee of a hotel where I'm about to stay would be absolutely jarring - enough that I'd probably cancel the stay and report it to management.
And who carries a "proof of work" letter? That's ridiculous. I've traveled for work for 15 years for dozens of clients and always either showed my own firm's ID or business card or showed an ID issued by my client. That's what everybody I've known carries...the "proof of work" thing almost sounds like a military rate was being used. (Don't they carry written orders with them?) Even when I've had a Federal civilian agency as a client, we've never had written orders.
Originally Posted by AlohaDaveKennedy
Whats so creepy about others stalking you on Facebook and LinkedIn? You can bet your sweet bippy that your own employer has been doing it.
The key difference is that I don't expect hotels to be stalking me. That is most certainly not normal behavior.
May 31, 2012, 9:34 am
#105
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I find it creepy that a hotel has built this into its formal process. The hotel could also legally run certain kinds of background checks on every guest if it chose. It could do a soft credit pull on everyone if it wanted to. It could do LexisNexis research on you.
All of this would access data legally, but it would be a very creepy application of these methods. It's abnormal behavior for the transaction of reserving a hotel room. Disturbingly abnormal.