1Kwoman

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.

JFKSFOLAX_friend

I agree this is very creepy. The property is well withing its rights to check ID when you arrive. But, to troll around LinkedIn and Facebook investigating its guests is very creepy.

redreeper

The part about calling to verify for the special rate, not so weird... maybe just a heads up to expect it to avoid check-in issues....

...but the rest, really creepy. As a woman who often travels alone, if I saw someone from the hotel was checking my facebook/LinkedIn I would probably cancel on that basis alone.

Are you serious about the "personalization" experience, pets, alma mater, etc?? Is that actually in writing somewhere?

JFKSFOLAX_friend

Oh, yeah. This is completely bogus.

I would definitely report this to Starwood. Typically, a Customer Service File just gets sent to the GM. Since that wouldn't work in this case, I am not sure how to proceed.

Perhaps one of our esteemed Lurkers could suggest a way to complain about a hotel without the issue being sent to the GM for resolution.

forumpersona999

You make a profile on a public social networking website. People will look at it. You cannot seriously have any expectation of privacy there !?!?

Best you can do is lock down your privacy settings so that random Facebook users can't see your employment status amongst other things.

To put my comments into perspective: Every year I donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I am connected to a 256bit encrypted VPN connection, just sent several encrypted e-mails and don't fly to countries where they fingerprint people for fun, so I am all about privacy.

What would cross the line for me is if they made a fake account and friended me to see my "friends and family"-protected Facebook data or my "My contacts"-only LinkedIN data.

But what you put on public Facebook, LinkedIN or Google+ profiles is fair game IMHO.

redreeper

I'm imagining checking into my hotel and being asked how my pets are...by name. <<<chills>>>

BigBopper

Agreed it's totally creepy, however when you choose to put your information on the internet and not tailor the privacy settings to something you're comfortable with then things like this can happen. If you don't want a stranger to know your personal information then don't put it on the net.

starflyer

You openly and knowingly expose your information to hundreds of millions of people on the internet, and then are creeped out when two of those hundreds of millions of people who have a potential business relationship with you actually look at it?

MrHalliday

well.... how are they doing... ??

redreeper

<<<chills>>>

Minneapolis

I'm totally going to add "enjoys suite upgrades and complimentary bottles of sparkling wine while traveling" to my LinkedIn profile.

forumpersona999

I am going to make a public, fully unlocked LinkedIN profile with my name and picture and say I am working for Starwood HQ, Global VP of Quality Assurance and Brand Identity or some such

1Kwoman

Intent is everything in this situation. The intent is misguided and super creepy.

JFKSFOLAX_friend

Easily the funniest thing I have read in a while.

whimike

I have to agree with this. If you put information up that is public it is fair game to whomever wants to look at it. Looking once or twice at your LinkedIn is hardly stalking, looking at it 100 times certainly would be.

It could be something as simple as the manager has the employees that work late night at the front desk verifying corporate rate customers, since they have nothing else to do at that time. Searching publicly available information seems rational, even though it creeps you out.