EDITOR’S LETTER
Data disaster
CONTRIBUTORS
This month the world’s largest hotel brand,
STEPHEN W. AYERS
Marriott, revealed the guest reservation database
Stephen is a British and
Canadian author and former
hotel manager. He is the CEO
of Stay Ahead Hospitality,
a company that helps
independent hoteliers in
Europe and North America
to attain high standards and
increase profit
of its Starwood Hotel brand has been breached,
potentially exposing information of about 500
million guests. Marriott said it has “taken measures”
to investigate and address the issue, and soon
discovered that there had been unauthorised
access to the Starwood network since 2014.
HESSA AL MAZROU
Hessa is the first female
Saudi Arabian hotel
general manager working
for AccorHotels and has
been for two years.
At the time of writing, Marriott had not finished identifying duplicate
information in the database, but believes it contains information on
hundreds of millions who made a reservation at a Starwood property.
For approximately 327 million of those, that information includes
some combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email
address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account
information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information,
reservation date, and communication preferences. In other words, the
PETER HANCOCK
Peter has been the
chief executive of Pride
of Britain Hotels - a
collection of never more
than 50 luxury and
independent properties -
since 2000. He previously
managed hotels and
restaurants in Sussex and
Hampshire, having started
out as a waiter
ANGIE PETKOVIC
Angie started as our
resident marketing advice
columnist and has now
built a substantial following
for her straight-talking
answers to the common
questions about executing
a professional marketing
strategy
DECEMBER 2018
| £5.95
acquired by Marriott relatively recently, and normally in M&A deals
(especially in multi-billion dollar ones) there are riders written in which
make each party liable for various unforeseen eventualities. It would
be incredibly unusual nowadays for such a clause not to include
massive data breaches which may incur fines under data protection
legislation (ah, GDPR, how we love you), since these can be so huge.
We at Hotel Owner will be watching closely – when the world’s
largest hotel chain slips up like this, it is a reminder to everyone else
that no precaution is too extreme.
I hope you enjoy this month’s issue.
Editor, Hotel Owner
hotelowner
[email protected]
for the independent hotelier who means business
BREAKING BARRIERS
Saudi Arabia has long faced criticism for its stance on women’s rights
and working opportunities, however, Hessa Al Mazrou stands tall as
the country’s first and only female GM. Hotel Owner finds out more
4
The costs of a data catastrophe like this are difficult to predict,
much less comprehend. Not least because Starwood was only
Michael Northcott
WWW.HOTELOWNER.CO.UK
HOUSEKEEPING | RENOVATION | FOOD & BEVERAGE | SPA | PROPERTY | EDUCATION | TECHNOLOGY
ISSN 2049-7709
whole bloody shebang.
www.hotelowner.co.uk
ON THE COVER
Illustration
commissioned
by Hotel Owner
and produced by
Russ Tudor.
AT THE TIME OF WRITING, MARRIOTT HAD
NOT FINISHED IDENTIFYING DUPLICATE
INFORMATION IN THE DATABASE, BUT
BELIEVES IT CONTAINS INFORMATION ON
HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS WHO MADE A
RESERVATION AT A STARWOOD PROPERTY.
‘‘
December 2018