Article Review/Reflection #3

Experts Respond to Radisson’s Breach and How Hotels Can Bounce Back
Christina Volpe, Associate Editor

According to recent results, the U.S., France, and Great Britain have been anticipating data security breaches. Many people feel concerned that this could happen due to the use of credit cards or PIN-based cards. Radisson Hotels and Resorts recently suffered from an attack in November of 2008 and May of 2009. The hotel notified guests about the security breach and informed them that although the hotel locations affected were limited, the information that was accessed was important. The information included the guest's name on their credit card or debit card, the card number, and the card's expiration date. This is said to be very bad for a hotel because a data breach changes customer's perceptions and their trust is lost. There was a study performed, however, that asked customers whether they would book with another hotel in the case of a security breach, and only 8 or 9% said they would. That means that the reason the customers would leave a hotel is if the hotel did a poor job of getting the word out. The most important way to make sure that a hotel keeps all of its customers is by listening to their concerns. A hotel must also go one step beyond by potentially offering a customer x or y.

A security breach, in my opinion, is something that is very serious. There could be the loss a lifelong customer. Hotels must go one step beyond just listening to a customer and their concerns. They must prepare heavily for a security breach. I think that hotel employees work very hard to gain the trust of their guests, and they work to create a friendly bond that makes customers return each year. In the case of a security breach, however, there is the chance that that relationship may be broken. In many cases, there are simple issues that hotels must deal with each day. For example, ometimes a customer may slip and fall in a hotel, and then they will complain. A security breach is much different, in that it affects a lot more of its customers and there is not as much they can do to fix the problem.