Personal data and the hotel industry

Originally published in the March edition of Hotel Report.

People are the lifeblood of the hotel industry - from guests to employees the hotel business relies heavily on its relationships with people. This inevitably involves hotels obtaining and dealing with personal data.

While personal data is a powerful marketing tool and key to a hotel's relationship with its employees and guests, hotels must carefully manage how they deal with the personal information they collect and maintain to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and related legislation and codes of conduct (the "DPA"). Hotels should also be sensitive to their guests' and employees' expectations that their data will be kept confidential and secure.