The protection of personal data in hotel business and compliance with relevant regulations is increasingly complex due to the increasing reliance on digital technology. Hotels are frequent targets of cyberattacks because they have access to large amounts of sensitive data, including credit card numbers, identification and other personal information. On the other hand, hoteliers, in order to preserve their reputation and avoid financial losses, improve their technological procedures, which must be placed within clear legal frameworks.

Why is it crucial to protect guest data at your hotel?

Using guest data for various purposes, including prediction, personalization, service optimization and customer loyalty development certainly makes hotel service superior. The large amount of data processed, however, creates legal obligations in the process of managing that data. Using data can significantly improve hotel operations, but in the absence of legal compliance, it can cause serious financial and reputational damage.

Independent contractors

The hospitality sector uses many external systems, including cloud storage, POS, PMS and reservation systems. Although these tools increase efficiency and simplify processes, dependence on other parties carries certain risks. Sometimes we cannot be sure whether these suppliers take the same precautions as the hotel, ie. whether by using the services of these systems, the hotelier exposes himself to the risks of illegal data processing. Therefore, it is advisable to carefully approach the choice of suppliers and check whether the security procedures of these suppliers meet the necessary requirements, whereby the contractual relationship between the hotel and the supplier plays an important role, as well as procedures for dealing with crisis situations.

Data protection compliance

In response to the increasingly complicated needs of the hotel industry, stricter data privacy standards are being developed. The regulation in this area is extremely complex and sensitive, and requires deep knowledge of technological processes and legal obligations, so that every step in data processing is safe and regulatory compliant. Appointing a data protection officer who knows the legal obligations is certainly the first step towards compliance, but it represents only a small part of the obligations prescribed by the regulations in this area. Prescribed fines in case of violation of legal obligations regarding the protection of personal data are high, and each omission creates an additional risk of filing compensation claims against the company.

Cyberattacks

As hotels store a lot of sensitive data, they are frequent targets for cyber attacks. The use of Wi-Fi networks and the huge number of people who come into contact with the data, increases the possibility of a cyber attack or data breach in the hotel. This is why the hotel needs to be on the lookout for hackers, be it malware, ransomware, phishing or denial of service attacks.

Internal risks

Employees or anyone else with access to hotel systems and information may abuse their privileges to obtain private information, which may lead to data leaks or security breaches. Even when these dangers are unintentional, it can be difficult to predict when they will occur. Having this in mind, it is necessary to clearly arrange the internal procedures, the accountability system and the technological process of data access through appropriate authentication whenever possible.

Portable Electronics & WiFi

Hackers are likely to target PMS and other hotel software systems that have large numbers of people accessing them from mobile devices. In this sense, it is important to provide procedures for the use of internal mobile devices (restriction on the use of external networks, restriction on the use of PMS systems in certain networks, regular password changes, etc.).

Also, Wi-Fi, as an imperative for functioning in the modern space, is one of the frequent sites of hacker attacks, given that the network connection between guests and the hotel can easily be used as an entry point for cyber attacks. In order to avoid these risks, experts advise to configure the Wi-Fi network separately and to take the strongest possible technological protection measures.

Finally, we will conclude that the hotel industry has a great need for careful handling of personal data at every level, and that it is necessary to pay special attention to the legal and technological aspects of data protection, in order to reduce business risks in this area to the lowest possible level.