My World of Hyatt Account Info was Inadvertently Shared?

Hyatt Place Braintree

Late this afternoon, I received a call from Omaha, NE, and immediately guessed the caller was from World of Hyatt. I was right.

The caller identified herself as being in charge of World of Hyatt’s Consumer Affairs department, and went on to say that some of my information was inadvertently shared. She explained that an electronic communication involving Hyatt Place hotels was sent out, but that the recipients included four persons who were not officially part of Hyatt.

She said the communication concerned special guests – intended as a sort of heads-up that a VIP would be visiting the hotel.

The information disclosed in this communication included my name, WOH account number and some confirmation numbers. She said the information did not include anything else, such as my social security number, or credit card information. She said that new measures are being implemented to insure that incidents such as this shouldn’t happen again.

She hinted that the four persons to whom this information was accidentally leaked were trustworthy, and perhaps even other WOH members.

I wasn’t going to post this, as I try to draw a line between what is appropriate to post publicly and what should be kept private – –  but then I saw the post by Lucky – One Mile at a Time – who reported almost verbatim, the exact same occurrence. (see, Odd: My World of Hyatt Account was Compromised).

Strangely, I haven’t had many Hyatt Place stays. I stayed at the Hyatt Place in Braintree two weeks ago (see, When Busloads of Teenage Campers Stay at Your Hotel (Review: Hyatt Place Braintree). Other than that, I also had a reservation at the Hyatt Place Poughkeepsie in July (which I canceled ten days in advance, but got billed as a “no show” anyway).

The World of Hyatt representative said that World of Hyatt would monitor my account closely and she even offered to cancel and rebook all of my upcoming reservations). She also said that she would have my concierge reach out to me about this.

I was assured that this breach was very limited in scope and that World of Hyatt fully trusts that nothing will come of this. I was only informed because World of Hyatt wanted full disclosure.

I was left with an odd feeling not quite knowing what to think and wondering if there’s more to the story.  I wish I could’ve gotten more information about the exact communication – that would have made me feel more comfortable. Hopefully, the breach is as minor and trivial as I was told it was, and that WOH contacted me (and the others impacted) out of an abundance of caution.

Of course, I immediately changed my password when I got off the phone.

Your thoughts?