The risks of collecting hotel guest data
When guests choose to stay at your hotel, they are putting a huge amount of trust in you to keep their data safe. From their contact information to their payment details, it’s vital that you have security measures in place to protect their data. Failing to do so could see guest data being stolen, which could lead to major financial and reputational repercussions for your business.
How to protect guest data in hotels
If you want to make sure you are doing enough to protect your hotel guest data, take a look below. Our data security experts have put together a list of the top five steps you can take towards data protection in the hospitality industry.
1. Perform security audits
Before you make a start on enforcing new security measures, you should perform a security audit. This will reveal what you are doing well and what you could improve, providing you with a clear path to follow. However, a security audit is not something that should only be completed once. Instead, make sure to regularly review the security measures you have in place, from updating security patches to installing anti-virus software.
2. Deliver employee training
Once you are happy with the security measures you have in place, you will need to deliver employee training. Making sure that your employees are familiar with security processes will help to minimise the risk of a data breach. Within the training, it is important that you cover how to identify and report any suspicious activity that could put your hotel guest data at risk.
3. Enforce access levels
If your hotel has a high turnover of seasonal staff, it can be a good idea to enforce access levels. Having access levels will allow you to restrict data access to more senior members of staff. This is called ‘Role Based Access Control’ and will only allow staff to access data that is relevant to their position. Limiting access is an effective way of limiting risk.
4. Encrypt payment information
With every guest choosing to pay electronically, it is important that you have a method of encrypting their payment information. Encrypting data makes it impossible for potential hackers to access the information. In fact, only your hotel staff and the financial institution will be able to access the payment information, protecting card details from being stolen.
5. Invest in cyber insurance
Once you have done all you can to protect guest data, the final step is to invest in cyber insurance. Even with comprehensive security measures in place, it is still possible for your hotel to be targeted by hackers. Cyberattacks can lead to significant costs for your hotel, such as guest compensation and regulatory fines. However, cyber insurance is specifically designed to reduce these costs should you experience a data breach.
