The wave of data breaches causing widespread concern among consumers has now spread to the hotel industry.
A hotel franchise management company that manages 168 hotels in 21 states has apparently suffered a data breach that exposed hundreds of guests’ debit and credit cards information in 2013.
White Lodging Services Corporation maintains hotel franchises for some of the top names in lodging such as Hilton, Marriott, Westin and Sheraton. Sources are reporting that the data breach centers mainly around the gift shops and restaurants within these hotels managed by White Lodging, not necessarily the front desk computers where guests pay for their rooms.
The data breach was first reported by security expert Brian Krebs. White Lodging did not issue a formal statement but told Krebs that an investigation is in progress and they will provide information when it becomes available.
Some of the unusual activity took place in Marriott hotels located in Austin, Tampa, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and Louisville. All were managed by White Lodging.
Marriott has issued this statement: "One of our franchise management companies has experienced unusual fraud patterns in connection with its systems that process credit card transactions at a number of hotels across a range of brands, including some Marriott-branded hotels. They are in the midst of the investigation and are in close contact with the banks and credit cards companies."
Within the last six weeks, consumers have been flooded with news of data breaches at major retailers such as Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels.