"Hotels want to know who you are, especially if you're reviewing them anonymously"

Some hotels checking out online reviewers
Hotels want to know who you are, especially if you're reviewing them anonymously — and critically — at online sites such as TripAdvisor.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2011831445_webtroubleshooter10.html

An increasing number of image-conscious properties have begun connecting the dots between unbylined write-ups that appear on such popular travel sites as TripAdvisor or Yelp, and your personal information, such as your loyalty program preferences.

If you write a positive review, you might expect a reward from the hotel — a gift basket or a discount on your next stay. Pan a property, and you could get a concerned e-mail from the general manager asking you to reconsider your review. Or even a black mark against you in the chain's guest database.

Both Hurd and Baird, the Jacksonville analyst, say that an overwhelming number of hotels want the information for the right reasons: either to reward a nice review or to reach out to a negative guest to patch things up. And that may be true, for now.

But Hurd says that technology is evolving so fast that in the future, every hotel representative could have a toolbar on his or her computer that reveals everything about a guest at the click of a mouse — every review, guest preference and even the likelihood that you'll be positively or negatively inclined toward your stay.

There's no telling what hotels could do with that information.