Preferred Hotels & Resorts (“Preferred”), was recently notified by its service provider, Sabre Hospitality Solutions (“Sabre”), of a data security incident Sabre experienced that may affect certain customer information associated with your hotel reservation(s). The privacy and protection of our customers’ information is a matter we take very seriously, and we are providing this notice as a precaution to let you know about the incident and tell you about some steps that you may take to protect yourself against any potential misuse of your information.
What Happened
The Sabre SynXis Central Reservations System (CRS) facilitates the booking of hotel reservations made by consumers through hotels, online travel agencies, and similar booking services. Following their internal investigation, Sabre notified us that an unauthorized party gained access to user credentials that enabled the party to view some reservation information for a subset of hotel reservations that Sabre processed on behalf of some of its customers, including certain Preferred hotel properties. The investigation determined that the unauthorized party was able to access Sabre’s system between June of 2016 and November of 2017. Please note that no Preferred computer or network systems were affected in any way by this incident.
What Information Was Involved
Based on the information provided to us by Sabre, it appears that the unauthorized party was able to access payment card information for certain hotel reservations, including cardholder names, card numbers, card expiration dates, and, potentially, card verification codes. The unauthorized party was also able, in some cases, to access certain information such as guest names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, and other information. Because sensitive information such as Social Security, passport, or driver’s license numbers are not collected during the hotel reservation process, none of this type of sensitive personal information was affected by this incident.
What We Are Doing
We take the privacy of personal information seriously and deeply regret that this incident occurred. We took steps to address and contain this incident promptly after we were informed, including initiating an internal investigation into the incident and communicating with Sabre to learn more about what occurred. Sabre has informed us that they have taken steps to enhance the security around access credentials and the monitoring of system activity to help prevent this type of incident from recurring in the future. In addition, Sabre has notified law enforcement and the payment card brands about this incident.
What You Can Do
We recommend that you review credit and debit card account statements as soon as possible in order to determine if there are any discrepancies or unusual activity listed. We urge you to remain vigilant and continue to monitor statements for unusual activity going forward. If you see anything you do not recognize, you should immediately notify the issuer of the credit or debit card as well as the proper law enforcement authorities, including local law enforcement, your state’s attorney general, and/or the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). In instances of payment card fraud, it is important to note that cardholders are typically not responsible for any fraudulent activity that is reported in a timely fashion.
Although Social security numbers and other sensitive personal information were not at risk in this incident, as a general practice you can carefully check your credit reports for accounts you did not open or for inquiries from creditors you did not initiate. If you see anything you do not understand, call the credit agency immediately. As an additional precaution, we are providing an “Information About Identity Theft Protection” reference guide, which describes additional steps you may take to help protect yourself, including recommendations from the Federal Trade Commission regarding identity theft protection.
For More Information
For more information about this incident, or if you have additional questions or concerns, you may contact us directly at 877-576-3080 (Toll Free US) / + 1 503-924-5411 (Local/International) between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. U.S. Central time, Monday through Friday. Again, we sincerely regret any concern this event may cause you.