Lately hotels want to know who travelers are. This goes double for travelers who are reviewing them anonymously online. A large number of hotels that are very image conscious have begun trying to connect the dots between write-ups that appear on popular sites like TripAdvisor and personal information. For example, hotels want to know what traveler loyalty program preferences are.

If people write a positive review about the hotel, then this reviewer may expect to get some kind of reward from the hotel. It could be a discount on their next stay or a gift basket. However, dis a hotel and travelers could get a concerned email from the general manager, asking them to reconsider their review. These people could even get a “mark” next to their guest database.

A lodging consultant in Jacksonville, Florida, John Baird, said that hotels now use locations, user names and dates that appear online to triangulate a guest’s identity. Once they have found a likely match, the review is added to the hotel’s guest preference records. Other information gets added as well, like the frequent number of guests, newspaper choices and even preferred room types.

Although John Baird said that he thinks matching reviews with actual hotel guests is great, other travelers are not so sure. In fact, one Seattle-based computing consultant, Helen O’Boyle, said that she is troubled by the new move by hotels after hearing about one international hotel chain’s retaliation against travelers who put down their properties.

For guests that do not want to be identified, they need to be very careful about the kind of information they give away in their reviews. It’s important to make sure that guests’ nicknames do not look like their real names.