White Lodging Services Corp. is investigating a potential credit-card security breach.
The hotel management company has 171 hotels in its portfolio, include 78 properties under Marriott International’s Courtyard and Residence Inn brands.
White Lodging “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,” Marriott said in a statement Saturday. “The suspected breach did not impact any systems that Marriott owns or controls.”
The breach was reported Friday on a blog written by computer-security analyst Brian Krebs, who cited “multiple sources in the banking industry.”
The breach may have revealed information on credit and debit cards of “thousands of guests that had stayed at Marriott, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Worldwide properties last year,” Krebs wrote on his KrebsonSecurity blog.
The breach involved cards used at hotel auxiliary operations such as restaurants and gift shops, and not cards used to reserve or pay for the hotel stays themselves, Krebs wrote.
Neither Starwood nor Hilton immediately responded to requests for comment from Travel Weekly on Monday morning. According to a White Lodging statement, “An investigation is in progress, and we will provide meaningful information as soon as it becomes available.”
Credit-card breaches have been topical in recent months, as retailers such as Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels Stores have all reported security breaches.
Follow Danny King on Twitter @dktravelweekly.