Hotels asking for email addresses
It’s increasingly common when checking in to a hotel to be asked for your email address. “If you can just fill in your name, address and email address,” the receptionist will ask after you arrive at the desk.
Up until recently, I’ve gone through the tiresome rigmarole of asking why they need my email address. I’m yet to hear a convincing response to this query. And I’ve learned not to trust the ones who say it’s definitely not for marketing purposes due to suspiciously ending up on a mailing list a few weeks later.
It’s a discussion I’d rather not have, and one that could be easily forgone by hotels not asking guests for their email address. But that’s clearly not going to happen, so I’ve come up with a new solution.
How to avoid getting on hotel marketing lists
I have the handwriting of a three year old child. It’s pretty ugly, and up until now I’ve thought of this as a flaw rather than something to be celebrated. However, it comes in mighty handy when filling in hotel registration forms. Instead of asking why they need my email address, I’ve just taken to writing it in the most illegible script I can muster. It’s basically a nasty mess on the paper.
Think of it as a challenge to the hotel. If they can be bothered to sit down and decipher the hideous scrawl – and then get it right – they probably deserve the chance to be able to spam me.
