Hotel chain Marriott International said on Tuesday information of about 5.2 million hotel guests was breached.
This is the second such incident for the hotel operator in less than two years.
Marriott said the breached information, including contact details, loyalty account information and additional personal details such as gender and birthdays, may have been accessed using the login credentials of two employees at a franchise property.
The company also said information such as account passwords, payment card information and passport information were not a part of the breach.
Marriott said it was currently investigating the incident, which it believed started in mid-January and was identified around February end.
Marriott in November 2018 said its Starwood guest reservation database was breached, potentially exposing information on about 500 million guests.
U.S. hotel operator recently said it was withdrawing its 2020 financial outlook as cancellations mount due to the coronavirus outbreak. Marriott in February said its Q4 2019 revenue rose to $5.37 billion from $5.29 billion.
The world’s biggest hotel operator is starting to furlough what it expects will be tens of thousands of employees, amid hotel closings globally due to the virus outbreak, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Marriott will not pay salaries to its employees at some of its managed properties which it started shutting down last week. The company is also trimming staff through furloughs at properties that are still operating. Marriott had about 174,000 employees at the end of 2019.
