( CNN ) -- Shhh . They can hear you . They 're listening as we speak -- logging every word , tracing every step . Even tonight , while you sleep under your hotel-monogrammed duvet , rest assured that 20 stories below , in some undisclosed location , researchers are hard at work documenting your whims and wishes -- Loves biking ! Hates bananas ! -- trying to crack the profound mystery that is You . How much do they know ? They want to know everything : your relationship status , your income , your allergies , your preferred brand of toothpaste , how you like your eggs -- all those sundry habits , peeves and predilections , even the ones you did n't know you had . Hotels have always kept logs on their guests , tracking previous stays , comments and complaints , even which pay-per-view movies you ordered . `` We write down everything , '' says Karambir Singh Kang , area director , USA , for Taj Hotels and general manager of the Taj Boston . So when the bellman casually inquires , `` Where are we off to today , folks ? '' no doubt your reply will be fed into your ever-expanding profile . Sometimes this `` research '' can take on questionable ethical dimensions . One veteran general manager told me his staff are n't above going through guests ' trash . Travel + Leisure : World 's best hotels . But fishing around is not a recent development . What has changed , in this brazen new world , is the sheer amount of data that hotels now collect on guests , and the often startlingly personal nature of that data . With the explosion of social networking , and our increasingly unguarded presence online , profiling guests has become a lot easier , and a hell of a lot more effective . A representative for a prestigious Beverly Hills hotel recalls welcoming a first-time guest to the property . `` We knew very little about her before she checked in , so we searched for her online and discovered she had a dog named Bo , '' the rep says . `` When she arrived , there was a little doggy gift waiting in her room , with a note card that said 'Bo misses you . ' `` Creepy ? Cute ? You be the judge . Prying is the new pampering . The payoff , hospitality executives say , is the ability to tailor service to a guest without the guest 's initiating any requests herself . Under the old model , a guest would have to volunteer that she loves tennis and might enjoy a lesson . Now , ideally , she need no longer say a thing ; the staff has already sussed her out and booked a 9 o'clock with the pro . Travel + Leisure : Where to rent celebrity homes . As for that quaint `` pre-arrival questionnaire '' they used to send to incoming guests ? Nearly obsolete , except at the most traditional properties . Who has the time to fill one out ? Besides , for many of us , our identities , preferences and proclivities are already posted online , and ripe for the culling . For hotel companies , social media has essentially become a sanctioned form of eavesdropping . `` Hotels have trained their staff to be intense listeners and mine information about their guests . This gives them a whole new realm in which to listen , '' says Niki Leondakis , CEO of Commune Hotels & Resorts ( formerly the president and COO of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants ) . And listen they do . At One & Only Resorts , reservation teams look up incoming guests on Twitter , work-related sites and blogs , then draw up detailed profiles ( photos included ) to distribute to top-level managers . The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort , meanwhile , Googles every guest two weeks before arrival . `` We actually create a little story about them -- just a paragraph or so -- and share that with the heads of each department at our daily NDA ( next-day arrivals ) meeting , '' says general manager Michael Schoonewagen . ( You did n't know they had a little story about you , did you ? ) It 's not rocket science , Schoonewagen adds , and it does n't cost them a thing . `` The first page of Google results is usually sufficient . We 're not digging into every last detail of someone 's life -- we just want a picture of who they are . '' World 's strangest buildings . Other hotels invest more money and manpower in tracking guests online . The Surrey Hotel in New York was an early adopter of the powerful Libra OnDemand software , which aids in `` customer relationship management , '' or CRM . `` Libra acts as a one-stop shop for searching guests on Google , LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter and other channels , '' explains JosÃ© Lema , the Surrey 's director of guest relations . `` It gives us the power to get to know our guests , beyond what they 'd think to share with us . '' As Lema sees it , guests are looking not only for great amenities but also for `` connection '' -- with a staff that can intuit their tastes and desires , including unspoken ones . `` Previously , we did all our profiling via manual online searches , and only VIPs and guests paying a certain rate were researched , '' Lema says . `` Now every reservation is processed by Libra . '' In today 's social-mediated paradigm , wherein everyone lives in public , all guests can be treated like celebrities . This proves especially useful in orchestrating what hotels call `` surprise-and-delight moments . '' So if you happen to tweet `` Just arrived @ FSLosAngeles for anniversary weekend ! '' do n't be shocked if a bottle of wine appears at turn-down . ( Be surprised and delighted , but do n't be shocked . ) `` A guest 's Twitter feed can provide information that they are n't even telling you -- and then you can really surprise them , '' notes Leondakis . `` For instance , maybe the hotel will find out the guest is an advocate for LGBT rights , in which case the staff can personalize the welcome amenity by including a magazine they would identify with . Something unique and personal that says , 'This is just for you . ' '' Cranks and paranoiacs will surely see all this probing and profiling as a sign of the apocalypse , or at least a serious incursion into their privacy . ( It 's worth noting that , because of privacy regulations in the EU , companies are less likely to gather personal information online , so these practices are more common at U.S.-based and independent hotels . ) Some may pine for the days when travel could be refreshingly anonymous , when hotels were at least purportedly about discretion above all else . But would we really want to go back ? The fact is , profiling works -- most of the time . Who would n't want their hotel to know , without even asking , what type of pillow to leave on the bed , which magazines to leave on the coffee table , what brand of juice to put in the mini-bar ? Who does n't enjoy being surprised and delighted ? And just so we 're clear , we 're talking about hotels here . Hotels -- where , discreet as one might hope to be , it 's impossible not to leave an identifiable footprint . Long before Twitter this was so . You might hang that flimsy privacy sign on your door , but you ca n't hide . You ca n't `` turn off cookies . '' The staff 's eyes and ears are everywhere . ( For God 's sake , they 're going through your trash ! ) Trust me , they know plenty about you already , and they did n't need a search engine to find it . The key , as one hotel manager puts it , is `` to act on that knowledge without calling undue attention to it . '' If your profile says you requested the Wall Street Journal on a previous visit , a skilled desk clerk will simply have it delivered again this time , without comment . Nobody wants to hear the words `` And we see from our deep background check that Sir enjoys the Journal '' ! No , we prefer to think this stuff happens by magic , not by design ; that the staff are just incredibly good at their jobs , not following a computer-generated set of directives -- which , frankly , seems like cheating . Bear with me as we compare your hotel to Santa Claus . One would like to believe that Santa knows what you want -- and whether you 've earned it -- based on his compassion , care and superior powers of intuition . What you do n't want to discover is that Santa 's elves have been monitoring your Google , Bing and Amazon searches for gift ideas , then poring over your Facebook wall to see if you 've been good enough to deserve them . Of course , there 's a delicate line between intuitiveness and intrusiveness , between `` personalization '' and , well , stalking . Consider this curious tale from New York restaurateur Danny Meyer , who literally wrote the book on hospitality . ( It 's called `` Setting the Table , '' and it 's required reading for anyone in the industry . ) Last June -- on Father 's Day -- Meyer returned to his room at the Little Nell in Aspen , Colorado , to find a framed photo of his wife and children beside the bed . `` On the frame it said 'Happy Father 's Day from your friends at the Little Nell , ' '' he recalls . `` They 'd gone online to find a picture of us . '' To me that sounds neither surprising nor delightful , but downright terrifying . I 'm trying to picture my own reaction : You hunted down my FAMILY ? ! ? Leave them out of this , you monsters ! ! But Meyer , to his credit , found it touching . `` I almost started crying , '' he says . `` That photo is now on my dresser at home . I thought it was a genuinely thoughtful gesture . Look , anyone can give you a plate of cookies , and sure , that feels nice . But this was n't off-the-rack . It was about customization -- one-size-fits-one . That 's true hospitality . '' What do you think -- thoughtful or creepy ? What have hotels done to personalize your stay ? With additional reporting by Nikki Ekstein . Planning a getaway ? Do n't miss Travel + Leisure 's guide to the World 's Best Hotels . Copyright 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation . All rights reserved .
Social media and blogs have made gathering information on hotel guests easier . Hotel staff often collect information about guests to anticipate their needs . Guests often shudder about what hoteliers -- and everyone else -- might find out about them .