A study released this year by SpiderLabs, a part of the data-security consulting company Trustwave, found that 38 % of the credit card hacking cases last year involved the hotel industry. The sector was well ahead of the financial services industry by 19 percent, retailing 14.2 percent, and restaurants and bars 13 percent..

Hackers hit hotels because that is where the richest vein of personal credit card data is. At hotels with inadequate data security for fraud, “ the greatest amount of credit card information can be obtained using the most simplified methods, ” said Anthony C. Roman, a private security investigator with extensive experience in the hotel industry.

“It doesn’t require brilliance on the part of the hacker,” Mr. Roman said. “Most of the chronic security breaches in the hotel industry are the result of a failure to equip, or to properly store or transmit, this kind of data, and that starts with the point-of-sale credit card swiping systems.”

The sophistication of such systems can vary widely from one hotel to the next, even within the same corporate chain, making it an easy route for hackers.

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