SAN FRANCISCO — In the latest in a spate of online attacks affecting American businesses, White Lodging, which manages hotel franchises for chains like Marriott, Hilton and Starwood Hotels, is investigating a potential security breach involving customers’ payment information.

White Lodging Services Corporation, which works with 168 hotels in 21 states, confirmed that it was examining the data breach.

The intrusion into its systems was first posted by Brian Krebs, a security blogger, on Friday, when he reported that the breach might have resulted in the fraudulent use of hundreds of credit and debit cards used for payment at Marriott hotels between March 2013 and the end of the year.

Mr. Krebs was also first to report the hacking of consumer data from Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels, the arts and crafts retailer.