Privacy Statement
Privacy Statement
Terms and Copyright Notices
The privacy and security of your information is very important to us. Whether you are visiting our website, using our app, booking a room, or are a member of one of our loyalty programs, we want you to trust the way that we manage your information and to keep you informed about how we use that information.
We have prepared this Privacy Statement to explain more about who we are, how we collect and manage your information (whether through our website, mobile apps and other IHG® Hotels & Resorts-branded digital channels (e.g., our branded IHG Connect WiFi), our social media pages, or offline) and the choices you have about how we use your information. Specific additional rights may apply if required by applicable law. For example, please view our additional disclosures directed to residents of particular states within the United States, the UK, European Economic Area (EEA) and Turkey, Brazil, and the People’s Republic of China (Excluding for the purposes of this statement Hong Kong Sar, Macau Sar and Taiwan) (“PRC”), in this Privacy Statement.
Who we are
This Privacy Statement is issued by the InterContinental Hotels Group of Companies (collectively referred to as “IHG”, “IHG® Hotels & Resorts”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Statement), which includes the direct and indirect subsidiaries of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC and covers information that we collect and use in the course of our business. When we mention “IHG”, “IHG® Hotels & Resorts”, “we”, “us”, or “our”, we are referring to the relevant company in the InterContinental Hotels Group that processes your personal information. Your information may also be collected and used by IHG® Hotels & Resorts-branded hotels. In most cases, these hotels are independently owned, and their use of your information is covered by their own privacy notices, not this one. If you would like to learn more about IHG and our relationship with our IHG® Hotels & Resorts-branded hotels, click below.
About IHG
We are a global hospitality company operating in more than 100 countries. We predominantly franchise our brands to, and manage hotels on behalf of, independent owners. We also operate programs that are related to our hotel business such as IHG® One Rewards, which is our core loyalty program.
About our IHG-branded hotels
We franchise our brands to, and manage hotels on behalf of, independent owners (“IHG® Hotels & Resorts-branded hotels” or “IHG-branded hotels”). Most hotels operating under IHG’s brands are independently owned and operated by parties that have entered into a franchise agreement with IHG that allows them to use an IHG brand for the purposes of operating a hotel. References to IHG-branded hotels also include Iberostar Beachfront Resorts which can be booked via IHG’s reservation system and which are part of IHG® One Rewards. If you make a reservation through us to stay at an IHG-branded hotel, we will disclose certain information with that hotel in order to enable your stay at the hotel. However, as IHG-branded hotels are not owned or controlled by IHG, their use of your information will be governed by their own privacy practices.
Information we collect and how we use and disclose it
We collect personal information directly from you, about you from other persons/entities/online channels, and automatically as you use our website, mobile application or other IHG-branded digital channels, and through services available at IHG-branded properties (such as IHG Connect Wi-Fi). We provide more detail in the sections below. In particular, we collect and use information about you if you (or someone on your behalf) makes a reservation to stay at an IHG-branded hotel or property offered through IHG reservations, participate in one of our loyalty programs such as IHG® One Rewards, or interact with us through our corporate site, mobile app or other IHG-branded digital channels. You do not have to provide us with your personal information in order to use our website or mobile app; however, in some cases we may not be able to provide services to you without your personal information (for example, we would not be able to complete a requested booking or enroll you in our rewards program). To learn more about how we collect, use and disclose your information, and how you can opt out, please click the relevant section below.
If you make a reservation or stay at an IHG-branded hotel
Information we collect:
Directly From You: We collect information from you when you make a booking through our reservation system, stay at an IHG-branded hotel, or respond to a survey. Information collected during the reservation and your stay may include:
- Your name, email address, home and business address, phone number, nationality and payment card information; for some reservations we may also collect national ID/passport information on behalf of the IHG-branded hotel where this is required by the hotel to comply with applicable local laws or by the hotel’s local policies.
- Information relating to your membership in one of our services or programs or those of our program partners such as your IHG® One Rewards number or airline frequent flier number; and
- Information such as stay and room preferences made during your reservation such as your preferred room type and specific requests to the hotel.
If you provide personal information to us about other persons when making a booking or during your stay, for example, family members or colleagues, we ask you to make sure they are happy for their personal information to be disclosed with us and to direct them to read this Privacy Statement if they want to find out more about how we use their information.
From IHG-branded properties: We receive information about your bookings and stays from IHG branded hotels including those you booked directly with the property. The information we receive includes names of those included on the booking, dates of your stay, number of adults and children staying, rate detail, room type, board type/meal plans and purchases made during your stay.
From Other Sources: We also collect reservation information about you from other persons/entities, including, travel agents, websites not owned and operated by IHG, persons booking on your behalf (e.g., a family member, company representative), your employer, or other entity. We may obtain information about you from social media pages; for example, if you make a comment on IHG’s social media page or if you comment about IHG on a public social media feed. We use this information to improve our services to you and to other customers.
Automatically: We collect information about you automatically as you use our website, mobile app, our social media sites, interact with our other digital channels, and, in some instances, when we correspond with you through email. In these instances, information such as your country information, internet protocol (“IP”) address, device ID, medial access control address, your interactions with these channels, and other characteristics about your system or device may be automatically collected. This information is collected for functional purposes and to improve your experience when using these services. This information may also be used for fraud prevention, aggregated trend and statistical analysis, and for showing you more relevant advertisements and messages. More information on these practices can be found in the Using our websites, mobile applications, and other technologies section below. We do not typically associate an IP address with your IHG® One Rewards profile.
Special Hotel Programs/Biometrics: At IHG, we are always seeking more ways to enhance your experience with us. A limited number of properties now offer a biometrics check-in process to eliminate your need to stand in line. Some properties also may allow room access through the collection of biometric information. These programs are opt-in only, and any information that we collect through your participation will be used solely for the program as described in the notice provided to you at the time of the opt-in.
How we use this information:
We use your information primarily to fulfill your hotel reservations and to provide and manage our IHG® One Rewards program. This may include communicating with you (e.g., sending a confirmation email) in advance of your stay. Following your stay, we may also send you post-stay communications and satisfaction surveys to get feedback on your experience.
Where we have your consent or as permitted under applicable law, we may send you marketing communications (which may include text messages or calls placed using autodialer technology) for products and services that we believe would be relevant for you. We also may use information related to you and your stays to display targeted advertisements on our websites, mobile apps, our other digital channels or on non-affiliated websites or mobile apps, or to send you more relevant messaging. Additionally, we aggregate your information with other guest information to complete trend and statistical analysis, which we use to evaluate and improve our products and services, plan new hotel locations and services, and for other market research.
We will indicate whether the requested information is mandatory; the failure to provide such information may impact our ability to and/or prevent us from providing certain services to you.
If you join one of our loyalty programs
Information we collect:
We collect information from you during your membership in any of our loyalty programs and services, including our core loyalty program, IHG® One Rewards. Information collected during your enrollment and participation in these programs may include:
- Your name, email address, home and business address, phone number, nationality, birthday and payment card information;
- Your membership number and pin or password as well as details of your memberships with any of our program partners such as our airline or car rental partners;
- Information that you choose to provide in your loyalty profile, such as your personal stay and destination preferences; and
- Marketing and communications preferences, including how you prefer to be contacted by IHG as well as what types of information you are interested in hearing about.
- Your stays at IHG-branded properties, including the property name, dates of stay, and, in some circumstances, the total dollar amount of your stay, food/beverage and other purchases (and, in some circumstances, an itemized breakdown of your spend at the property).
We may collect this information from you, other sources, and automatically.
From You/Other Person acting on Your Behalf: We collect your information through our global reservation and customer care offices, through our websites, through our mobile applications or through our other digital channels.
IHG-Branded Properties: We receive information about your stay from IHG-branded hotels and other properties within the IHG network so that we can honor the program.
Service Providers: We may also collect information about you from other sources, including entities that assist us in confirming the accuracy of your mailing address; in some circumstances, we do not receive the updated address verification from the vendor; rather, the vendor may simply update our mailing with the address that it believes is aligned with the postal service requirements. We may also obtain Personal Information from data enrichment providers where permitted under applicable law.
Other Sources: We may obtain information about you from social media pages; for example, if you make a comment on IHG’s social media page or if you comment about IHG on a public social media feed. We use this information to improve our services to you and to other customers. We do not typically append this information to your rewards profile. We also obtain demographic information from entities, which typically is in aggregated form. We may use this information in combination with information in your profile to identify relevant opportunities about which to notify you.
Your Friends: We may obtain information about you from friends if they refer you to us, where necessary with consent or another appropriate legal basis.
Automatically: We collect information about you automatically through our website, mobile app, our emails, and social media sites. In these instances, information such as your country information, internet protocol (“IP”) address, device ID, medial access control address, and other characteristics about your system or device may be automatically collected in accordance with an appropriate legal basis. This information is collected for functional purposes and to improve your experience using these services. This information may also be used for fraud prevention, aggregated trend and statistical analysis, and for showing you more relevant advertisements and messages. More information on these practices can be found in the Using our websites, mobile applications, and other technologies section below, and in our Cookies and other tracking technologies section. We do not typically associate an IP address with your IHG® One Rewards profile.
How we use this information: We use your information to operate and provide services in connection with our loyalty programs. We also use your information to improve our products and services. Where permitted by applicable law, or where we have your consent, we also may disclose your information with other parties, including our loyalty partners and others, to extend special offers about their own products and services to you.
This may include:
- Enrollment in the loyalty program;
- The order and delivery of merchandise that you have redeemed online, including merchandise and services offered by our IHG® One Rewards partners;
- Sending you updates, account statements and other information relating to your participation in one of our programs or services;
- Sending you marketing communications (which may include text messages or calls placed using autodialer technology), with your consent where required by applicable law, in relation to the products and services offered by IHG or our IHG® One Rewards partners or other partners or affiliates;
- Providing you with personalized advertisements or communications for IHG and/or other products or services that we believe may be relevant for you; and
- Analytics, statistical analysis and other research.
Although provision of much of the information requested is voluntary, the failure to provide certain information may impact and/or prevent our ability to offer you certain services.
We occasionally run promotions where we ask IHG® One Rewards Members to refer a friend to the IHG® One Rewards with consent or other appropriate legal basis. In these cases, we always ask members to make sure anyone they refer has consented to sharing their personal information with us, and to direct friends to read this Privacy Statement if they want to find out more about how we use their information.
How you can manage your marketing preferences: You can manage your preferences and decide what marketing communications you would like to receive from us in our online preference center. You can visit our Preference center or find out more information in the Managing your Preferences and information section.
In addition, you can opt out of collection of your personal information for use in targeted advertising. Please see Managing cookies and opting out for more information on how to do this.
We also recommend you routinely review the privacy notices and preference settings that are available to you on any social media platforms as well as your preferences within your IHG® One Rewards account. In addition, certain U.S. state residents may have the option of clicking on the Do Not Sell or Share My Personal information link, which would eliminate the sharing that might constitute a sale under applicable law.
Who we disclose your information with: As part of our loyalty programs, we disclose your information as follows:
- Loyalty partners: to provide you with the products and services that you have requested and, where permitted by law, for the partner to offer its own products and services to you. We also may choose to partner with another company to offer a product, such as a co-branded credit card. You have options about how we disclose your information; please log into the preference center at any time to view and exercise your choices. In addition, certain U.S. state residents may have the option of clicking on the Do Not Sell or Share My Personal information link, which would eliminate the sharing that might constitute a sale under applicable law.
- Service providers: for the purposes of operating the program and to provide you with the products and services that you have requested. We also use service providers to assist us with managing, carrying out and improving our advertising. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
We also will disclose your information in the following circumstances:
- When we believe in good faith that the disclosure is required by law or to protect the safety of hotel guests, employees, the public, or IHG property;
- When disclosure is required to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, subpoena, warrant, or legal process in any jurisdiction; or
- In the event of a merger, asset sale, or other corporate transaction.
If you interact with us through our corporate sites
Information we collect:
We collect information from you when you sign up to receive corporate news or shareholder documents, participate in surveys, submit reviews, contact customer service, or otherwise provide feedback to us or through social media or our other digital channels.
Corporate News:
Information collected may include:
- Information relating to your registration for corporate news such as your name, email address, profession, country/region and email service preferences for news; and
- Information relating to the receipt of shareholder documents such as your initials, surname, postcode, shareholder account number, email address and password for shareholder communications.
We collect this information directly from you when you sign up for corporate news or shareholder documents on our corporate site.
Competitions or sweepstakes:
We collect contact information from you when you sign up for a competition or sweepstake; we do not necessarily include this information as part of your IHG® One Rewards profile. In these instances, we will collect information from and about you for running and administering the respective competition, sweepstakes or service that you have elected to participate in. The information collected may include personal details such as your name and address as well as certain demographic information that you choose to provide. In each case, we will collect, use and secure your information in a manner consistent with the general principles set out in this Privacy Statement unless we tell you otherwise.
Other Collections:
We also collect information from you when you sign up to receive our newsletters or other special offers and promotions, download one of our mobile applications, or participate in one of our other services. The type of information that we collect from you depends on your interaction with our site and services.
Automatically:
We also collect information about you when you browse our website, use our mobile app, interact with our emails or use our social media sites. In these instances, information such as your country information, internet protocol (“IP”) address, media access control address and other characteristics about your system or device may be automatically collected. This information is collected for functional purposes and to improve your experience using these services. This information may also be used for aggregated trend and statistical analysis, and for showing you more relevant advertisements and messages. More information on these practices can be found in the Using our websites, mobile applications and other technology section below. We do not typically associate an IP address with your IHG® One Rewards profile.
How we use this information:
We use your information to provide you with corporate news and shareholder documents for which you have signed up. For corporate news, you may change your communication preferences in accordance with the Managing your communication preferences section below.
If you sign up for a promotion, we may associate that promotion with your account (e.g., if related to an IHG® One Rewards program.). If you sign up for a contest or sweepstakes, we will use your information for the purpose of that contest or sweepstakes. Please be advised that there may be additional rules for the sweepstakes or contest, and those rules may provide additional information about how we will use your information collected for any event that you choose to enter.
For online collected data, please see Online Channels and our Cookies and other tracking technologies for additional information.
Who we disclose your information with:
We may disclose your information with our service providers who provide services on our behalf to help with our corporate site and our shareholder functions. These services may include the provision of shareholder documents and services related to management of our shareholder register. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
We will also disclose your information in circumstances, such as:
- when we believe in good faith that the disclosure is required by law or to protect the safety of hotel guests, employees, the public or IHG property;
- when disclosure is required to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, subpoena, warrant or legal process; or
- in the event of a merger, asset sale, or other related transaction.
The legal basis for processing your personal data
We are committed to collecting and using your information in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
We collect, use and disclose your information where we have an appropriate legal basis to do this.
This may be because:
- you have provided your consent to us using the personal information;
- our use of your information is necessary to perform our contract with you, for example, making and managing your booking and operating and providing services in connection with our Loyalty Program in accordance with the terms of our agreement with you;
- our use of your information is necessary to meet responsibilities we have to our regulators, tax officials, law enforcement, or otherwise meet our legal responsibilities;
- our use of your information is in our legitimate interest as a commercial organization, for example to operate and improve our services and to keep people informed about our products and services (including for profiling and targeted advertising) – in these cases we will look after your information at all times in a way that is proportionate and respects your privacy rights and, depending on the applicable law, you have a right to object to processing as explained in To object to how we use your information.
If you would like to find out more about the legal basis for which we process personal information please contact us (details found in the How to contact us section). If you have provided your consent to our processing of your information you can withdraw this consent at any time by contacting the IHG Privacy Office (details found in the How to contact us section).
Data Transfer
As we operate via a global network of corporate offices, reservation and service centers, data centers and hotels, it may be necessary to transfer your information, for example, information collected in connection with a reservation or stay at an IHG-branded hotel, joining one of our loyalty programs or interacting with us through our corporate site, websites, emails or our other digital channels to a country outside of the country where it was originally collected or outside of your country of residence or nationality. The information that you provide us during the course of a reservation or through the provision of any other services may be transferred to any of our IHG-owned or affiliated entities and hotels around the world for the purposes of carrying out or facilitating these services. It will also be necessary to transfer this information to other entities, including, without limitation, our IHG-branded hotels, partners and our service providers.
Where we transfer information which originates in the European Union (“EU”), United Kingdom (“UK”), Brazil, or Turkey to a country outside of the country of origination, we will take steps to make sure such transfer is carefully managed to protect your privacy rights:
- transfers within the IHG Group will be covered by an agreement entered into by members of the IHG Group (an intra-group agreement) which contractually obliges each member to ensure that your information receives an adequate and consistent level of protection wherever it is transferred within the IHG Group;
- where we transfer your data outside of the IHG Group including to other companies providing us with a service, we will obtain contractual commitments and assurances from them to protect your information. Some of these assurances are well recognized certification schemes such as standard contractual clauses;
- we will only transfer personal information to countries which are recognized as providing an adequate level of legal protection , or where we can be satisfied that alternative arrangements are in place to protect your privacy rights, or after having obtained explicit consent from you; and
- any requests for information we receive from law enforcement or regulators will be validated before personal information is disclosed, where permitted by the applicable law.
When we otherwise transfer personal information between jurisdictions, we will take such steps as required by local law in an effort to ensure that such transfer is managed to protect your privacy rights.
Using our websites, mobile applications and other technology
We and our service providers use cookies, pixels, web beacons, tracking tools and other similar technologies on our websites, mobile applications and in other areas of our business to collect information and provide you with the services that you have requested or participate in and to provide targeted advertising. Subject to local consent requirements, we may use this and other information we collect, such as a hashed email address, to help us and our service providers identify other devices that you use (e.g., a mobile phone, tablet, other computer, etc.). If you are using our mobile applications and have consented to sharing your location information with us, this information might be collected through GPS to enable us to provide certain personalized services to you such as recommendation of hotels nearby, customized offers and promotions. Your location preferences can be set or modified at the device level or through modifying your settings with the relevant social media platform. This information also includes personally identifiable information that you provide when you join one of our loyalty programs to enable us to verify your membership. We, and our service providers, also may use the cross-device tracking and other information we learn about you to serve targeted advertising on your devices. We also use the information that we collect to improve our products and services as well as your experience when visiting our websites and using our mobile applications. For more information on these subjects, please click the relevant section below.
We may engage vendors to provide certain interactive features on our websites, mobile applications and in other areas of our business. Your use of these interactive features is voluntary, and we may retain the information that you submit through these features. For example, we may offer an interactive chat feature on the website to assist you for customer service purposes. When you participate in the interactive chat, the contents of the chat may be captured and kept as a transcript. By using these features, our vendors may process the information obtained through the feature to provide the service on our behalf.
Cookies and other tracking technologies
What is a cookie: A “cookie” is a small text file that is placed onto an Internet user’s web browser or device and is used to remember as well as obtain information about that party. You might be assigned a cookie when visiting our websites or when using our mobile applications or other digital channels. In some instances, where permitted under the applicable law, cookies may also be used for the purposes of certain email campaigns.
What types of cookies we use and how we use them: We use different types of cookies, which include:
- Required Cookies –these cookies support the core functionality of our website and are necessary for a website to function and provide our products and services.
- Functional and Session Replay Cookies – these cookies collect information needed to support the website and our applications and allow us to improve our website and identify any problems that you faced while visiting us. For example, performance cookies may provide us with information about how you came to our website and how you navigated around our website during your visit. We also use these cookies to provide us with certain statistical and analytics information.
- Advertising Cookies – these cookies are used to collect information from you to help us to improve our products and services as well as serve you with targeted advertisements that we believe will be relevant for you. We use targeting cookies across our websites and applications for various marketing initiatives and campaigns. For more information, please see the Targeted advertising section below.
To learn more about cookies and how they are used, please visit: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.
Cookies: As described above, we use a number of service providers to help us manage, carry out and improve our advertising. These parties set cookies at our direction to help us collect information and provide you with advertisements that we believe would be relevant for you. In some instances, these parties may also assist us by providing certain statistical and analytics information in relation to our marketing practices. We also may disclose information collected through cookies (and other tracking technologies) with third parties to use for their own analytics and marketing purposes. These third parties may serve targeted advertising to you about IHG and non-IHG branded hotels. The scope of information shared may include information collected through cookies, such as your IP address/device ID, and information about the search that you performed on our website (e.g., you were looking for a hotel in New York City) but would not include your name or IHG® One Rewards information.
Managing cookies and opting out: You can change your cookie preferences in our Cookie preferences tool, which is also available from the Privacy and Cookies Center. You can choose to visit our web sites without cookies, but in some cases certain services, features and functionality may not be available. To visit without cookies, you can configure your browser to reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is set. Each browser is different, so check the “Help” menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.
In relation to cookies placed by our service providers, we participate in the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising managed by the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”). As part of this commitment, IHG has agreed to comply with the standards and guidelines promulgated by the DAA. For more information regarding targeted advertisements and/or to opt out of automatic collection for these purposes, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp. Within the EU, UK and Canada the local DAA organizations operate a similar “ad choices” scheme: see http://www.youronlinechoices.com (UK/Europe) and http://youradchoices.ca/ (Canada). If you opt-out of these targeted advertising cookies, your opt-out will be specific to the web browser or mobile device from which you accessed the opt-out. If you use multiple devices or browsers, you will need to opt out each browser or device that you use.
Other technologies: Other technologies such as pixels and web beacons may also be used on our websites, mobile applications, in email messages and in other areas of our business. These technologies are used to improve our products and services as well as our marketing efforts. We use pixels in our emails to help us determine the success of our advertising campaigns, such as to give us insight into whether you opened, deleted, or forwarded an email, or clicked on a link contained in the email.
Targeted advertising: We and our service providers may serve targeted advertisements through the use of first-party or third-party cookies, pixels and web beacons when you visit our website, use our mobile applications, or visit websites owned by other entities. In some instances, these cookies may be persistent cookies. As described in the Using our websites, mobile applications and other technology section above, we and our service providers may also use cookie and other information to try to identify other devices and web browsers that you may use so we and our service providers may serve targeted advertisements to those devices. We do this to provide you with advertising that we believe may be relevant for you as well as improve our own products and services, including the functionality and performance of our websites and mobile applications. To learn more about opting out of certain types of targeted advertising, please see the Managing cookies and opting out section above.
Do-Not-Track: Currently, our systems do not recognize browser “do-not-track” signals except for certain locations as described below in the section US State Consumer Rights. You may, however, disable certain tracking as discussed in this section (e.g., by disabling cookies); you also may opt-out of targeted advertising by following the instructions at the DAA and the Network Advertising Initiative websites.