Privacy Policy.

INTERCONTINENTAL® HOTELS GROUP PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy covers the TRUSTe certified InterContinental Hotels Group websites.

  • What Personal Information We Collect
  • Where Do We Collect Your Personal Information?
  • How We Use Your Personal Information
  • When and With Whom We Share Your Personal Information
  • Links to Other Sites
  • How We Protect the Security of Your Personal Information
  • What is the Credit Card Fraud Policy?
  • Cookies and Other Computer Information
  • How do I correct or update my information?
  • How can I decide what communications I will receive?
  • More About Your Privacy
  • Changes to the InterContinental Hotels Group Privacy Policy

What Personal Information We Collect

We collect personal information that you choose to provide voluntarily when using our web sites. This information includes your IHG® Rewards Club account. You can use our site without creating an account, but you will need to create an account if you want to take advantage of certain features, such as “Favorite Destinations,” “Room/Rate Preferences” and other time saving features. We may also ask for personal information when you contact our Customer Service department. This will allow us to protect your confidentiality by verifying your identity.

Following a stay in one of our hotels, your hotel stay information is collected and stored by our hotels locally, and subsequently transferred to a centralized database. This facilitates aggregated trend analysis used for hotel management purposes such as planning new hotel locations, evaluating hotel amenities, guest preferences, and advertisement planning. In addition, your business with us is valued and we may use the record of your stay to send you via postal mail or email, communications such as guest surveys or promotional offers and benefits. You may “opt-out” or choose to be excluded
from these communications by noting this on your guest registration during your hotel stay or by contacting Customer Service. For Customers who do not reside in the United States, and who have not chosen to enroll in the IHG® Rewards Club program, we may contact you regarding your satisfaction with your hotel stay but will not send you any sales promotional communications or special offers unless you have consented to receive such communications.

Our web sites do not intentionally solicit or collect personal information about children under the age of 13. If you are under 13 and would like to use our web site, please ask a parent or guardian for assistance.

Some of our promotional offers have a “Tell A Friend” feature that allows you to have the offer sent to a friend with your comment. If you choose to use this feature, we collect the email address of your friend(s) to facilitate the referral but do not store it for other uses.

Where Do We Collect Your Personal Information?

When you place a hotel reservation, we request your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, credit card number and expiration date. We use this information to process and fulfill your reservation.

When you register for a IHG® Rewards Club account, we ask for your name, mailing address, telephone number, email address and PIN. There is a membership fee for Ambassador that requires credit card information to process. Credit card information is optional for IHG® Rewards Club accounts and may be added after you have registered. Additional optional information in your profile is collected for specific services such as check-in conveniences, room preferences, or point transfers to airline or other partner programs. You may access and update your profile in IHG® Rewards Club or Ambassador online at any time, using your membership number and PIN. This data is stored in data bases protected from intrusion and unauthorized viewing by commercially available software products we purchase in good faith from third party suppliers, and you do not have to re-enter it with each visit to our web site. It is also used to recognize you as a repeat customer so we can personalize your shopping experience. Once you become a IHG® Rewards Club member, you will have access to our special features, including “Favorite Destinations”, which conveniently stores your most frequented
hotels and cities. IHG® Rewards Club and Ambassador members receive newsletters and promotional offers from both InterContinental Hotels Group and its program partners, and points statements. IHG® Rewards Club and Ambassador member information is shared with program partners, listed in the membership welcome package and newsletters, unless you decline by requesting an “opt-out” of that portion of the program by contacting IHG® Rewards Club or Ambassador service centers. Contact information can be found on our Customer Service page.

When you join the InterContinental Hotels Group Email List, we request your email address in order to send you email on the latest offers, advanced notice of events, and more.

To deliver this information to you, we use a third-party email marketing service that helps us conduct targeted permission-based email campaigns. When registering for our email program, this service company may collect and store personal information you provide on our behalf and have agreed with us it will not share, rent, sell, trade or provide any of this information to parties other than InterContinental Hotels Group. If you are no longer interested in receiving InterContinental Hotels Group Email communications, instructions for removal from the list are included in every email we send you.

How We Use Your Personal Information

Information we collect on our web sites may be used to enhance your experience in the following ways:

  • Confirm your hotel reservations
  • Request your evaluation of a hotel stay via a satisfaction survey
  • Send you emails that relate to a hotel stay
  • Register you as a member of IHG® Rewards Club Rewards
  • Deliver merchandise you have redeemed online
  • Bill your credit card for Advance Purchase Reservations and Advance Deposits
  • Respond to your customer-service inquiries or requests
  • Communicate special offers and featured items to you, if you choose to receive such notices
  • Customize your experience on our web sites

Contests

From time-to-time, we may request information from you through contests. Participation in these contests is completely voluntary and you have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Contact information gathered from contests will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Demographic information will be used for purposes of monitoring and improving your experience on this site.

We may co-sponsor some contests on our site with other companies. If you enter one of these contests, our co-sponsor may receive the information collected or may collect the information directly. In such cases, we will tell you who is collecting your information, how our co-sponsor may use the information and how you can contact our co-sponsor.

When and With Whom We Share Your Personal Information

We will share personal customer information with our hotels, representatives and trusted service providers and contractors for limited purposes, including fulfilling customer reservations; offering certain products and services in connection with our web site; communicating to customers via email and through our interactive chat feature; providing customer service; enhancing and improving customers’ online experience; enabling access to our partners’ sites; providing a personalized online experience; and completing credit card transactions. For members of IHG® Rewards Club, information is shared with our program partners for the purpose of transferring rewards points and, with our prior approval, to extend special offers.In order to transfer points to other programs and to earn or redeem points quickly, we offer links to selected third party services for these services.In order to use these optional services, it is necessary to share some of your personal information. These third parties have agreed to comply with our privacy policies.

Aside from the purposes described above, we do not share your personal information with any other third parties unless we have your permission or under special 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 InterContinental Hotels Group property. We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order or legal process served on our business entity. We may share aggregated demographic and statistical information in the course of our business with certain third parties. This sharing does not include any personal information that can identify any individual person.

Links to Other Sites

Please note that our site links to other sites and that the privacy policies of these sites may differ from ours. We advise you to check the privacy policies of other Web sites before disclosing any personal information. In any event, please note that these sites do not share your personal information with us.

Occasionally when linking to another site, you may still see our site’s logo or frame. This is to provide you with a seamless experience when visiting our Web site. In these cases you are no longer on our site and are now on a different Web site whose information collection practices may differ from ours. The privacy policy of the site you are on will govern how information collected from you is used. You can always know what site you are on by checking the location bar within your browser.

How We Protect the Security of Your Personal Information

In our efforts to protect your personal data, we use generally accepted standards for safeguards including administrative, technical and physical measures. Additional safeguards are in place for sensitive personal data. These safeguards are continually updated and maintained by qualified information security professionals.

One of the security techniques we use for online transactions is a technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). If your browser is capable of SSL (and most are), your personal information will be automatically encrypted, or encoded, before it is sent over the Internet. More about SSL Technology.
We have also obtained a digital security certificate from Verisign, Inc., a leading provider of Internet trust services. This certificate guarantees that your personal information is being transmitted in secure (encrypted) form to our Web servers, not to some unknown or unauthorized server. When you enter a secure portion of our site (which is any page containing any of your personal information), an image of a closed lock or a solid key should appear in your browser window.

Your personal information is also protected by the Personal Identification Number (PIN) created when you joined the IHG® Rewards Club program. Please keep this PIN confidential. You may change it anytime by going to Your Account. Log in and then click “Personal Information” to enter a new PIN.If you contact one of our service centers by telephone, a Customer Service Associate may ask you for your PIN to verify your identity if you are requesting service.

What is the credit card fraud policy?

In the unlikely event that you experience unauthorized use of your credit card on our web site or any web site, promptly report the fraudulent activity to your credit card company. Under applicable law, you may be only liable for the first $50 of the fraudulent charges. Please check with your credit card company to verify specific terms and conditions.

Cookies and Other Computer Information

When you visit our web sites, you will be assigned a permanent “cookie” (a small text file) to be stored on your computer’s hard drive. The purpose of the cookie is to identify you when you visit our site so we can enhance and customize your online experience. For IHG® Rewards Club members, the cookies are linked to your IHG® Rewards Club member account number not to your PIN (Personal Identification Number).

You can choose to visit our web sites without cookies, but without these identifying files you will not be able to take advantage of certain desirable features of our site. These features include remembering your login (so you don’t have to remember your number) and providing a more personalized online experience. 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.)

This web site may utilize 3rd party tracking pixels to help manage online advertising. These pixels are provided by our advertising delivery partners.
These pixels enable our partners to recognize a unique cookie on your Web browser, which in turn enables us to learn which advertisements bring users to our website as well as provide you with targeted advertisements. The information we collect and share is anonymous and not personally identifiable.
It does not contain your name, address, telephone number, or email address. For more information regarding 3rd party pixels and cookies or to opt out of targeted advertisements delivered by our advertising delivery partners, go to http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

This web site may from time to time offer “web widgets”. Some widgets support functions that may require that you to disclose certain personally identifiable information given your choice of participation. This information is collected in many different ways such as: forms, surveys, contests,forums, subscribing or unsubscribing to mailings and correcting or updating personally identifiable information and are only used for the purpose in which they were collected. Some widgets may utilize an optional import contacts feature to help you invite your contacts to download our widget. If you so choose, we make it easy for you to invite people from your email address books to download our widget. At your request, we will search your email address book to help you import your contacts to our site. You can import your contacts from your email address book automatically and select who to send emails manually to download the widget. The email invitation will come from your entered email address.

Some of our business partners (e.g. advertisers) use cookies on our site. We have no access to or control over these cookies. This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by InterContinental Hotels Group websites only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

We also collect certain technical information from your computer each time you request a page during a visit to our web sites. This information may include your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your computer’s operating system, browser type and the address of a referring Web site, if any. We collect this information to enhance the quality of your experience during your visit to our site and will not sell or rent this information to any third parties.

We use various web site analytics tools and technologies regarding activities on our web site that require storage of web session data. The overall aim of these tools is to aid in making the website easy to use and to proactively identify and correct error conditions. These tools and technologies are also used to assist web site visitors who report problems in the use of our website. Stored web session data is never sold or rented to third parties and is purged when these purposes have been fulfilled.

How do I correct or update my information?

We provide storage of personal information for IHG® Rewards Club Members and InterContinental® Ambassadors that can be updated online. IHG® Rewards Club members and Ambassador members can modify their personal information anytime. Simply go to Your Account, log in and edit whatever information you wish. Your request will be responded to within 30 days of requesting the change. If you wish to delete your account entirely, please contact the nearest IHG® Rewards Club Service Center.

Non-IHG® Rewards Club members can alter their email preferences by visiting our Email Registration Site.

How can I decide what communications I will receive?

Guest Satisfaction Surveys

We strive to maintain and continually improve the quality of all hotels in our brands. Customer comments and feedback are valued and used as a quality tool. As part of the hotel stay experience, we engage a third party to randomly survey guests and request an evaluation of the hotel property and service. These surveys are sent via email and postal mail. If you have a preference for either email or postal mail or if you do not wish to be contacted for satisfaction surveys, please advise the hotel either at check-in or during your stay. You may also contact the IHG Privacy Office at the
information provided below.

Email Communications

If you choose to receive periodic communications from us, we may from time to time send you email messages describing new promotions, featured hotels and special offers. You can choose to stop receiving these emails at any time. If you are a US resident and stay at one of the IHG brand hotels, we value your patronage and will send you special offers and promotions. If you do not wish to receive these offers, you may discontinue at any time by using the “Unsubscribe” feature included on each email message.

ForIHG® Rewards Club or InterContinental® Ambassadors, simply go to Your Account, sign in, click “Communication Preferences” and revise your preferences.

If you are not a member of IHG® Rewards Club or InterContinental® Ambassadors, and you have an email account with us, you can alter your email preferences by visiting our Email Registration Site. Links to this site can be found on each brand web page.

Email communications that we use are described in more detail as follows:

Membership Transactions: We may send you email confirmations of any member transactions that you conduct (redemption, promotion registration, points deposit). These confirmations will only be sent if a transaction is conducted.

Reservation/Stay Related Interactions: We may send you a reservation confirmation email to confirm any reservation you make on our site or via our call center. A similar confirmation may be sent if you modify or cancel a reservation on our site. These confirmations will only be sent if a transaction is conducted.

Pre-Arrival Communications: In some instances we may use your email address used for your reservation to advise you about local weather, hotel information and area information a few days prior to that particular stay.

Post-Stay Communications: In some instances we may use your email address used for a hotel reservation to thank you for that particular hotel stay or to request your feedback on your stay.

Operational Notices: Email addresses may also be used to respond to your customer service inquiries and to answer any other questions you may have about our site. We may also need to send emails to inform you of any changes to our site that might affect your personal information or to notify you of problems with your reservation.

IHG® Rewards Club Members

The membership terms and conditions of IHG® Rewards Club include provisions for data privacy as follows:

Data Privacy. Under the data protection legislation of various countries, we are required to particularly draw your attention to the fact that by applying for membership or by continuing to exercise the privileges of membership and in order to make it possible for IHG to perform its obligations under the Program, you accept and explicitly authorize that your personal information which is supplied by you in the enrollment form or during the course of your Program membership (i) shall be processed by SCH, in its capacity of data controller, by its subsidiaries, affiliates or franchisees, including IHG hotels in nearly 100 countries, and by the IHG® Rewards Club and InterContinental Ambassador Service Centers and (ii) may be transferred worldwide to any third parties with which IHG is affiliated within the scope of the Program (“Frequency Alliances”) or to third parties to process your personal data on our behalf or where required by applicable law or in the event of a company reorganization, merger or acquisition, for use of such information for its (their) administration of membership records, guest service, advertising, marketing and communication purposes. They or we may contact you for marketing purposes by mail, fax, telephone or email.

Legal Disclaimer

We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process on our Web site.

As an additional benefit of membership, we provide selected offers and promotions from various companies who are program partners. A separate and additional enrollment is needed for members who are residents of Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia or Canada. You will need to check the relevant box on the offline enrollment form or contact your IHG® Rewards Club or InterContinental Ambassador Service Center to receive this benefit. Members residing in all other areas of the world, including the U.S.A. do not need to complete an additional enrollment for this opt-in feature but if you wish to be excluded from such offers and promotions, you will need to contact the IHG® Rewards Club Service Center in your region and ask to be removed.

Right of Access to Data. You have a right of access to your data by sending a written request to your regional IHG® Rewards Club or InterContinental Ambassador Service Center.

More About Your Privacy

“InterContinental Hotels Group is a Participant in the TRUSTe Privacy Seal Program. TRUSTe is an independent organization whose mission is to advance privacy and trust in the networked world. As this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices monitored for compliance by TRUSTe.

If there are questions or concerns regarding this statement, we ask that you first contact:

InterContinental Hotels Group

Attn: Privacy Office

Three Ravinia Drive

Atlanta, Georgia 30346

Phone: 1-770-604-8347

Fax: 1-770-604-5275

Email:[email protected]

If satisfactory response or resolution is not received within a reasonable timeframe, TRUSTe is available as a contact. Please see additional information at TRUSTe Watchdog Dispute Resolution Process. TRUSTe will serve as a liaison with the Web site to resolve user concerns.

InterContinental Hotels Group complies with the EU Safe Harbor framework as set forth by the Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.

www.Ihg.comparticipates in the EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework as set forth by the United States Department of Commerce. As part of our participation in the safe
harbor, we have agreed to TRUSTe dispute resolution for disputes relating to our compliance with the Safe Harbor Privacy Framework. If you have any complaints regarding our compliance with the Safe Harbor you should first contact us (as provided above). If contacting us does not resolve your complaint, you may raise your complaint with TRUSTe by Internet at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php, fax at 415-520-3420, or mail at Watchdog Complaints, TRUSTe, 55 2nd Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA, USA 94105. If you are faxing or mailing TRUSTe to lodge a complaint, you must include the following information: the name of company, the alleged privacy violation, your contact information, and whether you would like the particulars of your complaint shared with the company. For information about TRUSTe or the operation of TRUSTe’s dispute resolution process, see http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php or request this informationfrom TRUSTe at any of the addresses listed above. The TRUSTe dispute resolution process shall be conducted in English. For human resources data we have agreed to cooperate with Data Protection Authorities. Any questions, comments or complaints about the data practices (including without limitation compliance with data privacy principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, access, security, data integrity, or enforcement) of a hosted online OnBoarding software customer or partner for whom IHG processes data should be addressed to that customer or partner”

The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this Web site, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from the site.

Changes to the InterContinental Hotels Group Privacy Policy

InterContinental Hotels Group reserves the right to change, modify or amend this policy at any time. However, if there are changes made to the use of users’ personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify you by posting a notice on our Web site for 30 days. Last Updated on June 25, 2009.

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