How will a Crowne Plaza hotel route payment of fees and requests for service related to FreedomPay?
Crowne_Plaza Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
Hotel acknowledges that, although IHG will process the on-boarding of Hotel, administer payments related to the Next-Gen Payments Solution, and facilitate support for Hotel, FreedomPay is the provider of the payment gateway services.
Hotel will be accessing a single hosted environment configured for IHG, and Hotel does not have the right or ability to customize the hosted environment for its individual needs.
The payment of fees and requests for service, and other interaction with FreedomPay will be routed through IHG, acting as a facilitator.
Hotel will direct requests for service to IHG.
Source: Item 23 — Receipts (FDD pages 100–424)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to the 2025 Crowne Plaza FDD, Crowne Plaza hotels will interact with FreedomPay through IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group). IHG acts as a facilitator between the hotel and FreedomPay. Specifically, the payment of fees, service requests, and other interactions with FreedomPay are routed through IHG. Therefore, Crowne Plaza hotels must direct all service requests to IHG.
This arrangement means that Crowne Plaza franchisees do not directly manage their relationship with FreedomPay. Instead, IHG handles the administrative and support aspects of the payment gateway services. This can streamline communication and support for franchisees, as they have a single point of contact (IHG) for FreedomPay-related issues.
However, franchisees should recognize they do not have the ability to customize the hosted environment for their individual needs, as they are accessing a single hosted environment configured for IHG. Franchisees are also responsible for ensuring they comply with the FreedomPay P2PE Instruction Manual (PIM). Failure to comply with PIM may result in IHG charging the hotel reasonable fees to compensate IHG for mitigation, or disallowance of benefits described in the PIM.