Does the Crowne Plaza Participation Agreement require the hotel to agree to pass-through terms required by FreedomPay?
Crowne_Plaza Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
By execution of this Participation Agreement, the parties hereto agree as follows:
Requirement for Participation Agreement.
Hotel acknowledges that IHG and FreedomPay have entered into the Secure Payment Solution Agreement (the "SPS Agreement"), effective as of July ___, 2021.
The SPS Agreement provides that an IHG-branded hotel or service company to such a hotel may, upon execution of a Participation Agreement, receive the benefit of the Secure Payment Solution services agreed by IHG and FreedomPay.
FreedomPay Services.
FreedomPay will provide services in accordance with the terms of this Participation Agreement, including the FreedomPay Pass-Through Terms set forth on Attachment 1, which Hotel expressly agrees to and accepts.
Source: Item 23 — Receipts (FDD pages 100–424)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to the 2025 Crowne Plaza Franchise Disclosure Document, the Participation Agreement requires the hotel to agree to FreedomPay's pass-through terms. Specifically, the hotel must acknowledge that FreedomPay, Inc. is the payment gateway service provider under the agreement between IHG and the hotel. Attachment 1 of the Participation Agreement outlines the FreedomPay Pass-Through Terms, which the hotel expressly agrees to and accepts. These terms cover various aspects of the payment processing relationship.
The pass-through terms address warranties, with the hotel responsible for maintaining the hardware, software, and connectivity required to connect to the system. FreedomPay makes no warranties regarding third-party services it enables, such as fraud protection or loyalty programs. The hotel understands that FreedomPay's services are designed to facilitate the sale of the hotel's products and services, and FreedomPay is not responsible for the quality of those services.
The Crowne Plaza franchisee is also responsible for procuring any necessary PIN keys and KSNs from their acquiring bank to allow pin-debit payment card transactions. FreedomPay has no liability for transactions not submitted within 60 days of the transaction date. FreedomPay may implement hosted updates to its system, and the hotel must implement non-hosted updates according to IHG's schedule, generally within 12 to 24 months of notice, unless required sooner by law or PCI requirements. Failure to implement these updates may result in termination of operational support. FreedomPay also maintains a status alerting system to notify the hotel about any system issues.