InterContinental Hotels Group Selects Merchant Link as an Approved Provider of Credit Card Gateway Services and Security

ORLANDO, Fla., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- HITEC Booth #515 -- InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose brands include Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza,  Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and Hotel Indigo, has signed a master agreement with credit card gateway and payments security provider Merchant Link.

The contract endorses Merchant Link as an approved provider for IHG's franchisees in the United States, covering more than 3,000 hotel properties, and encouraging franchisees to evaluate Merchant Link products and services, which are designed to deliver security, assist with PCI compliance and provide faster, more accurate payments.  

"In our search for a new payments gateway provider to introduce to our franchisees, IHG established a number of key criteria," said Tammy England, director of treasury for the IHG Americas region.  "We wanted to point our franchisees toward a hosted, gateway solution which would be easily upgradable and would not require the adoption of extra hardware or software.  We sought competitive pricing, wanting to help our franchisees eliminate pass-through fees by third-party processors.  And, we insisted on a high level of responsive service."  

England added that having met these stringent criteria, Merchant Link also distinguished itself with its long-standing relationship with property management system (PMS) and point of sale (POS) system MICROS, the primary property management system software provider to IHG hotel franchisees.  

"Competition, guest expectations, and increasingly sophisticated and determined identity thieves are all out there -- and, no doubt, contributed to IHG's evaluation of new gateway solution providers," said Merchant Link Chief Technology Officer Dan Lane.  "We are pleased and honored that IHG has selected Merchant Link as an approved provider for its franchisees.  We look forward to a long and productive relationship with those franchisees throughout the Americas region."

About InterContinental Hotels Group

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) (LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG (ADRs)) is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, over 4,300 hotels and almost 630,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®, and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club® Rewards with 44 million members worldwide.

IHG has nearly 1,600 hotels in its development pipeline.  InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's parent company and is registered in England and Wales.

IHG offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands at www.ihg.com and information for the Priority Club Rewards programme at www.priorityclub.com. For the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at www.ihg.com/media

About Merchant Link

Merchant Link is a leading payments gateway company, providing PCI compliance, secure solutions, data transport services and comprehensive technology to merchants, software providers and credit card processors. Its premier product, TransactionVault, features the next generation of tokenization by replacing each card number with unique keys. Merchant Link currently supports more than 120,000 hotels, restaurants, ballparks, and other venues, and maintains connectivity to the major US payment card processors. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., Merchant Link handles more than 2 billion transactions for some of the world's best-known merchants. Further information is available at www.merchantlink.com.

SOURCE Merchant Link