A cyberattack on InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, or IHG, disrupted business at franchisees this month, causing lost income, a class-action lawsuit, and a trail of angry customers, some of which are AAHOA Members. IHG, which has 17 brands of hotels located around the world, said on September 6 that it detected unauthorized activity on its technology systems, leading to significant disruptions in booking and other systems.
Hotel owners across the country are upset by IHG’s response to this problem, saying they themselves cannot respond to angry and frustrated customers’ questions because IHG hasn’t shared any details on what data was exposed in the hack.
“They should be able to share the minimum information so the hotel owners aren’t left in the dark for days on end as they are trying to address the very livelihood of their business,” said AAHOA President & CEO Laura Lee Blake in the WSJ article. This hits especially close to home for AAHOA Members who own an IHG property, because last week in response to a survey regarding the attack, members estimated losses of $30k-$75k for each property owned. Although technology systems are up and running again, there are many questions that remain unanswered.
“One always presumes we don’t know the worst of it because they’re not coming forward,” said Blake on the lack of details IHG has shared with their franchisees and customers about the level of data that was compromised.
Original source can be found here.
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