Thank you for your email dated 10 October 2023, regarding concerns related to colleagues at IHG hotels in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman.

Respecting human rights is an integral part of our global commitment to be a responsible business. We take all reports concerning labour and human rights issues within our hotels and supply chains seriously, investigate them comprehensively and are committed to ongoing human rights due diligence.

We have several written standards in place to help govern our approach to human rights and the treatment of workers. This includes our Code of Conduct and our Human Rights Policy, which are applicable to all colleagues working in IHG corporate offices, reservation centres, owned, leased and managed hotels. IHG also has a Human Rights Brand Standard in place, which requires all IHG-branded hotels, including those under franchise agreements, to have in place a human rights policy.

We have a longstanding commitment to addressing forced labour risks, including helping to develop the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance’s Principles on Forced Labour which were launched in 2018. As part of our ongoing work in this area we have Responsible Labour Requirements for our owned, leased and managed hotels – these set minimum standards on recruitment and employment, staff accommodation, worker voice and working with recruitment agencies and third-party labour suppliers. We’ve developed supporting resources on key topics such as: how to conduct worker interviews to identify and remediate grievances; due diligence when outsourcing the supply of labour; and guidance on how to investigate and remediate recruitment fees payment. We are monitoring the implementation of the requirements at the hotel-level through regular engagement withcolleagues, for example, surveys, the onboarding process for new recruits, and periodic interviews. In addition, we require annual self-assessments to be completed by each hotel and, through ongoing collaboration with local HR business partners, we proactively engage where risks have been identified or concerns have been raised via our Confidential Reporting Hotline, or external stakeholders.

We take all allegations concerning forced labour and modern slavery issues within our hotels and supply chain very seriously and are reviewing the information that has been shared with us on this occasion, to ensure our policies are being fully implemented. We encourage third parties, including media channels, civil society organisations and others, to contact us directly with any concerns, either via our confidential reporting channel (ihgethics.com) or via the Ethics and Compliance team’s email address ([email protected]). IHG is committed to investigating all reports received.

Kind regards,

IHG Hotels & Resorts