FiservFiserv
Mandatorypropriate management and staff trained and competent to operate NGP at all times. Each licensee will be required to enter into a merchant processing application and agreement with Fiserv, the SCH-appr
From the filings
HQ-led decisions
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants is controlled at the corporate level by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) executives, including the Chief Customer & Marketing Officer and SVP of US and Canada Franchise Operations. The brand mandates a suite of IHG systems—Concerto, Connect, Merlin, and a Revenue Management System—and operates 55 franchised locations, representing a compact but high-value addressable market for vendors who can integrate with or augment the existing stack.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
55
55 franchised
Unit growth YoY
—
vs prior filing
AUV
—
Item 19, 2026
Royalty
1%
of gross sales
Ad fund
3%
national + local
Initial fee
—
per unit
Investment range
$66.94M–$120.36M
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
Item 19
Claims
from the filing
Ongoing fee load
What the operator pays every month
The recurring percentage of gross sales named in this filing, before rent, labour or any technology fee.
4%of gross sales (FY2026)
15% reference
Mandated & recommended tech
The systems vendors compete with
2 of these are mandated in the franchise agreement. Each is named in Item 11 of the filing, the incumbents a challenger must displace or integrate with.
FreedomPayFreedomPay
Mandatorylicensee will be required to enter into a merchant processing application and agreement with Fiserv, the SCH-approved merchant service provider, and a participation agreement with FreedomPay and SCH (
AmadeusAmadeus
from time to time. As a participant in ICS, you are automatically enrolled in the GDS, which provides reservation linkage with the three current major GDS – Travelport, Sabre, and Amadeus. You must pa
Amadeus DelphiAmadeus
eeting space, menus, and event details. The system helps ensure accurate communication among sales, catering, and operations teams throughout the event planning process. Currently Delphi.fdc from Amad
Delphi (Amadeus Hospitality)Amadeus
ize, charged Annually Events Platform and in 500 MB units: $370 per unit/per year (minimum of (Payable to Note 8 2Way Interface 4 units). IHGFL) Interface Subscription: $2,200 for Delphi Annually One
First DataFiserv
plication and Agreement for New Properties (“Addendum”) is entered into between FDS Holdings, Inc. (“First Data” or “Processor”), Bank of America, N.A. (“Bank”) (collectively with First Data, “Service
HotelKeyHotelKey
PMS Solution Fee of $6.25 per room per month, which may increase by no more than 5% annually with notice to Brand System Hotels. The PMS Solution Fee covers the Hotel’s use of the HotelKey Cloud PMS,
MeetingBrokerMeetingBroker
en contracted). The funds collected through the G&M Fee are reinvested into improving G&M tools and programs. Hotels agree to pay commissions due to third parties sourcing through MeetingBroker. To su
NextGen PaymentsNextGen Payments
orm is also designed to support effective management of Hotel Content and quick response to guest relations issues. SCH administers a computerized payment card processing program, NextGen Payments (“N
OracleOracle
places the secure payment solution previously in use by IHG and Hotel and is supported by key third party providers including FreedomPay, Inc. (“FreedomPay”), Oracle Corporation (“Oracle”), Hewlett-Pa
Oracle OPERAOracle
MS, which enables property-management and related activities to be integrated with IHG systems, and it also includes support and training modules. Additionally, Hotels will pay an OPERA Cloud PMS Impl
Sabre SynXisSabre Hospitality
compromise of personal information due to a data security breach affecting Kimpton Hotels during the period August 10, 2016 – March 9, 2017. This suit relates to the breach of the Sabre SynXis reserva
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
20 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 4 explicit no's; 10 questions the text does not settle, which is not a no.
Accounting
Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?
YesItem 11
IHGFL and SCH have independent access to the information and data collected by the PMS and Reservation System.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesItem 17
Upon request, you will provide us and our Affiliates, quarterly financial statements within 45 days after the end of each fiscal quarter and annual audited financial statements within 90 days after the end of each fiscal year.
How the franchisor buys
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
IHG has the right to periodically change the Brand System by adding, modifying, altering and/or deleting elements of the Brand System.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
In some instances, IHGFL receives a small commission from vendors’ sales to offset IHGFL’s costs of implementing the SRD program
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If IHGFL requires you to purchase equipment, furnishings, supplies or other products for the Hotel from a designated or approved supplier or service provider to comply with the Standards, then you must procure the products or services from the approved supplier unless you receive prior written approval to procure…
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Licensee and the Hotel shall, and Licensee shall cause its Agents to, comply with: 7.1.1 all applicable laws, including the Data Privacy Laws and contractual obligations, and any requirements of the credit card processing industry, including PCI DSS and any successor standard,
Franchise management
Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?
YesFranchise agreement
(11) strictly comply with IHG’s requirements as to guest satisfaction and guest complaint programs, as such programs may be modified by IHG from time to time;
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesItem 11
IHGFL inspects and approves your Hotel before IHGFL authorizes it to open, to confirm that you have completed all of the requirements under paragraph 13.J and/or Attachment “B” of the License.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesItem 8
IHGFL can make changes to the Standards, which will become binding on you as if originally set forth in the Standards.
Marketing
Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?
YesFranchise agreement
Licensee shall not promote, maintain, implement or be responsible for any web site in connection with the licensed Hotel without the prior written approval of IHG, and if approved by IHG, any such web site shall comply with all of IHG’s web site requirements as set forth in the Standards or otherwise.
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesItem 6
Your Hotel must participate in the designated Loyalty Program for as long as SCH chooses to market a Loyalty Program.
Operations
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
If IHGFL requires you to purchase equipment, furnishings, supplies or other products for the Hotel from a designated or approved supplier or service provider to comply with the Standards, then you must procure the products or services from the approved supplier unless you receive prior written approval to procure…
Payments
Must the franchisee use a payment processor or merchant-services provider designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
In addition, Licensee will be required to enter into a merchant processing application and agreement with the IHG-approved merchant service provider.
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesFranchise agreement
IHG requires Licensee to pay all outstanding fees by electronic funds transfer, direct account debit, ACH or other similar technology designed to accomplish the same purpose as may be designated by IHG.
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesItem 15
Regardless of whether you or a third party management company operate your Hotel, the General Manager and Director of Sales with hospitality business experience employed by you or your management company must each work exclusively for your Hotel at all times, and if you own more than one Hotel, you must hire a…
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
All employees must wear the Brand System defined uniform from the Cintas Uniform Collection or such other mandated supplier.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
Food and Beverage Point of Sale (“POS”) System All Brand System hotels must use an approved F&B POS System that meets the Standards which includes full integration with the PMS.
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 17
Our support team maintains an account on all systems and applications for the purposes of maintenance and support.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesItem 11
In addition, the General Manager, Guest Service Manager, Sales Director/Manager, Executive Housekeepers, Director of Engineering and Food and Beverage Director or Manager must also complete annual retraining requirements as IHGFL may designate.
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesItem 6
The Licensee (or, if Licensee is not an individual, a representative of Licensee) and the General Manager must attend the IHG Premium Investors and Leadership Conference, or any replacement conference, and must pay the registration fee of up to $2,500 per attendee regardless of attendance plus travel and expenses.
The filing answers no to 4 questions
- Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?Item 8
- Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?Item 7
- Is the franchisee required to spend a minimum amount on local advertising or marketing, as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount?
- Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?Item 6
Who buys here
The buyer at this brand
The decision-maker a vendor sells to at this scale, and the gaps they’re paid to close, derived from our data by segment and unit count, not a guess.
The franchisor's owner/CEO decides; an ops or franchise-development lead may evaluate.
VP SalesHead of SalesCROSales Director
- 41.9% of quick service brands mandate no POS system, leaving a massive blind spot in your target list.By instantly identifying the 452 brands with no POS mandate, you replace weeks of manual FDD research and focus your pipeline on high-fit displacement targets, cutting customer acquisition cost by over 60%.
- 82.3% of brands mandate no accounting system, signaling a wide-open market for tech vendors.FranCloud surfaces the 888 brands without an accounting mandate so your team can prioritize outreach before competitors even know they exist, turning a manual research cost center into a predictable revenue engine.
- Only 17 out of 1,079 quick service brands mandate a CRM, yet unit counts and AUVs prove these are high-value accounts.Instead of spending 40+ hours manually combing FDDs to find CRM-needy brands, FranCloud delivers the 17 mandate-holders and their financials in one query, letting your team close deals 10x faster.
The vendor opportunity at Kimpton
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants operates 55 franchised locations in the US, with the number of company-owned units not disclosed in the most recent FDD. For software vendors, this is a concentrated account: a single corporate parent, IHG, controls the technology decisions across all properties. The brand's average unit volume (AUV) and royalty percentage are not publicly available in the FDD, but the IHG affiliation signals a premium, full-service segment where operational and guest-experience software can command higher per-unit contract values. Year-over-year unit growth was not disclosed, so vendors should treat this as a stable, existing portfolio rather than a rapidly expanding footprint.
Who controls software purchasing
Software purchasing authority sits at the HQ level. The FDD lists Elie W. Maalouf as Chief Executive Officer of InterContinental Hotels Group, PLC, with Jolyon Bulley serving as CEO, Americas. The most directly relevant buying-center contacts for a software vendor are Heather Balsley, Chief Customer & Marketing Officer, and Colin Macdonald, Senior Vice President of US and Canada Franchise Operations. Mark Sergot, Chief Development Officer, Americas, may also influence technology decisions tied to new property openings or renovations. There are no multi-unit operators mapped in our corpus, which reinforces that franchisees likely have little to no independent procurement authority for core systems.
Mandated and current tech stack
The FDD mandates four IHG systems: IHG Concerto, IHG Connect, IHG Merlin, and a Revenue Management System (RMS). Concerto is IHG's property management and central reservations platform. IHG Connect provides guest-facing Wi-Fi and network infrastructure. Merlin is the brand's revenue management and business intelligence tool. The mandated RMS, while not vendor-named in our extract, is likely IHG's proprietary or preferred revenue optimization system. For vendors, this means any software pitch must either integrate with these mandated platforms or fill a gap the IHG stack does not cover—such as niche spa management, F&B point-of-sale, or staff scheduling—without conflicting with existing mandates.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 procurement signals were not extracted in our corpus, so the formal supplier designation model—whether designated, approved, or open—is unknown. Given the mandated nature of the core tech stack, vendors should assume a centralized procurement process with IHG corporate. Item 17 renewal conditions and the initial franchise term length were also not disclosed in our data. Without term or renewal data, vendors cannot estimate contract windows from the FDD alone. The practical approach is to align with IHG's known corporate budgeting cycles and watch for technology RFPs issued at the brand or parent level.
How to read the Kimpton FDD
The 2026 Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants Franchise Disclosure Document is the primary source for the facts above. It contains the legal and operational disclosures IHG makes to prospective franchisees, including the Item 1 executive roster, Item 11 technology mandates, and Item 20 unit tables. Software vendors should focus on Items 1, 8, 11, and 17 to map the buying center, procurement rules, mandated systems, and contract renewal cycles. The full FDD is embedded below for your own analysis. For a ranked target list of franchise brands matched to your software category, talk to FranCloud.
Questions vendors ask
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, answered from the filing
Key decision-makers include Heather Balsley (Chief Customer & Marketing Officer) and Colin Macdonald (SVP, US and Canada Franchise Operations), based on the most recent FDD. IHG's Americas CEO Jolyon Bulley also oversees the region.
The FDD mandates IHG Concerto, IHG Connect, IHG Merlin, and a Revenue Management System (RMS). No specific POS vendor is named, but the stack is heavily standardized under IHG corporate systems.
There are 55 franchised Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants locations in the US. The number of company-owned units was not disclosed in the most recent FDD.
Specific procurement signals from Item 8 were not extracted in our corpus. Given the mandated IHG tech stack, purchasing is likely centralized or follows designated-supplier protocols controlled at the HQ level.
The initial franchise term and renewal conditions from Item 17 were not disclosed in our data. Vendors should monitor IHG's corporate procurement cycles and any public RFI activity for timing signals.
The 2026 Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants FDD is filed with state franchise regulators. You can view the full document in the embedded PDF viewer below to analyze tech mandates, executive contacts, and unit economics directly.
Source
Read the filing itself
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FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
1 operators run 1 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit1
Ownership
The portfolio behind Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
strategic_multibrand of IHG.
Sibling brands
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.