IHG announces partnership with Alipay

IHG has announced that it has signed a global partnership with Alipay, China’s leading third-party online payment solutions company. It makes IHG the first global hotel company to give Chinese guests the ability to pay via Alipay through all of IHG’s online and mobile channels, as well as across its full estate of hotels globally. The new partnership, which has been agreed with Alipay’s parent company Ant Financial, will initially apply to IHG’s existing estate of more than 270 hotels in Greater China, as well as a number of hotels around the world that participate in IHG’s China Ready Programme, which offers a range of tailored services to Chinese travellers. The global rollout of Alipay will begin in 2017.