according to Gina LaBarre, InterContinental
Hotels Group vice president of Americas brand management for upscale brands. LaBarre
discussed the development with
Business Travel News here this week in Las Vegas at
IHG's investors and leadership conference. Free Internet access will be part of
a "connectivity bundle" Crowne Plaza will introduce sometime next
year as a part of a larger ongoing brandwide overhaul. Beginning next year, IHG
will offer
free Internet at all properties for any IHG Rewards Club member,
regardless of status, but Crowne Plaza's offer will go "above and beyond
the IHG standard" because it will available to all guests, whether they
are IHG Rewards Club members or not, LaBarre said.