For many hotel employees, Merlin access does not begin with IHG Global Support.
It begins at the property.
IHG’s current Network ID instructions explicitly tell employees at franchised hotels and certain internationally managed hotels to work with their General Manager, IT Administrator, or Deputy GM to initiate the Network ID invitation process.
That gives hotel leadership an operational identity-management role.
The Hotel Starts the Account Request
For the affected hotel colleague group, IHG says the administrator will need information including:
- hotel code;
- job title;
- valid email address.
The invitation code is then sent to the employee.
This design prevents a public user from creating a hotel identity without an authorized property relationship.
The Manager Should Match the Account to the Real Role
A good account request reflects the employee’s actual:
hotel;
job;
employment status;
business need.
Those attributes influence which applications the person may eventually require.
Creating broad access “just in case” is less defensible than assigning the access needed by the job.
MyID Can Be Used for Account Administration
IHG’s Network Account Support documentation provides a specific MyID workflow for authorized GMs and hotel IT administrators to re-enable eligible team-member accounts.
The published process includes:
signing into MyID;
opening Manage Access;
choosing Manage AD Accounts;
locating the user;
finding the IHG Corporate Directory entry;
enabling the account.
Those are administrator functions.
They are not a workaround an employee should attempt using another person’s access.
Password Lock and Disabled Account Are Different
A manager should first identify the problem type.
If the account is password-locked, the employee may be able to use the password recovery/unlock process.
If an authenticator is locked, the MFA path applies.
If the account is disabled, MyID re-enablement may be appropriate for an authorized administrator.
If an application is missing, re-enabling the Network ID may not solve it.
Employee Travel Has a Manager Workflow Too
IHG’s Employee Room Benefit Programme says a manager can validate the One Rewards membership of eligible employees who do not have a Merlin ID.
Historical IHG LoyaltyConnect guidance also describes hotel-level employee validation and removal of eligibility when employment ends. The older document should be treated as historical process evidence rather than assumed to represent every current screen.
The current public benefit page remains the stronger source for today’s user-facing requirement.
Employment Changes Should Trigger Access Review
Common events include:
new hire;
hotel transfer;
promotion;
job change;
leave;
termination.
Each event can change what IHG access is appropriate.
A colleague who leaves the property should not simply remain authorized forever because nobody reviewed the account.
Franchise Properties Carry Additional Responsibility
IHG does not employ franchise-hotel colleagues or control their day-to-day employment policies.
The franchise property therefore sits between its own workforce processes and IHG’s brand systems.
The property needs to ensure that the people receiving IHG identities actually have a legitimate hotel relationship.
Application Access Should Follow Business Need
A front-desk colleague, general manager, procurement user, revenue manager, and supplier do not need identical application sets.
Merlin’s value comes partly from giving different roles access to different resources.
The administrator should treat missing access as a provisioning question:
What application?
Which hotel?
Which job role?
Who approves it?
That produces a much better support request than “Merlin doesn’t work.”
Do Not Share Administrator Credentials
MyID administration can affect other users.
Hotel administrators should never resolve a colleague’s issue by sharing an administrator account or authenticating on the employee’s behalf using shared credentials.
The identity should remain attributable to the person actually performing the action.
A Property-Level Merlin Checklist
For a new colleague:
- confirm employment relationship;
- identify correct hotel and role;
- initiate the approved Network ID route;
- ensure invite reaches the correct email;
- confirm identity registration;
- verify required application access;
- handle travel eligibility where applicable;
- review access when role or employment changes.
That is identity lifecycle management, not merely “creating a login.”