January 5, 2014/ altair / New Hotels & Resorts

Holiday Inn is one of the world’s most recognized hotel brands with a global reputation for service, comfort and value. It is the world’s largest hotel chain with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 315 hotels in the pipeline. There are 100 million guest nights each year, globally.

A Little Bit of History

Once, after a family road trip to Washington, Kemmons Wilson was so disappointed by the quality and consistency provided by the roadside motels, that decided to build his own hotel. The name Holiday Inn was given to the original hotel by his architect Eddie Bluestein as a joke, in reference to the Bing Crosby movie. Mr. Wilson partnered with Wallace E. Johnson and in 1953 they built the first 4 motels on the byroads covering each approach to Memphis, TN.

At the beginning, Holiday Inn’s corporate headquarters was in a converted plumbing shed owned by Mr. Johnson when the company built its first four hotels, one. On the occasion of Mr. Johnson’s death Wilson was quoted as saying, “The greatest man I ever knew died today. He was the greatest partner a man could ever have,” Together they started what Mr. Wilson would shepherd into Holiday Corp., one of the world’s largest hotel groups.

Nowadays, Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels forming part of the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). The brand name Holiday Inn is now owned by IHG, which in turn licenses the name to franchisees and third parties who operate hotels under management agreements.

Holiday Inn “Family”

Holiday Inn is the most recognizable tier of service. There are two distinct types: high-rise, full-service plaza hotels and low-rise, full-service hotels. The former also included many high-rises with round, central-core construction, instantly recognizable from the 1970s. Both offer a restaurant, pools at most locations, room service, an exercise room, and functional but comfortable rooms.

• Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites – properties offering all the amenities and services of a regular Holiday Inn but consists of rooms mixed with suites.
• Holiday Inn Resort – Offering all the amenities and services of a full-service Holiday Inn, resorts are considered a more of an advertising branding than a completely different brand. Most Holiday Inn Resorts are located in high leisure tourism markets.

Holiday Inn Select – upper range full-service hotels which cater to business travelers. In 2006, it was announced that Holiday Inn Select hotels will be discontinued. Existing hotels may continue to operate under the Holiday Inn Select flag until their existing license expires, however many are converting to Crowne Plaza or regular Holiday Inn hotels, with no further marketing or advertising based around the “Select” moniker.

Holiday Inn Sunspree Resorts – properties in resort areas with full-service amenities and deluxe service. These are typically very large properties.

Holiday Inn Garden Court – which exist only in Europe and South Africa and are designed to reflect the national culture.

Holiday Inn Express (Express by Holiday Inn) – smaller versions of Holiday Inn hotels with fewer amenities and services. As an “express” hotel, their focus is on offering limited services and a reasonable price. Standard amenities lean toward the convenient and practical which cater to business travelers and short-term stays. The brand was first launched in 1990, and now there are over 1,500 Holiday Inn Express hotels worldwide. Most hotels offer a fitness center with various equipments such as treadmills, indoor swimming pools and a hot tub. Most Holiday Inn Express hotels offer a business center with equipments such as computers, printers, and fax equipment for use by business travelers. Additionally, all Holiday Inn Express hotels offer free local calls and free wireless internet for business travelers who bring their laptop computer.

Interesting Facts

Great Sign: The “Great Sign” is the traditional, historic roadside sign used by Holiday Inn during their original era of expansion in the 1950s-1970s. It was the brainchild of Kemmons Wilson, who introduced it to the world when he opened his first motel on August 1, 1952. The signs were extremely large and eye-catching, but were expensive to construct and operate. The story goes that the sign’s colors were selected because they were favorites of Kemmons Wilson’s mother.

Historical trademark conflicts: For 20 years a hotel called Holiday Inn located in Niagara Falls, Ontario prevented the Holiday Inn Corporation from operating one of its own hotels in that city since the name was already in use. The hotel used a logo similar to the old Holiday Inn logo from the 1970s. The Holiday Inn Corporation directory referred to the hotel as “not part of this Holiday Inn system”. The hotel also owned the holidayinn.com domain, which forced the much larger corporation to use holiday-inn.com. In 2006, an agreement between IHG and the Niagara Falls, Ontario hotel owners was reached that allowed both the Hotel and Holidayinn.com to be incorporated into the IHG system

“Smart” Marketing Ideas

• “Stay Smart”: In the mid-2000s, Holiday Inn Express began producing humorous television commercials featuring “average Joes” performing extraordinary activities that only experts would know. The concept attributes these exaggerated abilities to the fact that they “stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night”. The campaign reflects the brand’s slogan “Stay Smart” which is still in use today.
• “The Smart Show”: In the summer of 2007, IHG took the “Stay Smart” theme even further. The hotel chain teamed up with AOL and HBO’s new comedy site, “This Just In”, to develop a two-month daily web series called “The Smart Show”. The premise of the show was a virtual tour with the two hosts on a coast-to-coast road trip exploring what’s so smart about America. The idea was to showcase the diverse and non-traditional culture of “smart”, such as people, places, businesses and inventions that are clever, witty, and unexpected as opposed to simply “book smart”. Beginning in Boston, Massachusetts, the traveling show stopped along major metropolitan cities as well as small, back road towns on the way to Los Angeles, California, where the program ended in December 2007. Website visitors were able to interact with the hosts, submit their own video content about smart ideas in their home towns and respond to other smart postings.
• “Smart Mart”: Holiday Inn Express has also reinforced their “Stay Smart” slogan online by opening an Internet “Smart Mart” on their website allowing customers to buy shower heads, towels, toiletries, and cinnamon rolls identical to those featured at the hotels. The online store also features clothing product featuring the hotel logo and breakfast offerings.

For reservation and information please contact Altair Travel

Tags Holiday Inn