TRENDING
IHG CARVES OUT LUXURY / LIFESTYLE NICHE amid expanding space
IHG INTENDS TO BE A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE SEGMENT , BUT THAT DOESN ’ T MEAN BEING THE BIGGEST .
By DAVID EISEN , EDITOR IN CHIEF
Holiday Inn is a name that stands alone in its familiarity . Singers of all genres have referenced it in song — even getting a playful edit when Chingy , Ludacris and Snoop Dog collaborated on “ Holidae In ,” which jumped all the way to No . 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2003 .
Perhaps no hotel brand is as demonstrative as Holiday Inn , itself an appellation taken from the 1946 film “ Holiday Inn .” Kemmons Wilson took it forward from there .
The name is so well known globally that consumers might not know that it ’ s owned by InterContinental Hotels Group , whose roots stretch back to Bass Brewery . Today , it only sells beer in its hotels , which amount to more than 6,000 globally . Holiday Inn , and later Holiday Inn Express , a limitedservice complement added in 1990 , are the workhorse brands for IHG , accounting for almost half of the company ’ s global pipeline and 70 % of open hotels .
IHG will continue to focus on what Elie Maalouf , CEO of the Americas region for IHG Hotels & Resorts , calls its “ bread and butter ” and “ mainstream business ,” but over recent years , IHG has been branching
The InterContinental Hotel – Bellevue at the Avenue , in Washington , is slated to open toward the end of 2023 .
16 hotelsmag . com May 2023