24th Oct 2007 07:01
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC24 October 2007 InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announces worldwide brand relaunch of Holiday Inn InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) today announces a worldwide relaunch of theHoliday Inn brand family, comprising Holiday Inn, Express by Holiday Inn andHoliday Inn Express ('Holiday Inn'). All Holiday Inn hotels will be required to implement the relaunch programme,focused on delivering consistently best in class service and physical qualitylevels, including a redesigned welcome experience, signature bedding andbathroom products. Redesigned brand signage will be installed at hotels oncethey have implemented the relaunch programme. This will give Holiday Inn arefreshed and contemporary brand image. All Holiday Inn hotels open or underdevelopment are expected to have implemented the relaunch programme by the endof 2010, with the first due to open in spring 2008 in the US. Established in 1952, Holiday Inn is one of the world's most recognised hotelbrands with over 400,000 rooms (3,125 hotels) open and a development pipeline ofmore than 110,000 rooms (942 hotels). This development pipeline continues togrow rapidly, with over 16,000 rooms signed in the third quarter of 2007, a 6%increase on Q3 2006. Further details of Holiday Inn signings, openings andremovals since 2001 are available at http://www.ihgplc.com/holidayinnsignings.pdf. IHG expects the relaunch programme to allow Holiday Inn hotels to generatesignificantly higher revenue per available room (RevPAR), and generate anenhanced return on investment for their owners. Owners and franchisees willinvest up to $1billion over a three year period in total to carry out the brandrelaunch to meet the required service and quality levels. IHG will make a non recurring revenue investment of up to £30m to accelerateimplementation of the relaunch. This cost is anticipated to be accounted for asan exceptional item. This investment will, inter alia, fund a proportion of thecost of signage conversion at recently opened Holiday Inn hotels that agree tofully implement the relaunch programme during 2008, and fund the relaunchprogramme at certain high profile hotels that will be used to showcase thebrand. IHG expects to generate a strong return on this investment throughRevPAR increases across the Holiday Inn brand family following completion of therelaunch. Announcing this to an audience of over 4,500 hotels owners, managers andinvestors at IHG's annual Americas conference in Dallas, Chief Executive AndrewCosslett, said: "This is an important moment in Holiday Inn's history. The brand is the largestand one of the most successful in the hotel industry and its relaunch willensure that this position is maintained. We have spent a considerable amount oftime getting the facts and the insights to enable us to make these changes, inpartnership with our owners. The Holiday Inn sign is seen by hundreds ofmillions of people every day around the world. The changes we are making willensure the Holiday Inn brand goes forward into the future with a strong andconfident new image. We want our guests to get as much enjoyment from HolidayInn hotels over the next 50 years as they have over the last 50." Rick Takach Jr., Chairman of the International Association of Holiday Inn ("IAHI") representing nearly 3,000 of IHG's hotel owners and operators, added: "Holiday Inn is a legend in the hotel industry. It has a proud history, and IHGis now demonstrating its commitment to keep the brand fresh in the minds of bothhotel owners and guests with its renewed focus on quality and innovation. TheIAHI strongly supports this development and looks forward to the businessimprovement it will deliver." InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) of the United Kingdom (LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG(ADRs)) is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG owns,manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, over 3,800 hotelsand more than 563,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories aroundthe world. IHG owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brandsincluding InterContinental(R) Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza(R) Hotels &Resorts, Holiday Inn(R) Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express(R), StaybridgeSuites(R), Candlewood Suites(R) and Hotel Indigo(R), and also manages theworld's largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club(R) Rewards with over 33million members worldwide. The company pioneered the travel industry's first collaborative response toenvironmental issues as founder of the International Hotels and EnvironmentInitiative (IHEI). The IHEI formed the foundations of the Tourism Partnershiplaunched by the International Business Leaders Forum in 2004, of which IHG isstill a member today. The environment and local communities remain at the heartof IHG's global corporate responsibility focus. IHG offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands atwww.ihg.com and information for the Priority Club Rewards programme atwww.priorityclub.com For the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at www.ihg.com/media For further information, please contact:Investor Relations (Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson; Heather Wood): +44 (0) 1753 410 176Media Affairs (Leslie McGibbon; Claire Williams): +44 (0) 1753 410 425 +44 (0) 7808 094 471 High resolution images to accompany this announcement are available for the media to download free of charge from www.vismedia.co.uk. This includes new shots of the refreshed Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express branding This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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