 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hotels |
| Founded | August 1, 1952; 73 years ago (1952-08-01) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Founder | Kemmons Wilson |
| Headquarters | Atlanta,Georgia, U.S.[1] |
Number of locations | 1,173 (September 30, 2018)[2] |
Area served | Americas,Europe,Middle East,Africa,Asia-Pacific |
| Services | Food services,lodging,conventions,meetings,timeshares |
| Parent | Bass Brewery (1988–2000) Six Continents (2000–2003) IHG Hotels & Resorts (2003–present) |
| Divisions | Holiday Inn Express |
| Website | www |
| Footnotes / references [3] | |
Holiday Inn by IHG is a chain ofhotels based inAtlanta, Georgia and a brand ofIHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 byKemmons Wilson (1913–2003), who opened the first location inMemphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division ofBass Brewery from 1988 to 2000,Six Continents from 2000 to 2003, andIHG Hotels & Resorts since 2003. It operates hotels under the names Holiday Inn,Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, and Holiday Inn Resorts. As of 2018, Holiday Inn has hotels at over 1,100 locations.
Kemmons Wilson, a resident ofMemphis, Tennessee, was inspired to build a motel after being disappointed by the poor quality of roadside accommodations during a familyroad trip toWashington, D.C.[4] During the construction, the name "Holiday Inn" was coined by Wilson's architect Eddie Bluestein as a joking reference to the 1942musical filmHoliday Inn. Their first hotel/motel opened in August 1952 as "Holiday Inn Hotel Courts" at 4941 Summer Avenue in Memphis, then the main highway (U.S. Hwy. 64/70/79) toNashville. It was demolished in 1994.
Wilson partnered with Wallace E. Johnson to build additionalmotels on the roads entering Memphis.[5] In 1953, three more Holiday Inns were built onU.S. 51 South, Highway 51 North, andU.S. 61.
By 1957 there were 30 Holiday Inns, and Wilson began marketing the chain as "Holiday Inn of America". There were 50 locations across the US by 1958, 100 by 1959, 500 by 1964, and 1000 in 1968.[6] A number of early locations werefranchised, some by the Albert Pick corporation ofChicago. Because a number of Albert Pick franchisees were recommending customers to other Albert Pick hotels instead of to Holiday Inn, the Holiday Inn corporation enacted a rule that franchisees could not own locations of another hotel as well as a Holiday Inn. This led to the Albert Pick-franchised locations exiting the brand by the end of the 1950s. The rule on franchising remained until 1973, when a franchisee was denied the rights to build a location inNewark, New Jersey because of this rule; theUnited States District Court thus declared the rule a violation of a United States anti-monopoly law.[7]
In 1965, the chain launched Holidex, a centralized reservation system where a visitor to any Holiday Inn could obtain reservations, byteleprinter, for any other Holiday Inn location. Promoting itself as "your host from coast to coast", Holiday Inn added a call center afterAT&T's introduction of 800toll-free telephone number service in 1967.[8] Holiday Inn opened their firstcampground, Trav-L-Park, inAngola, Indiana, in 1970.[9][10]Branded as "The Nation's Innkeeper", the chain put considerable financial pressure on traditional motels and hotels, setting the standard for competitors likeRamada Inn,Quality Inn,Howard Johnson's, andBest Western. By June 1972, with over 1,400 Holiday Inns worldwide, Wilson was featured on the cover ofTime magazine and the franchise's motto became "The World's Innkeeper".
In 1963, Holiday Inn signed a long-term deal withGulf Oil where it agreed to accept Gulf credit cards to charge food and lodging at all of its American and Canadian hotels, in return for Gulf buildingservice stations on many Holiday Inn properties, particularly near major U.S. and Interstate highways. The arrangement was copied by competing lodging chains and major oil companies during the mid-to-late 1960s, but fell out of favor following the1973 oil crisis. The Gulf/Holiday Inn arrangement ended around 1982.
In 1969, Holiday Inns acquired TCO Industries, the holding company for what is nowTrailways Transportation System, and theocean liner and cargo shipping companyDelta Shipping.[11][12]
In 1971, the company constructed the Holiday Inn University and Conference Center, a teaching hotel for training new employees, inOlive Branch, Mississippi. In 1973, the company built theOlive Branch Airport north of the university as a home base for its corporate aircraft. In 1979, the company sold Trailway Transportation System.[11]
In 1982, the company sold Delta Shipping toCrowley Maritime Corporation, which was a San Francisco basedtug andbarge operator at that time.[11]
The company later branched into other enterprises, including Medi-Center nursing homes,Delta Queen, andShow-Biz, Inc., a television production company that specialized insyndicatedcountry music shows. Wilson also developed the Orange Lake Resort and Country Club nearOrlando and a chain called Wilson World Hotels. As of 2014, Wilson's family still operates hotels as part of the Kemmons Wilson Companies of Memphis.
The "Great Sign" was the roadside sign used by Holiday Inn during its original era of expansion from the 1950s to 1970s. It was perhaps the company's most successful form of advertising. It was extremely large and eye-catching, but was expensive to construct and maintain. The manufacturer of the sign was Balton & Sons Sign Company, and it was originally designed by sketch artists Gene Barber and Roland Alexander. Wilson wanted a prominent sign, at least 50 feet (15 m) high and visible from both directions. He also wanted a changeable marquee to welcome different groups. The original sign cost $13,000.[13] It is said that the sign's colors were selected because they were favorites of Wilson's mother.
In 1982, following Wilson's departure, the Holiday Inn board of directors phased out the "Great Sign" in favor of a cheaper back-lit sign; Wilson considered it "the worst mistake they ever made". He loved the "Great Sign" so much that it was engraved on his tombstone, with the marquee reading "FOUNDER" and the arrow aimed at his name.[14] The majority of the signs were scrapped but working examples are owned by theAmerican Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio,The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and a private collector in Park Hills, Kentucky.
Although still a healthy company, changing business conditions and demographics saw Holiday Inn lose its market dominance in the 1980s. Holiday Inns, Inc. was renamed "Holiday Corporation" in 1985 to reflect the growth of the company's brands, includingHarrah's Entertainment,Embassy Suites Hotels,Crowne Plaza,Homewood Suites, andHampton Inn. In 1988, Holiday Corporation was purchased by UK-basedBassPLC (then owners of theBass beer brand), followed by the remaining domestic Holiday Inn hotels in 1990, when founder Wilson sold his interest, after which the hotel group was known as Holiday Inn Worldwide. The remainder of Holiday Corporation (including theEmbassy Suites Hotels,Homewood Suites, andHampton Inn brands) was spun off to shareholders asPromus Companies Incorporated. In 1990, Bass launched Holiday Inn Express, a complementary brand in the limited service segment.[15][16][17]
In 1997, Bass created and launched a new hotel brand,Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn, entering the North American upscale extended stay market. In March 1998, Bass acquired theInterContinental brand, expanding into the luxury hotel market. In 2000 Bass sold its brewing assets (and the rights to the Bass name) and changed its name toSix Continents PLC.InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) was created in 2003 after Six Continents split into two daughter companies:Mitchells & Butlers PLC to handle restaurant assets, and IHG to focus on soft drinks and hotels, including the Holiday Inn brand.[18]
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.[19] In 1999, the hotel that changed into theNickelodeon Suites Resort Orlando in 2005, opened, called "Holiday Inn".
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2002 that the company, led by Ravi Saligram, was producing a new 130-room "Next Generation" prototype hotel to rebuild the brand. It would include a bistro-like restaurant and an indoor pool. The first of these prototype hotels, the Holiday Inn Gwinnett Center, was built inDuluth, Georgia, in 2003.
In 2008,Mitchells and Butlers sold off 21 Holiday Inn hotels in exchange for 44 standalone pubs toWhitbread. In September 2008, IHG announced the creation of a new timeshare brand, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, a strategic alliance with The Family of Orange Lake Resorts.[20]
On October 24, 2007, IHG announced a worldwide relaunch of the Holiday Inn brand, which spelled trouble for the remaining motels. The relaunch was "focused on delivering consistently best in class service and physical quality levels, including a redesigned welcome experience [and] signature bedding and bathroom products". The first relaunched Holiday Inn opened in the U.S. in spring 2008. Currently there are more than 2,500 relaunched Holiday Inn brand hotels around the world, and the Holiday Inn global brand relaunch process was completed by the end of 2010.[21] By then, the majority of the HI motels were removed from the chain, with a few exceptions. (In the 1980s and 1990s, HI hotels were built alongside the motel properties [i.e. Baton Rouge, Louisiana] in order to provide more amenities and newer rooms.) When the relaunch occurred, these motels were either demolished or closed off, even if a full-service hotel was already on site. Today, fewer than 10 original Holiday Inn motels still operate, others having been replaced by newer Holiday Inn Express locations or having switched to other chains.
In August 2012, the chain celebrated its 60th anniversary.[22]
In 2024, IHG announced a vast expansion of the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands inGermany as part of a franchise and cooperation agreement with German hotel operatorNovum Hospitality which in turn will rebrand the majority of their currently over 100 properties into Holiday Inn, including a newly created sub-brand namedHoliday Inn - the niu.[23]
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Holiday Inn currently operates hotels and resorts using the following brands:
For two decades a hotel called Holiday Inn located inNiagara 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,[28] 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.[29]
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Holiday Inn hotels located inMyrtle Beach, South Carolina were simply called "Holiday" because a local motel already had the "Holiday Inn" name. The Myrtle Beach motel started as Ocean Front Lodge in 1948 but changed the name to Holiday Inn in 1949 (three years before the founding of the chain), and put up a sign in 1955 with similar lettering to that of the chain, which registered its sign in 1954. The chain first franchised motels in the area in 1956. The Myrtle Beach hotel put up a sign resembling the "Great Sign" in 1968, and used "®" with its name, though many of its items came from suppliers which assumed they were selling to the chain.[30] The Myrtle Beach hotel "began aconcurrent use proceeding in the Patent and Trademark Office" in 1970, which was suspended[31] when the name was contested before theUnited States District Court for the District of South Carolina (Florence division) in 1973.[30] The court said the Myrtle Beach hotel had plenty of repeat business and was not negatively impacted by the chain's motels in the area. The 1973 injunction meant the Myrtle Beach hotel was granted the right to use the name but with a different style of lettering. The concurrent use proceeding resumed for the Myrtle Beach hotel, which continued to operate as "Holiday Inn", although it was required to use a distinctly different font. A 1976 ruling granted the Myrtle Beach Hotel the right to a service mark. A 1979 order denied a motion to modify the 1973 injunction, though it was believed the hotel had followed all restrictions. A 1981 decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 1979 action.[31]
The Holiday Inn Resort brand transitioned from the Holiday Inn SunSpree® Resorts brand in 2007 as a part of the Holiday Inn global brand relaunch.
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