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Will an updated design reinvigorate this ubiquitous mid-tier flag? IHG is betting a bundle that it will.
By Mary Scoviak
InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) is about one-third of the way through its $1 billion relaunch of the Holiday Inn brand. By the end of next year, more than 3,200 Holiday Inns and Holiday Inn Expresses worldwide will be refreshed with modern design elements such as minimalist front desks, "pops of energetic color" and duvets. But will that be enough to make Holiday Inn one of the cool kids? The answer will be a major test of how much design can make or break a brand.
For years, no one could touch the success of Holiday Inn. Its founder, millionaire home builder Kemmons Wilson, understood how to deliver the "next-haves." Instead of courting the few who would appreciate a trendsetting mid-century modern statement, Wilson's first Holiday Inn, which opened in Memphis in 1952, had the luxuries most middle-class families aspired to but couldn't yet afford-like swimming pools and air conditioning. That message sold well enough to franchisees and travelers to make the chain that invented the mid-tier the largest hotel company in the world.
Investors and franchisees continued to get the message. At the end of 2008, the chain had 1,775 hotels and more than 245,000 rooms in its global pipeline. All well and good on the development side. On the consumer side, the familiar green and white sign has faced more of a challenge. Some industry watchers charged that the brand lost a step as Starwood Hotels & Resorts "discovered" brand DNA and Marriott and Hilton lightened up and brightened up to appeal to younger travelers.
So now IHG has to play catch up aesthetically. It's responding with sleek properties like the spare Sixth Avenue Holiday Inn in New York and the cool, uncluttered modernity of the next-generation prototype that opened August 3 where it all began-in Memphis.
The relaunch also fills some marketable gaps with the introduction of pillows at various comfort levels, upgraded linens and an improved shower experience. Still, there's nothing that hasn't been done before.
Does there need to be? Has the hotel industry become too much about image and not enough about innovation? Holiday Inn may not be trendy, but it still ranks as one of the most innovative brands around in terms of understanding that families need microwaves and mini-refrigerators when they travel; that even business travelers want good bathroom lighting and that every room needs to have no surprises-as in overpromising and under delivering. That's something to celebrate.
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