After fifty years on the block it is time for a change, a bit of a face lift and at US$1 billion what a face lift it will be; yes Holiday Inn is polishing up its image.
During the present recession the competition for heads-on-pillows is particularly intense as both business and leisure travellers are cutting back on unnecessary travel and the second or third holiday. A report in a recent Guardian newspaper carries the message that the world’s largest hotel group Holiday Inn is responding to the challenge but taking itself just slightly up market.
Gone is the familiar green signage, going are the neon-illuminated lobbies, going are the adequate but bland rooms with the pay-per-view movies and the all-right breakfast buffet.
Holiday Inn Responding to Change
Responding to a new harsh mid-market travel sector Holiday Inn has unveiled its new, sharper image. The group is revamping its public spaces, landscaping the grounds, improving the room facilities and bedding and introducing standardised scents.
Sixty Years of Service
Holiday Inn’s first hotel was opened nearly six decades ago in Memphis by successful businessman Kemmons Wilson. Wilson frustrated by family trips across the States where the only choice of accommodation was at rundown, shoddy motels or up-market classy and expensive hotels. From those early years the hotel chain has established a presence in more than 100 countries and is expanding still. Now owned by British hospitality company InterContinental Hotels, the Holiday Inn has recently opened new hotels in Vietnam and the Maldives.
To achieve the upgrading local franchisees will need to invest between US$100,000 to US$200,000. And if the franchisees are unable or unwilling to spend that sum they face removal from the group. Besides the standardisation of environment like new public area lighting, signature plant pots, a choice of pillows and the addition of power showers the staff are encouraged to be more friendly to the guests.
The standardisation of the Holiday Inn brand means that a concoction of exotic scents will be wafted into the public areas: ginger, white tea, citrus and musk will be pumped out at Holiday Inns, and sweet grass and green tea at economy end of the group Holiday Inn Express. But it does not stop there, there is a 1,000 song soundtrack that will pump out music by artists from Sting to John Mayer but local variations will be allowed like Kylie Minogue in the UK. It seems that people, especially frequent business travellers like the uniformity of a familiar environment; it provides them with a sense of security and comfort.
Holiday Inn is not unique in facing the challenges of a temporarily declining market, and one that is likely to stay in the doldrums for sometime yet, but by up-grading its environment, rooms and services it is striving to maintain its lead over the mid-market competitors.
John Howe - John Howe is a qualified nurse, lecturer and journalist, he has written extensively on health, travel and lifestyle in Asia and Europe.
