Singapore, 24 October 2007 – IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) today announced a worldwide relaunch of the Holiday Inn brand family, which comprises the Holiday Inn® and Holiday Inn Express® brands.

All Holiday Inn hotels worldwide will be progressively relaunched to further enhance quality and drive consistency across the brand portfolio. The relaunch will incorporate a new service promise, a redesigned welcome experience as well as refreshed guestrooms with signature bedding and bathroom products. The new brand signage will be featured at hotels once they have successfully implemented the relaunch programme, resulting in a refreshed and contemporary brand image for Holiday Inn. All Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels currently open or under development will target to have the relaunch programme in place by the end of 2010, with the first Asia Pacific newlook hotels expected in China, Thailand and Australia by the second quarter of 2008.
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Intercontinental Hotels Group Chief Executive Andrew Cosslett
Showcases the New Holiday Inn Image

In Asia Pacific, IHG has an operating portfolio of 100 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels (26,900 rooms) and nearly 60 hotels (17,500 rooms) in the development pipeline. Holiday Inn is the leading mid-scale hotel brand in People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Asia Pacific, and has been consistently named best mid-market hotel brand in Asia Pacific and the world by readers of Business Traveller Asia Pacific magazine for seven years running (2001-2007). The brand first entered Asia in Kyoto, Japan in 1973, and was among the first international hotel brands to open in PRC in 1984. IHG expects the relaunch programme to allow Holiday Inn hotels to generate significantly higher revenue per available room (RevPAR), and deliver an improved return on investment for their owners. Owners and franchisees will invest up to US$1 billion over a three year period in total to carry out the brand relaunch and meet the required service and quality levels.

Andrew Cosslett, chief executive, IHG, “This is an important moment in Holiday Inn’s history. The brand is the largest and one of the most successful in the hotel industry and its relaunch will ensure that this position is maintained. We dedicated significant resources to getting the facts and the insights to enable us to make these changes, in partnership with our owners. The Holiday Inn sign is seen by hundreds of millions of people every day around the world. The changes we are making will ensure the Holiday Inn brand goes forward into the future with a strong and confident new image. We want our guests to get as much enjoyment from Holiday Inn hotels over the next 50 years as they have over the last 50.”

The brand relaunch programme incorporates insights from an IHG-commissioned consumer research, which gathered input from 18,000 travellers globally.

Elements of the relaunch programme include:

Redesigned Brand Signage – Holiday Inn is making dramatic changes to its signage, evolving the iconic script logo, energising the signature colour green and eliminating the current shield shape. The brand will replace more than 11,000 signs around the world to reflect this refreshed and contemporary look. The new brand signage will also be incorporated into design elements in each of the more than 3,100 hotel lobbies and more than 400,000 guest rooms worldwide.

Refreshed Guest Room – Guests will be able to enjoy a new bedding experience with fresh, white duvets and pillows that come in two comfort levels: soft and firm. Bathrooms will feature a showerhead that offers superior pressure while conserving water as well as enhanced amenities, to deliver an invigorating and up-to-date bath experience.

Warm Welcome – A new signature arrival, including new lighting, landscaping and design features will create an energised and a sense of welcome that is universally recognisable and unique to the brand. Guests can expect a more interactive and efficient check-in process, while customised music and scent selections will also engage them in a complete sensory experience.

New Service Promise – Since a differentiated lodging experience cannot be delivered through imagery and product alone, Holiday Inn is committed to providing the best-in-class service. As part of the relaunch, the brand will initiate a new service culture – “Stay Real”. The service culture will enhance staff behaviour and skills to best serve guests, treating them as real people and consistently delivering the real, genuine service for which Holiday Inn is known.

Holiday Inn Relaunch – Media Fact Sheet

“There is no question that you either take charge of change – or change will take charge of you.” Kemmons Wilson, founder of Holiday Inn

Fast Facts: Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express

• Holiday Inn, established in 1952, is one of the world’s most recognised hotel brands with 3,125 hotels.
• 100 million guest nights every year globally.
• Around the world, three people check into a Holiday Inn every second.
• 9 out of 10 travellers have stayed at a Holiday Inn – more than any other brand.
• Every night more than 300,000 people stay at a Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express.  
• Holiday Inn has been mentioned in song lyrics by Elton John, Robbie Williams and rappers Snoop Dogg and Chingy (and 47 others songs…).
• Today Holiday Inn represents nearly 30 percent of the mid-scale with food and beverage segment in the U.S. and Holiday Inn Express represents 17%.  
• Holiday Inn is the largest full-service hotel brand in the U.K. with 116 hotels (17,300 rooms). NB: There are an additional 109 Express by Holiday Inn’s in the UK.  
• Holiday Inn has been operating in China for 22 years and is the largest international hotel brand by number of hotels. There are currently 36 Holiday Inns in China and 24 in development and eight Holiday Inn Express’ with 19 in development.  
• Holiday Inn was the first chain hotel in the world to take internet bookings in 1995.  
• Launched in 1991, Holiday Inn Express was the fastest growing hotel chain in history, going from 0 to 1,000 hotels in 10 years.
• Holiday Inn websites receive more than 100,000 unique visitors every day.

Fast Facts: Focus on quality

• Since 2003 we’ve had an increased focus on quality standards and have been exiting hotels that no longer effectively represent the Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express brand names at a rate of 160 properties (20,000 rooms) a year, replacing them with new ones.
• Expect to have exited approximately 1,000 hotels (140,000 rooms) by the end of 2010, which is one third of our existing total Holiday Inn estate.
• Simultaneously Holiday Inn is experiencing a 20-year record signings pace for the brand, with almost 1,000 hotels in the pipeline.
• Around the world, we’re opening a hotel a day and signing two.
• In the last three years we’ve opened more than 700 new hotels (gross).  
• The room removals combined with aggressive growth of new hotels will itself result in a refresh of more than 1/3 of our system and ensure a consistently high quality product throughout the world by the end of 2010.

• IHG has conducted the industry’s largest piece of consumer research encompassing more than 100 different brands and more than 18,000 people over the last two years.  
• This extensive market research serves as the foundation for the changes IHG is making to the Holiday Inn brands.
• Our focus is on the things that matter most to guests. They tell us 90 percent of what’s important in a hotel stay is a modern, clean, safe property with efficient, friendly service that affords a great night’s sleep.

• This represents the first major change to the Holiday Inn logo in more than 50 years.  
• The first relaunched hotel will be open in Spring 2008.
• We expect the relaunch to roll-out at the rate of 150 hotels every month until the complete estate has relaunched by the end of 2010.

• The hotel industry needs more than one million new rooms in the next five years –more than half of which are in the mid-scale segment.
• Global internet users expected to rise from 870m to 1.4bn by 2010.
• More low-cost airlines mean more people are traveling.
• In the UK, Civil Aviation Authority figures show air passenger movements through UK airports growing at around 5% a year (235 million movements in 2006, up 5% YOY).  
• According to the Federal Aviation Authority, US commercial air traffic grew 7% from 2004 to 2006 and is forecast to hit one billion passenger movements by 2015.  
• Global demand for rooms and low new supply is driving continued rate increases.  
• China expected to be top inbound travel market in world by 2014 and, by 2020, over 100m Chinese people will be visiting destinations outside China. (World Tourism Organisation).
• Where there are roads people travel and need hotels, and in China there is 85,000km of highway under construction to link major cities, much like Eisenhower implemented in the USA in the fifties leading Holiday Inn to ‘follow the tarmac.’

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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 hotels and more than 564,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. IHG owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites® and Hotel Indigo®, and also manages the world’s largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club ® Rewards with over 33 million members worldwide.

The company pioneered the travel industry’s first collaborative response to environmental issues as founder of the International Hotels and Environment Initiative (IHEI). The IHEI formed the foundations of the Tourism Partnership launched by the International Business Leaders Forum in 2004, of which IHG is still a member today. The environment and local communities remain at the heart of IHG’s global corporate responsibility focus.

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP
www.ihg.com

Birte Sebastian
IHG Asia Pacific (Singapore)
+65 9638 5788
birte.sebastian@ihg.com