“We’re extremely focused on our relationships with owners because it’s by working closely with them that we can achieve our ambition of Great Hotels Guests Love. Understanding the needs of our owners and guests better has been a focus this year and will be next year.”
Jim Abrahamson
President, The Americas
After joining us in January 2009 as our new president for the Americas, Jim Abrahamson reveals just how energetic the team has been in its pursuit of growth.
I’m delighted to join such a dynamic and exciting company. The team has a fantastic business here and I’d like to thank Richard Solomons and the management team for their work in ensuring a smooth transition. Our scale and system have put us in a strong position to face the tougher trading environment that lies ahead and to build on the great work of Steve Porter.
Market performance
United States: As our number one market, the US has the largest number of hotels open and the biggest development pipeline. The economic environment may be tough, but we set a new record in 2008 by opening 332 hotels, including our 200th Candlewood Suites.
During the year we entered the timeshare market for the first time by launching a new brand, Holiday Inn Club Vacations.
Latin America: Business has been resilient, buoyed by strong local trade and travel. The area bucked the global downturn and saw an increase in revenue per available room of about 15 per cent. We have 106 hotels in Mexico, more than any other company and we’re the only hotel group approved for the Mexican government’s scheme to give franchisees three year interest-free loans to pay initial fees. This should certainly help growth continue.
Canada: We now have 144 hotels in Canada. Holiday Inn continues to grow rapidly and our pipeline is the largest of all mid-scale hotel brands in the country, an achievement we’re very proud of.
Opened and on the way
Chicago, Arizona and two in California were among the rapid roll-out of new InterContinental hotels. We also signed deals for InterContinental hotels in Times Square, New York and Atlanta, Georgia.
Crowne Plaza, one of the hotel industry’s fastest-growing brands, saw a wealth of openings and signings. This includes the spectacular and historic Brock Plaza opposite Niagara Falls and the 31-storey, 386 room hotel that will open in Las Vegas in 2010.
The Holiday Inn relaunch has given owners renewed confidence that the brand is a first-choice franchise.
There are now more than 902 Holiday Inn hotels in the Americas pipeline – a record and the lion’s share of the brand’s global growth.
Staybridge Suites celebrated its 10th anniversary (see story, right) by opening its first hotel in Las Vegas. In 2008, we opened 10 Hotel Indigo properties in the US – three in Florida alone. There are now more than 52 Hotel Indigo properties in development in the US.
Relationship with owners
We continue to work closely with the IAHI, our Owners’ Association, to provide franchisees with the help they need to improve service quality and drive revenue to their hotels. This is especially important in a tougher market, when working in partnership with our owners gives us a competitive advantage. The IAHI is a key partner in the relaunch of Holiday Inn, and has helped to ensure that the staff-training element of the process is ahead of schedule. In Latin America, the strength of our relationship with The Owners’ Association is illustrated by the way the regional IAHI president has worked with us to open the region’s first hotel school.
* Before exceptional items.
Caught on camera
Pictures taken by our employees worldwide
Our stories
Charity begins at home
Candlewood Suites has joined up with the charity Habitat for Humanity International to build homes for low-income families in the US, Latin America and India.
Pledging to build 10 houses to celebrate its 10th anniversary, employees took on the task of building their third house this year. So far, houses have been built in Dallas and Detroit, USA and Mexico. Three more are already under way in India and the team’s seventh house is planned for Atlanta, USA.
Art at its heart
One of the pieces of art on show at InterContinental Chicago O’Hare, USA
Guests staying at the new InterContinental Chicago O’Hare have an unusual reason to linger – to enjoy the hotel’s own art gallery, looked after by an in-house curator.
The hotel runs a daily champagne tour of its paintings and sculptures, which include commissioned works by artists Thomas Masters and Jay Ryan and rotating art collections.
The 556-room hotel, which opened in September, also boasts a 275-seat live-entertainment venue and three world-class restaurants.
Staybridge Suites celebrates success on its 10th birthday
The 10th anniversary of Staybridge Suites was a cause for celebration in December.
The first Staybridge Suites opened in Atlanta, Georgia in 1998 to fulfil the needs of business travellers who spend weeks or months at a time on the road. Ten years on, it played host to a celebration of the brand’s birthday.
Staybridge Suites now has 152 hotels open and a global pipeline of 166. The majority of these are in the US, but we’ve also had great success in taking the brand to other regions (see story, "Staybridge comes to stay in Liverpool and Cairo" in EMEA section).
Green buildings find the right chemistry
The US Department of Energy has selected IHG to help find solutions to the growing problem of climate change. IHG is one of 24 companies working with American laboratories on a $15 million project to design commercial buildings that save significant amounts of energy.
The aim is to design, construct and operate a new building that uses 50 per cent less energy than a standard structure within five years. This knowledge will help us reduce the environmental impact of developing and operating our own hotels.
Lavish Broadway revival goes with a swing
Crowne Plaza Times Square, New York, USA
Manhattan’s biggest indoor pool, a Butler Floor and even private putting greens are all part of an $85 million reinvention of the Crowne Plaza in Times Square, New York.
The 770-room hotel – the only one with an entrance on Broadway – raised the curtain on its new look in December. It boasts 18 rooms with their own putting greens, New York’s first Butler Floor and a 50 ft swimming pool.
Set to double
Rocky Mount, North Carolina became home to our 200th Candlewood Suites hotel which opened in October. The brand’s global pipeline is set to add at least another 200 in the next three to four years.
Guests at the hotel can take advantage of the ‘just-like-home’ amenities available at all Candlewood Suites hotels, including complimentary high-speed Internet access, free local phone calls, free on-site guest laundry and a 24-hour fitness centre.
They can also enjoy the free lending library of movies and music, which can be played on the DVD and CD players provided in every guest room.
Franchisee opens Latin America’s first hotel school
Latin America has its first hotel school – thanks to the enthusiasm of one of our longstanding franchisees.
Herman Bern, president of our Owners’ Association in the region, has opened the Panama International Hotel School within his latest IHG hotel, the Holiday Inn City of Knowledge in Panama City.
Students help to run the 137-room hotel, which opened in April. We’ve provided a sophisticated culinary theatre at the hotel and continue to support it by funding scholarships and giving our employees in the region the opportunity to attend the school as part of our career development programme.
Opening the school has given us a competitive advantage because we’re the only hotel company with this sort of facility in the region.
Welcome to the world’s biggest timeshare resort
Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Orange Lake Resort, Orlando, Florida, USA
We made our debut in the fast-growing world of timeshare with the launch of a new brand – at the biggest single-site timeshare resort in the world.
Holiday Inn Club Vacations opened for business in December with a resort boasting 2,412 villas on 1,400 acres next to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The resort features four championship golf courses, seven swimming pools, an 80-acre lake for watersports and a variety of shops and restaurants. A flagship Holiday Inn Resort hotel and up to 2,500 additional timeshare villas are also due to be built there.
The opening is the result of an alliance between IHG and The Family of Orange Lake Resorts, owned by the Wilson family, founders of Holiday Inn. Almost 56 years after Kemmons Wilson opened the first Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee, his family is once again helping to create a milestone for the brand.
Orange Lake’s other sites in Vermont (60 villas), Wisconsin (68 villas) and Florida (18 villas) have also joined the Holiday Inn Club Vacations brand, with more sites to follow in 2009.
Ways to win in Wisconsin
Owners looking to develop a new-build Crowne Plaza should head for the state of Wisconsin, where they will find the first prototype of the new Crowne Plaza design. The hotel demonstrates how Crowne Plaza can be operationally efficient and cost-effective for owners, how to make best use of its ‘The Place To Meet’ positioning, and how to incorporate design features that are important to upscale business travellers.
While converting existing buildings will always play a role in our development strategy, this prototype provides design ideas that owners can replicate when building new hotels.
