15 September 2009
Holiday Inn Malé opens as first International-class hotel in the Maldives
Soft opening of the tallest and newest hotel in the Maldives' capital city
Malé, the Maldives, 15 September 2009 - The first international-class hotel opens in Malé, the capital city of the Maldives. Holiday Inn Malé, which sports the look-and-feel, service and quality facilities of the new Holiday Inn brand, welcomed its first guests at 2 p.m. yesterday.
"As the newest hotel and the first international-class property in Malé, I am confident that Holiday Inn Malé will do extremely well. Holiday Inn Malé aims to be the ideal business and leisure connection for our guests to the Maldives," said General Manager Brett Wilson. "We are also fully in line with the standards of the global Holiday Inn relaunch, joining over 1,000 other hotels around the world that sports the new Holiday Inn brand standards and contemporary new logo."
Holiday Inn Malé offers world-class meetings and conference facilities, food and beverage outlets, extensive recreation and leading-edge communication facilities and commands an unrivalled view of the habour. A mere five-minute speedboat ride from the international airport, Holiday Inn Malé will be ferrying guests in the first-ever Holiday Inn-branded speedboat.
Located on the corner of Ameer Ahmed Magu, Holiday Inn Malé lies near the harbourfront, shops and markets and within a short walking distance to the various historical places of interest like the Old Friday Mosque, Sultan Park and The Presidential Palace. The hotel provides the perfect gateway to holidaymakers heading out to outlying resort islands.
Holiday Inn Malé boasts of 117 stylish rooms, including 17 Superior Rooms, 77 Deluxe Rooms, 13 Deluxe Ocean view Rooms, 9 Premiere Rooms and a Presidential Suite. All rooms feature either a king bed or two twin beds and offer amenities such as broadband Internet, LCD TVs, minibar, complimentary tea/coffee making facilities and in-room safes. As for dining and entertainment, there is a Lobby Café, an all day dining restaurant, a rooftop restaurant offering European/Japanese fusion cuisine and a 24 hour in-room dining.
The hotel also has a rooftop swimming pool, a well equipped fitness centre and the first branded Spa in Malé, Coconut Spa. Other full range of activities include scuba diving and snorkeling, big game fishing, island excursions and picnics, Malé city tour, photo flights, resort day visits, submarine trips and others.
For corporate meetings, there are four versatile meeting rooms including the Grand Ballroom offering 255 square metres of space, all equipped with the latest technology. They provide the ideal space for a range of function requirements: from seminars, board meetings and exhibitions, to wedding banquets and private celebrations catering for up to 180 persons, banquet style, or 240 for a reception.
The hotel is currently in its soft opening phase with 39 rooms opened for booking. By October the full facilities at Holiday Inn Malé will be available.
As the first Holiday Inn in the Maldives, this is another milestone for the iconic Holiday Inn brand. Currently, Holiday Inn is undergoing a global relaunch programme, the biggest rebranding exercise in hospitality that will result in a completely refreshed estate worldwide by 2010.
Notes to Editors:
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [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 4,300 hotels and almost 630,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®, and also manages the world’s largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club® Rewards with 44 million members worldwide.
IHG has nearly 1,600 hotels in its development pipeline, which will create 140,000 jobs worldwide over the next few years.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group’s holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.
IHG offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands at www.ihg.com and information for the Priority Club Rewards programme at www.priorityclub.com. For the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at www.ihg.com/media
About Holiday Inn Relaunch
Holiday Inn is in the midst of the biggest relaunch in hospitality history creating a more contemporary brand image including a new logo, and driving consistency in all 3,296 Holiday Inn brand family hotels around the world. With over 1,000 hotels already relaunched worldwide, the completion of the relaunch of the global estate is expected to be completed in 2010.
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