22 March 2011

IHG's Candlewood Suites Named "Preferred Hotel of NHRA"

IHG's midscale extended-stay brand to lead multi-year strategic partnership

GLENDORA, Calif. -NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) announced today that it has signed a multi-year deal with IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group), the world's largest hotel group, designating Candlewood Suites, IHG's midscale extended-stay hotel brand, as the "Preferred Hotel of NHRA."

The strategic partnership provides multi-media rights to IHG and all of its brands, with Candlewood Suites designated as the "Preferred Hotel of NHRA." This includes significant advertising on NHRA.com, the premier website in drag racing, as well as in the weekly periodical National Dragster. Candlewood Suites will also receive advertising placement in NHRA Nitro News, a weekly opt-in email newsletter for fans of NHRA Drag Racing. As part of the sponsorship, NHRA's 80,000 members will have access to special accommodation offers at all eight of IHG's brands in the Americas, including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

"IHG and its Candlewood Suites brand will certainly benefit from the added awareness granted by the multitude of media platforms available within NHRA," said Tony Driscoll, vice president of sales and business development, NHRA. "NHRA's core fan base aligns with the Candlewood Suites brand, and we are confident that the ‘off-the-chart' sponsor loyalty among our fan base will result in Candlewood Suites becoming the place to stay for fans attending national events and beyond."  

"When we contemplated a relationship with NHRA, it became clear that their core fan base aligns with the Candlewood Suites target customer," said Del Ross, vice president, U.S. Sales and Marketing, IHG. "This partnership gives us the unique opportunity to encourage NHRA fans that may not have stayed at Candlewood Suites before to give us a try. We know that once they stay with us, they'll love us."

IHG joins a growing list of league sponsors that have renewed or joined NHRA in the last six months. Earlier this year, Candlewood Suites also signed a deal as a major associate and primary sponsor for the Kalitta Motorsports team.

About Candlewood Suites
Candlewood Suites is focused on comfort, space and value. At more than 280 properties located throughout North America, guests find spacious studio and one-bedroom suites, each with their own fully equipped kitchen, large workspace, comfortable recliner, DVD and CD player and complimentary high-speed Internet access. The complimentary fitness center and guest laundry are open around the clock, and the Candlewood Cupboard® is open 24 hours for snacks, refreshments, entrées and other necessities on the honor system. Candlewood Suites hotels offer guests all of this at a very comfortable price.

All hotels offer the brand's Comforts of HomeTM Bedding Collection with upgraded mattresses and box spring sets, mattress topper, fluffy duvet inserts and poly-cotton covers matching the hotel's color scheme, 250-thread count micro-check sateen sheets in "Candlelight," triple sheeting, contemporary cotton estate blankets, choice of three upgraded pillow types in firm, medium and feather and a decorative "Consider Us Home" pillow.

http://www.candlewoodsuites.com/

About NHRA
Headquartered in Glendora, Calif., NHRA is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2011.  As the primary sanctioning body for the sport of drag racing in the United States, NHRA presents 22 national events featuring the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. NHRA provides competition opportunities for drivers of all levels in the NHRA Summit Racing Series and the NHRA Drags: Street Legal Style presented by AAA.  NHRA also offers the Jr. Drag Racing League for youth ages 8 to 17.   In addition, NHRA owns and operates five racing facilities: Gainesville Raceway in Florida; Atlanta Dragway in Georgia; National Trail Raceway in Ohio; Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis; and Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California. For more information, log on to NHRA.com, or visit the official NHRA pages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Media Contacts:
Caroline Sanfilippo, IHG, [email protected], +1(770) 604-2495
NHRA Communications, (626) 914-4761, NHRA Media Center Online: http://media.nhra.com

Notes to Editors:

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns, through various subsidiaries, over 4,400 hotels and more than 640,000 guest rooms in 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognized 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 program, Priority Club® Rewards with 56 million members worldwide.

IHG has almost 1,300 hotels in its development pipeline, which is expected to create 160,000 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 http://www.ihg.com/media and information for the Priority Club Rewards program at http://www.priorityclub.com/. For our latest news visit www.ihg.com/media, Twitter www.twitter.com/ihgplc or YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ihgplc

Ends