Holiday Inn Express New York City Times Square is the 1,000th hotel to be relaunched under Intercontinental Hotel Group’s global effort to rebrand 3,200 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels worldwide.
The updated hotel features an upgraded lobby area, showers and bathroom amenities, as well as new bedding, new exterior lighting and landscaping, and the redesigned logo.
The $1 billion relaunch of the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands aims to improve the quality and consistency at Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels around the world (see online news September 4, 2008). There are a further 1,050 new hotels in the pipeline, which will also have the new branding, while some lower quality hotels are being removed from the group's portfolio.
Andy Cosslett, IHG’s CEO, said: “The opening of our 1,000th relaunched Holiday Inn hotel is the latest milestone on our three-year journey and demonstrates the momentum behind the programme. Despite the tough economic climate, we’ve relaunched, on average, four hotels a day for the past six months and we’re committed to completing the global relaunch by the end of 2010.
“The economic environment has changed since we started the programme, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to show people that the Holiday Inn they came to know and love over the last 50 years is still a hotel brand that’s right for them today.”
To celebrate the milestone, Holiday Inn has created a Google Earth “fly-through” of the relaunched hotels around the globe, from Boston to Bejing (see below).
Visit holidayinn.com
Report by Sara Turner