Here’s a story that illuminates how deep a brand goes. It’s not just the logo or other trappings, a brand is a promise.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Holiday Inn brand promise isn’t being kept by as many as 300 independent owners.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is ready to strip the brand next year from as many as 300 of the 2,700 Holiday Inn hotels owned by franchisees in North America if those properties don’t undertake the brand’s $1 billion overhaul by Feb. 1.
IHG, based in the U.K., started its overhaul of Holiday Inn two years ago in a bid to “contemporize” the 57-year-old brand and weed out older, poorly performing hotels.
IHG owns only 17 hotels. It manages and franchises nearly 4,400 hotels globally under its brands Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, Crown Plaza Hotels and Resorts and Hotel Indigo.