InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, informally InterContinental Hotels or IHG, is a British multinational hotels company headquartered in Denham, UK. IHG has over 766,000 rooms and 5,174 hotels across nearly 100 countries. Its brands include Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Even Hotels, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Hualuxe, InterContinental, Kimpton Hotels and Resorts and Staybridge Suites. Of the 5,174 hotels, 4,321 operate under franchise agreements, 845 are managed by the company but separately owned, and 8 are directly owned.
Video InterContinental Hotels Group
History
Bass Hotels
The origins of InterContinental Hotels Group can be traced back to 1777, when William Bass established the Bass Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent. In 1876, its red triangle logo was the first ever trademark registered in the United Kingdom.
In 1989, the British Government limited the number of pubs which brewers could directly own, resulting in Bass investing in the expansion of its small line of hotels. In 1990, it purchased Holiday Inn International from shareholders and expanded into North America.
InterContinental
Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe established the InterContinental brand as a division of PanAm and opened the first hotel in Belém, Brazil in 1946. On August 19, 1981, PanAm sold holding company InterContinental Hotels Corporation (IHC) to UK-based Grand Metropolitan for $500 million. As GrandMet focused its core business and expanded into fast food through the purchase of Burger King, it sold IHC to Japanese-based Saison Group in 1988.
In March 1998, Saison Group sold IHC to British brewery Bass, which traces its roots back to 1777, when William Bass established the Bass Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent. In 1988, in reaction to the British government limiting the number of pubs which brewers could directly own, Bass invested in the expansion of its small line of hotels. In 2000, Bass sold its brewing assets (and the rights to the Bass name) to the major Belgian brewer Interbrew for £2.3 billion and changed its name to Six Continents.
In 2003, the independent corporation InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) was created after Six Continents split into two companies: Mitchells & Butlers took control of the restaurant assets and IHG focusing on hotels and soft drinks. IHG retained Britvic, the soft drinks division, until December 2005 when it sold its interest in the company by an initial public offering. In April/May 2014 the company reportedly rejected a $10 billion takeover bid from an unknown suitor, believed to be Starwood.
In April 2017 the company announced that it been the subject of a malware attack and that hackers had stolen credit card details.
Maps InterContinental Hotels Group
Operations
The company worldwide headquarters and Europe offices are in Denham, Buckinghamshire in England. The Americas office is in Dunwoody, Georgia in Greater Atlanta. The Asia, Middle East, and Africa offices are in Singapore. The Greater China offices are in Pudong, Shanghai.
In 2006, IHG and Lend Lease Group (Lend Lease US Public Partnerships), joined forces in the Privatization of Army Lodging program. IHG Army Hotels is a division of IHG that manages on-post hotels and lodgings in 39 different locations in the U.S., including Puerto Rico.
Criticism
International boycott
The InterContinental Hotels Group became the target of an international boycott campaign in May 2013 over their plan to operate an Intercontinental-brand luxury hotel in Lhasa, Tibet. According to campaigners from the Free Tibet campaign, the hotel was a "PR coup for the Chinese government".
Price fixing
In July 2012 the Office of Fair Trading alleged that IHG broke competition law by preventing online travel agents from discounting the price of room-only hotel accommodation. In February 2014, IHG agreed to end the practice of price fixing.
Data breach
In February 2017 the hotel chain admitted to a data breach. They asserted that the compromise was rather minor, having only impacted 12 properties. However, in April 2017 it raised the number to 1200 hotels. The attackers installed malware designed to access payment card data - which could be used to clone cards and make fraudulent payments.
VAT rules
In May 2012 the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) warned IHG that it must not use adverts showing prices for hotel rooms excluding VAT. Because the ASA thought the adverts were likely to be viewed by consumers who must pay VAT, it decided the adverts were misleading. It ordered IHG that the ads must not appear in their current form again. However, in August 2012 a report by Which? magazine showed that the hotel chain was still breaching VAT rules.
Living wage
In 2012 the hotel group pledged to phase in pay rises over the next five years in each of its eight managed hotels in London. This was supposed to ensure its staff members would receive the living wage. In 2014 the Unite Union organised a demonstration demanding the hotel group keep to its promise. In November 2017 the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, accused the hotel chain of reneging on a commitment. As of November 2017 the company does still not pay the living wage.
Brands
IHG Group has several brands:
- Avid Hotels
- Candlewood Suites
- Crowne Plaza
- Even Hotels
- Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, the number two hotel brand in the world by number of rooms
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations
- Holiday Inn Express (formerly known as Express by Holiday Inn in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and South America)
- Holiday Inn Garden Court
- Holiday Inn Resort
- Hotel Indigo
- Hualuxe Hotels & Resorts
- IHG Army Hotels
- InterContinental
- Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
- Staybridge Suites
Notable properties
The Crowne Plaza Liverpool John Lennon Airport is the former terminal building of Liverpool Speke Airport, constructed in the 1930s and used until 1986. Its notable art deco features led to its listing as a heritage building, and subsequent adaption as a hotel. The hotel in the Wilshire Grand Tower in downtown Los Angeles is the largest InterContinental in the Americas and the tallest building in Los Angeles.
Other notorious buildings include the historical InterContinental Paris Le Grand Hotel and InterContinental Bordeaux Le Grand Hotel in France as well as the InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The InterContinental Davos is also well-known for its modern architecture.
References
External links
- A history of the Intercontinental Hotels Group by cosmopolis.ch
- Information of Public Interest - Holiday Inn Express Leigh
Source of article : Wikipedia
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