IHG Hotels & Resorts

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), marketed as IHG Hotels & Resorts, is a British multinational hospitality company headquartered in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England.[5] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

InterContinental Hotels Group plc
IHG Hotels & Resorts
TypePublic
ISINGB00BHJYC057
IndustryHospitality
Founded15 April 2003 (15 April 2003)
FounderJuan Trippe (for the InterContinental Hotels branch)[1]
HeadquartersDenham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Number of locations
6,028 hotels
884,820 rooms[2] (2022)
Key people
  • Patrick Cescau (chair­person) 
  • Keith Barr (CEO) 
ProductsHotels and resorts
Brandssee Brands
Revenue US$2.907 billion (2021)[3]
US$494 million (2021)[3]
US$265 million (2021)[3]
Number of employees
350,000 (2022)[4]
Websitewww.ihgplc.com

History

Bass Hotels

The origins of the business may be traced to 1777 when William Bass established the Bass Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent. In 1875, its red triangle logo became the first trademark to be registered in the United Kingdom.[6]

The company later changed its name to Bass Charrington. In 1969, it launched the Crest Hotel chain, marking its first entry into the lodging sector.[7]

In 1988, after the British government limited the number of pubs that brewers could directly own, Bass further invested in the expansion of its hotel business, including the purchase of Holiday Inn International from shareholders.[6]

InterContinental

Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe established the American Intercontinental Hotels chain as a division of Pan Am in 1946, and it operated its first hotel in Belém, Brazil.[1] On 19 August 1981, Pan Am sold the holding company Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation (IHC) to UK-based Grand Metropolitan for $500 million.[8] As GrandMet focused its core business and expanded into fast food through the purchase of Burger King, it sold IHC to the Japanese-based Saison Group in 1988.[9]

In March 1998, Saison Group sold IHC to the British brewery Bass. In 2000, Bass sold its brewing assets (and the rights to the Bass name) to the Belgian brewer Interbrew for £2.3 billion and changed its name to Six Continents.[6]

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[10] while IHG focused on hotels and soft drinks.[6] IHG retained Britvic, the soft-drinks division, until December 2005 when it sold its interest in the company by an initial public offering.[11]

In April 2017, the company announced that it been the subject of a malware attack in which hackers had stolen credit-card details.[12]

In February 2021, IHG announced an annual loss of $153 million caused by restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the company expected that the Holiday Inn Express brand would help in the recovery process.[13]

Operations
Atrium interior at the Holiday Inn Sarasota Airport in Sarasota, Florida; 3 or 4 star upmarket hotel
An Uptown Houston Hotel Indigo
InterContinental Foshan
InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco
Lounge InterContinental Singapore

The company's worldwide headquarters and European offices are located in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England.[14][15] IHG maintains regional offices in Atlanta, Singapore and Shanghai.[14]

In 2012, IHG claimed more than 5,400 hotels, with 4,433 operated under franchise agreements, 907 managed by the company but separately owned and eight directly owned.[16] As of 31 March 2019, IHG has 842,759 guest rooms and 5,656 hotels across nearly 100 countries.[17]

Brands

IHG has 17 brands marketed under four collections, including:[18]

The Luxury & Lifestyle Collection

  • Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas
  • Regent Hotels & Resorts
  • InterContinental Hotels & Resorts
  • Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
  • Vignette Collection
  • Hotel Indigo

The Premium Collection

  • Hualuxe Hotels & Resorts
  • Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts
  • Even Hotels
  • Voco Hotels

The Business Collection

  • Holiday Inn
  • Holiday Inn Express
  • Avid Hotels

The Suites Collection

  • Atwell Suites
  • Staybridge Suites
  • Holiday Inn Club Vacations
  • Candlewood 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. Because of its notable art deco features, the hotel was listed as a heritage building.[19]

InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, located within the Wilshire Grand Center in downtown Los Angeles, is the largest InterContinental in the Americas and the tallest building in Los Angeles.[20]

The former InterContinental Davos is well-known for its modern architecture.[21]

The Hotel International Prague was owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group until its sale in 2014.[22]

InterContinental Group is eliminating the travel-sized tubes of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel from its 843,000 rooms across its global chain of hotels.[23]

IHG owns the Willard InterContinental Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., two blocks east of the White House. The 175-year-old hotel has hosted many heads of state;[24] in 2021, it was also a meeting place for planners of the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[25]

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."[26]

Price fixing

In July 2012, the Office of Fair Trading alleged that IHG had broken competition law by preventing online travel agents from discounting the price of room-only hotel accommodations. In February 2014, IHG agreed to end the practice of price fixing.[27]

Data breach

In February 2017, IHG admitted to a data breach. The company asserted that the compromise was minor, having impacted 12 properties. However, in April 2017, it raised the number to 1,200 hotels. The attackers had installed malware designed to access payment-card data that could be used to clone cards and make fraudulent payments.[28]

In September 2022, IHG admitted another data breach which had significantly disrupted the booking applications. IHG confirmed they were working on getting the systems back up and running and further details would follow.[29]

VAT rules

In May 2012, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) warned IHG that it must include VAT in its advertised prices. In August 2012, a report by Which? magazine showed that IHG was continuing to violate VAT rules.[30]

Living wage

In November 2017, London mayor Sadiq Khan accused IHG of failing to fulfill a commitment to pay a living wage.[31]

Food poisoning

In July 2016 Intercontinental Adelaide was responsible for giving at least 70 diners salmonella food poisoning. Twenty-one of these people had to be treated at hospital.[32]

Hygiene standards

In September 2017, a consumer-rights group accused Intercontinental Beijing Sanlitun of substandard hygiene conditions. During an undercover operation, the group had marked bed linen and toilets with an invisible stamp, and upon returning the next day, the marks remained.[33]

Loyalty scheme

In April 2015, IHG changed the terms and conditions of its Priority Club. Until then, points were awarded for life and members had been informed that their points would never expire. Following the change, points will now expire if no earning or redemption activity occurs within 12 consecutive months. Many members did not receive any communication about the change before their points expired.[34]

References
  1. Net, Hospitality. "Juan Terry Trippe, Founder of Pan Am World Airways and InterContinental Hotels: Aviation Genius, Financial Wizard and Hotel Pioneer | By Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC". Hospitality Net.
  2. "IHG global presence". InterContinental Hotels Group PLC. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  3. "Annual Results 2021" (PDF). InterContinental Hotels Group PLC. p. 38. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  4. "About us". IHG Hotels & Resorts. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  5. "InterContinental Hotels Group PLC ADS". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  6. "Our History". Intercontinental Hotels Group. ihgplc.com. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  7. "Bass / Six Continents". Ad Brands. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  8. "Grand Met Hotel Sale Indicated". The New York Times. 30 September 1988. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  9. "Tokyo Group to Buy Hotel Chain for $2.27 Billion: British Owner Accepts Seibu Saison's Cash Offer for Inter-Continental". LA Times. 1 October 1988. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  10. "Our History". Mitchells & Butlers. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  11. Nick Golding (12 January 2005). "Britvic IPO sees staff get £750 shares each". Employee Benefits Group. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  12. "Holiday Inn hotel chain reveals malware attack that stole credit card info". USA Today. 10 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  13. "Holiday-Inn owner IHG posts annual loss on COVID-19 slowdown". Arab News. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  14. "Regional headquarters". InterContinental Hotels Group PLC.
  15. "Denham Location Map" (PDF). InterContinental Hotels Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 August 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2014. IHG, Broadwater Park North Orbital Road, Denham, Buckinghamshire UB9 5HR
  16. "Annual Report 2012" (PDF). IHG. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  17. "IHG overview". InterContinental Hotels Group. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  18. "IHG Hotels & Resorts sets the stage for when travellers are ready to re-connect and open up their world". IHG Hotels & Resorts. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  19. "Recent History and Current Developments". Fola.org.uk. Friends of Liverpool Airport. Archived from the original on 24 June 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
  20. Vincent, Roger (23 September 2014). "Hotel under construction in downtown L.A. will be an InterContinental". Los Angeles Times.
  21. "The building they said they couldn't build". Phaidon. 8 April 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  22. Crous, André (5 October 2014). "Hotel International Prague: A red-letter hotel". The Prague Post. Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
  23. Jordan Valinsky. "Holiday Inn owner ditches tiny hotel soaps and shampoos". CNN. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  24. "Discover Our History". Willard. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  25. Alemany, Jacqueline; Brown, Emma; Hamburger, Tom; Swaine, Jon (23 October 2021). "Ahead of Jan. 6, Willard hotel in downtown D.C. was a Trump team 'command center' for effort to deny Biden the presidency". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  26. Branigan, Tania (23 May 2013). "Tibetan activists launch boycott of InterContinental over hotel plans". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  27. George, Sara (31 January 2014). "Investigation into the hotel online booking sector". webarchive.NationalArchives.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2 April 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  28. Osborne, Charlie. "InterContinental data breach expands from 12 to 1,200 hotels". ZDNet.com. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  29. "Holiday Inn hit by cyber attack". BBC News. 6 September 2022. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  30. "Hotels chains 'breaching VAT rules'". The Telegraph. 5 February 2016. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  31. Inman, Phillip (10 November 2017). "Sadi​ Khan: Holiday Inn owner has broken vow to pay living wage". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  32. "Eggs blamed for salmonella outbreak at Adelaide's InterContinental - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  33. "Video sparks hygiene concerns in Beijing hotels, East Asia News & Top Stories". The Straits Times. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  34. "REMINDER: IHG Rewards Club Points Expire If No Activity For 12 Months!". LoyaltyLobby. 6 April 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
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