IHG Hotels & Resorts

InterContinental Hotels Group plc

Trade name	IHG Hotels & Resorts
Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: IHG NYSE: IHG FTSE 100 Component
ISIN	GB00BHJYC057
Industry	Hospitality
Founded	15 April 2003; 18 years ago (15 April 2003)
Headquarters	Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Number of locations	5,964 hotels 886,036 rooms[1] (2020)
Key people	Patrick Cescau (chair­person)  Keith Barr (CEO)
Products	Hotels and resorts
Brands	InterContinental Hotels & Resorts Regent Hotels & Resorts Kimpton Hotels & Resorts Candlewood Suites Crowne Plaza Even Hotels Holiday Inn (including Club Vacations and Resort) Holiday Inn Express Hotel Indigo Staybridge Suites
Revenue	US$2.394 billion (2020)[2]
Operating income	US$(153) million (2020)[2]
Net income	US$(260) million (2020)[2]
Number of employees	350,000 (2020)[3]
Website	www.ihgplc.com

InterContinental Hotels Group plc (IHG), marketed as IHG Hotels & Resorts, is a British multinational hospitality company headquartered in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England.^[4] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History[]

Bass Hotels[]

The origins of the business can be traced back to 1777, when William Bass established the Bass Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent. In 1875, its red triangle logo was the first ever trademark registered in the United Kingdom.^[5]

The company later changed its name and, in 1969, Bass Charrington, as it was known at the time, launched the Crest Hotel chain, marking its first entry into the lodging sector.^[6]

In 1988, the British government limited the number of pubs which brewers could directly own, resulting in Bass's further investing in the expansion of its hotel business. This led to it purchasing Holiday Inn International from shareholders.^[5]

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.^[7] 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.^[5]

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.^[5] 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 and hackers had stolen credit card details.^[12]

In February 2021, IHG announced an annual loss of $153 million due to the restrictions of the Covid-19. However, it is 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 worldwide headquarters and Europe offices are in Denham, Buckinghamshire in England.^[14][15] The Americas office is in Dunwoody, Georgia in Greater Atlanta.^[14][16] The South East Asia & Korea offices are in Singapore, Australasia offices in Sydney, Japan offices in Tokyo, India Middle East & Africa offices in Dubai, and the Greater China offices are in Pudong, Shanghai.^[14] In 2006, IHG and Lend Lease Group (Lend Lease US Public Partnerships), joined forces in the Privatization of Army Lodging program.^[17]

As of 2012, of IHG's more than 5,400 hotels, 4,433 are operated under franchise agreements, 907 were managed by the company but separately owned, and eight were directly owned.^[18] As at 31 March 2019, IHG has 842,759 guest rooms and 5,656 hotels across nearly 100 countries.^[19]

Brands[]

IHG has 16 brands marketed under four collections, including:^[20]

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.^[21]

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.^[22]

The InterContinental Davos is well known for its modern architecture.^[23]

The Hotel International Prague was owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group, until being sold in 2014.^[24]

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.^[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 accommodation. In February 2014, IHG agreed to end the practice of price fixing.^[27]

Data breach[]

In February 2017, the hotel chain admitted to a data breach. They 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, which could be used to clone cards and make fraudulent payments.^[28]

VAT rules[]

In May 2012, the UK 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 had 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.^[29]

Living wage[]

In November 2017, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, accused the hotel chain of reneging on a commitment to pay the living wage.^[30]

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.^[31]

Hygiene standards[]

In September 2017 a consumer rights group accused Intercontinental Beijing Sanlitun of substandard hygiene conditions. Specifically during an undercover operation they had marked bed linen and toilets with an invisible stamp. Upon returning the next day the marks were still there.^[32]

Loyalty scheme[]

In April 2015 IHG changed the terms and conditions of their Priority Club. Up until then the points were awarded for life and members were told that they would never expire. Following the change, points will now expire if no 'earn' or 'redeem' activity occurs within 12 consecutive months. Many of those members never received any communication about the change and their points expired.^[33]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website