InterContinental Hotels Group

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), marketed as IHG Hotels & Resorts, is a British multinational hospitality company headquartered in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. 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 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.

The company later changed its name to Bass Charrington. Its first entry into the lodging sector came with acquisition of tied public houses. In 1969, it launched the Crest Hotel chain.

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.

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. On 19 August 1981, Pan Am sold the holding company Inter-Continental 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 the Japanese-based Saison Group in 1988.

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.

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 while IHG focused 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 2017, the company announced that it been the subject of a malware attack in which hackers had stolen credit-card details.

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.

Operations

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

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. As of 31 March 2019, IHG has 842,759 guest rooms and 5,656 hotels across nearly 100 countries.

Brands

IHG has 18 brands marketed under five collections, including:

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 Essentials Collection

* Holiday Inn
* Holiday Inn Express
* Avid Hotels

The Suites Collection

* Atwell Suites
* Staybridge Suites
* Holiday Inn Club Vacations
* Candlewood Suites

Exclusive Partners

* Iberostar Beachfront Resorts

Also in 2020, IHG began an affiliation with Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a boutique hotel chain based in London.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Inter-Continental Kabul opened in 1969, but ceased operation following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The hotel continues to operate independently using the Inter-Continental name, but unaffiliated with the chain.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Living wage

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

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.

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.

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.

References

External links

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Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Hotel and leisure companies of the United Kingdom
Hospitality companies
Drink companies of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Buckinghamshire
Hospitality companies established in 2003
Multinational companies headquartered in England
Denham, Buckinghamshire