CorpComms Magazine

Depending on the speed at which you read, by the time you finish this paragraph at least three guests will have checked into a Holiday Inn at one of 3,300 locations in 100 countries.

Every second three people book into a Holiday Inn, a hotel chain whose name has been immortalised in songs by Elton John, Neil Diamond and 11 different rap artists, including Snoop Dogg, who sang about Holidae In and Pitbull, who this summer encouraged lady listeners to ditch their other halves and rendezvous with him at 'the hotel motel Holiday Inn'.

But any ladies who took Pitbull up on his invitation, might have been surprised at what awaited them at the Holiday Inn. Over one third of Holiday Inn's hotels have received a dramatic facelift and relaunch as the hotel chain embarks on the biggest rebranding in the industry's history.

These include the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, which with 1,000 rooms is the second biggest property within the chain, and Holiday Inn Heathrow (on Junction 4 of the M4). Two million people pass these hotels every day, raising customer awareness of the new brand.

More than $1 billion (£630 million) is being spent on the first rebranding (or relaunch, as parent company IHG prefers to call it) since Kemmons Wilson, an American entrepreneur who became frustrated at the difference in quality between roadside motels and upmarket hotels, opened the original Holiday Inn in Memphis in 1952.

House of cards

To celebrate the relaunch of 1,200 hotels in its portfolio, Holiday Inn commissioned world-record holder cardstacker Bryan Berg to build a hotel out of disused key cards.

The 400 sq ft construction in Manhattan, which was made of 200,000 key cards and took four months to complete, included a guest bedroom, bathroom and lobby.

'Even the lights worked,' says Emma Corcoran, communications director, global corporate affairs, at IHG. 'This is the first rebranding in Holiday Inn's 57 year history. It is obviously a well-known brand, but there were inconsistencies in the product around the world. Some hotels were a little tired, which helped to change customer perceptions.'

The rebranding was first announced in 2007 by IHG chief executive Andy Cosslet, a former marketing executive at Cadbury Schweppes.

In the two years prior to the relaunch announcement, Cosslet had weeded out the equivalent of 20,000 rooms a year from hotels perceived as underperforming.

He had also spent about $20 million surveying 18,000 guests for their views on the logo and the Holiday Inn experience. Among the key findings, it emerged that guests wanted efficient staff and better facilities. 'This is far more than a change of logo,' said Cosslet at the time of the announcement. 'It is a package of changes, from bedding, showers and lighting to adding scents and new sounds to welcome guests.'

Smells and sounds

The rebranding is a four-stage process. The external facilities, such as drives and gardens, have been smartened up and landscaped, with better lighting illuminating the hotels. As guests enter the lobby, they will notice a new signature scent dispensed from special machines at the main entrance and front desks (which have been cleared of clutter). Created by global fragrance house Takasago International, the scent combines citrus and white tea with gentle undercurrents of perilla leaf, a member of the mint family, and musk. (A different scent, featuring sweet grass and green tea, will be wafted at Holiday Inn Express.)

The music being played is from a global playlist of about 1,000 tracks, which is tailored for individual regions and countries to accommodate local tastes and cultural differences. For example, only tracks without lyrics will be played in the Middle East.

The idea has been 'taken from retailing', explains Corcoran. Raphael by Carla Bruni, wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, features on the French playlist, while Radio Nowhere by Bruce Springsteen is on offer in America. Sadly, none of the rapper songs featuring Holiday Inn are on the favoured playlist. 'The words are not appropriate,' says Corcoran.

The bedrooms and bathroom facilities have also been given a revamp. Pillows are stitched with the words Firm or Soft, and a choice is available in every guest room, absolving the need to ring housekeeping, and larger, more absorbent towels are available. New hookless curtains with curved rods add 25 per cent more space to the shower facility, while new heads have been created to cope with varying water pressures.

It's the people

More importantly, perhaps, every Holiday Inn employee is being retrained after efficient customer service emerged as an important requirement for guests. They must all go through an intensive Stay Real training programme to ensure guests receive consistent service around the chain.

Holiday Inn properties are owned by franchisees, who have been asked to contribute towards the rebranding. Only when their properties have been renovated to Holiday Inn's corporate satisfaction and customer feedback indicates that at least 80 per cent of guests are satisfied or very satisfied with their visit (the bar for Holiday Inn Express is 84 per cent) will they be able to display the new logo. 'This relaunch isn't just changing signs,' says John Merkin, senior vice president of brand management for Holiday Inn in the Americas. 'The hotels that get these new signs have to go through a rigorous certification process.' 

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