IHG Hotel Brands (InterContinental Hotels Group) encompass various hospitality options within over one hundred different countries. Because of its significance, as you learn about IHG you learn about the larger hotel ecosystem as a whole. Understanding the IHG hotel brand is especially important because of its wide reach. The full scope of the IHG encompasses such important and diverse options as the Regent, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and much more. In this article, you’ll learn about the most important IHG brands and how they fit into the larger hotel ecosystem.
Table of Contents:
What Is the IHG Brand?
What Is the IHG Brand? In short, the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) is an England-based hospitality company that controls some of the industry’s biggest names. IHG also pushes for a combination of exceptional guest experiences and overall positive brand reliability.
The IHG hotel brand is more than a label. It’s notable within the hotel industry for putting significant effort into maintaining its brand. For example, IHG is known for leveraging the latest hotel technology. The company doesn’t just add the latest innovations for bragging rights. Rather, they work with the larger community to integrate these advances in a way to promote sustainability and enhanced guest experiences.
IHG’s policy has resulted in impressive, maintainable, growth in operational efficiency. As such it should come as little surprise that they’re also known for high-quality employee training and personal development. Another example is their reward program, IHG One Rewards.
Video: The IHG Brand
What Is IHG One Rewards?
What are IHG One Rewards? IHG One Rewards is a free customer loyalty program put out by InterContinental Hotels Group. The rewards program helps to build awareness and loyalty among new and long-term customers for the larger IHG hotel brands. One interesting point about the reward program is how it fits into the larger world of social media marketing for hotels.
The reward program carries over many different areas carrying IHG hotel brands. This means customers can earn and use points through over 6,000 different properties. And in doing so they help to spread awareness of the brand. Elite qualifying points, overnight stays, and other qualifying elements all turn into savings for the guest and awareness for the IHG hotel brand. As points are earned a guest can redeem them for hotel reward nights or even airline-related purchases. Points also help earn IHG elite status.
The Top 10 IHG Hotel Brands To Keep an Eye On
Some IHG hotel brands are especially notable. Each of the following 10 brands has something special to enjoy, study, and learn from.
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is a well-known example of the IHG hotel brand’s dedication to classical luxury. Each property is distinctly elegant in its presentation. InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is especially significant as it demonstrates how opulence can also be a business model. This high-quality hotel property has thrived since 1946. It also demonstrates how hospitality trends can push for continual improvement. They offer unique elements with shared quality.
Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas
Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas is distinct among IHG hotel brands for its ability to deliver an experience. It includes luxury hotels, spas and resorts. It’s especially important within the IHG hotel brand because of its aspiration toward larger experiences. It’s a vacation unto itself as much as a hotel. It includes eighteen hotels and thirty-seven spas. This demonstrates how tourism marketing can adapt.
Video: Six Senses Brand Story
Regent Hotels & Resorts
Regent Hotels & Resorts is one of the IHG hotel brands with a wider reach. The brand extends beyond Europe and into parts of Asia. The importance of Regent Hotels & Resorts stems in part from its pedigree. It’s gone through multiple owners before joining IHG in July of 2018. Since its creation in 1970 the chain has become well known for its impressive and indulgent services.
The Crowne Plaza
The Crowne Plaza is well known among the IHG hotel brands for its appeal to multiple markets. It operates in over one hundred different countries. The Crowne Plaza’s four hundred locations mean that it’s a consistently reliable option for travelers. This availability makes it an important example for hotel management. The Crowne Plaza’s widespread nature in multiple countries lends itself to business use. It typically leverages this by airport proximity.
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants provides a unique combination of atmosphere, design, and specialized boutique experiences. The brand is also well known for its exemplary dining. It’s a notable example of how the hotel industry can cultivate guests through amenities. The brand combines restful accommodation with lively options for fun. Some of the most notable extras include the previously mentioned restaurants and bars along with nightly social hours.
Staybridge Suites
Staybridge Suites is one of the IHG hotel brands most highly focused on long-term stays. The Staybridge brand primarily caters to younger, driven, business-oriented individuals. Staybridge Suites shows how hotel trends, such as a younger business class, can be leveraged into a strategy. It’s upscale accommodations for a growing market. This IHG hotel brand has 220 hotels in the US, Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe. All exemplifying productivity.
Hotel Indigo
Hotel Indigo has a unique place among IHG hotel brands with its emphasis on local identity. The 156 hotels each stay true to local cultures. The brand highlights how a chain can be part of a larger brand while still championing local flavor. Community buzz can be effective hotel marketing. For example, Hotel Indigo typically features local artists for room design. Hotel Indigo always feels like part of the community.
Video: Hotel Indigo
Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts
Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts is a well-known chain with both high-rise and low-rise options. It emphasizes elegant simplicity but also provides comfort and amenities. Holiday Inn shows that the IHG hotel brands can include a multitude of different options. This can range from extreme elegance to comfortably simplistic designs. But despite the intentional simplicity, guests will often find pools, restaurants, exercise equipment, and dependable room service.
Candlewood Suites
Candlewood Suites was created by the co-founder of Summerfield Suites as a home away from home. The extended-stay hotels have the feel of cozy apartments. It’s an important example of how IHG hotel brands continue to innovate by meeting myriad needs. Candlewood Suites are an inventive way to cultivate clientele. Candlewood Suites are essentially apartments with full kitchens, a bedroom, and amenities needed for business travelers and corporate transient travelers.
Holiday Inn Express
Holiday Inn Express is a chain of mid-priced hotels with an emphasis on convenient practicality. They aim for limited but enjoyable services at affordable prices. The chain highlights how existing concepts like Holiday Inn can be tweaked to work in different markets. In this case, leveraging suburban and freeway-adjacent locations. The mid-priced concept and location near transit centers help to ensure it can provide useful services to travelers.
Strategic Marketing Lessons from the IHG Hotel Brands
- Branding: Becoming synonymous with specific markets.
- Customer-focused: The importance of customer satisfaction.
- Loyalty programs: Reward programs uses points to enhance customer loyalty.
- Green-focus: IHG attracts eco-conscious travelers.
- Digital focus: Customer engagement through technologies like apps.
- Partnerships: Works with entities like credit card processing, travel companies, etc to drive business.
- Consistency: Improved customer experience through consistency in every location.
Learning From Other Hotel Brands
IHG hotel brands extend all over the world. However, every part of the world also has unique traits which need to be understood. You can discover successful strategies by looking over past success stories in other areas worldwide. These brands offer a long and storied history. Likewise, you can learn important tips like sizing rooms to their different expectations. Success in the hotel industry often means learning from your potential customers. You can find out about excellent hotel brands in the article “List of the Biggest European Hotel Brands to Work For.”
Learning About Branding From Marriott
Marriott, like IHG hotel brands, is an important element of the hotel industry. Marriott International encompasses thirty different brands and spans close to 9,000 locations. In fact, if you consider hotels on a room-by-room basis then Marriott is the largest in the world. However, as with the IHG hotel brand, it’s also important to consider Marriott on a more individualized level. To think about what makes any given brand stand out from the competition within specific areas. And, likewise, why they succeed there. You can discover more about Marriott in the article “Marriott Hotel Brands: Exploring the Brands of Marriott International.”
IHG hotel brands have a story to tell. It’s a story that will resonate with some of your own goals. The next step is to learn from IHG and walk a similar path to achieve them.
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