Company:InterContinental Hotels Group

Short description: British multinational hospitality company

InterContinental Hotels Group plc

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: [ IHG] NYSE: IHG FTSE 100 Component
Industry	Hospitality
Founded	April 15, 2003 (April 15, 2003)
Headquarters	Denham, Buckinghamshire, England , United Kingdom
Number of locations	5,723 hotels 855,915 rooms (August 2018)
Products	Hotels, resorts
Revenue	US$4.627 billion (2019)
Operating income	US$630 million (2019)
Net income	US$386 million (2019)
Number of employees	36,643 (2019)
Divisions	Regent Hotels & Resorts Kimpton Hotels & Resorts Candlewood Suites Crowne Plaza Even Hotels Holiday Inn (including Club Vacations and Resort) Holiday Inn Express Hotel Indigo InterContinental Staybridge Suites
Website	www.ihgplc.com

InterContinental Hotels Group plc, informally InterContinental Hotels or IHG, is a British multinational hospitality company headquartered in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England . IHG has about 842,749 guest rooms and 5,656 hotels across nearly 100 countries. IHG owns several brands, including InterContinental, Regent Hotels, Six Senses Hotels, Kimpton Hotels and Resorts, Hualuxe, Crowne Plaza, voco Hotels, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn club vacations, avid, Candlewood Suites, EVEN Hotels, and Staybridge Suites. 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.

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.

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.

InterContinental

Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe established the American Intercontinental Hotels chain as a division of Pan Am and opened the first hotel in Belém, Brazil in 1946. On 19 August 1981, Pan Am sold the holding company Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation (IHC) to UK-based Grand Metropolitan for $50 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/May 2014, the company reportedly rejected a $10 billion takeover bid from a publicly unknown suitor, believed to be Starwood.

In April 2017, the company announced that it been the subject of a malware attack and hackers had stolen credit card details.

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. The Americas office is in Dunwoody, Georgia in Greater Atlanta. 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. In 2006, IHG and Lend Lease Group (Lend Lease US Public Partnerships), joined forces in the Privatization of Army Lodging program.

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

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 accommodation. In February 2014, IHG agreed to end the practice of price fixing.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

Brands

IHG Group has several brands, including:

Luxury brands

• Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas
• Regent Hotels & Resorts
• InterContinental Hotels & Resorts

Upscale

• Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
• Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts
• EVEN Hotels
• Hotel Indigo
• Hualuxe Hotels & Resorts
• voco

Mainstream

• Avid Hotels
• Candlewood Suites
• Holiday Inn
• Holiday Inn Club Vacations
• Holiday Inn Express
• Holiday Inn Resort
• Staybridge Suites
• Atwell 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. Its notable art deco features led to its listing as a heritage building, and subsequent adaption as a hotel.

The hotel in the Wilshire Grand Tower in downtown Los Angeles is the largest InterContinental in the Americas and the tallest building in Los Angeles.

The InterContinental Davos is well known for its modern architecture.

The Hotel International Prague was owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group, until being sold 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 Rewards Club

IHG Rewards Club is the loyalty programme for over 5,600 hotels under the IHG umbrella. There are three elite tiers of IHG rewards club which include Gold Elite, Platinum Elite and Spire Elite.