(DQ) Development Quarterly - Issue 5 by IHG Development

D E V E L O P M E N T

Q U A R T E R L Y IHG® Europe’s Development, Design & Openings magazine

ISSUE

InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts: 70 years of the largest luxury hotel brand in the world

Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants: 35 years of award-winning boutique

Holiday Inn Express®: 25 years of IHG’s biggest brand

Innovation, Value Creation & You How IHG’s programme of innovation creates value for owners, investors and guests

Lorien Hotel & Spa A Kimpton® Hotel

Your next growth opportunity IHG® is one of the world’s leading hotel companies. Our scale, experience and dedication to quality ensure that your next growth opportunity will be supported every step of the way: from signing, through the design phase, to opening and operating a successful hotel. Whether you choose to franchise with us, or opt for an IHG management agreement, the diversity of our brand portfolio allows IHG hotels to meet guest needs whatever the occasion – ultimately adding up to better returns on your investment. To find out more about developing your hotel with IHG, visit www.ihg.com/development *Data correct as at 31 March 2016

IHG® hotels host over 170 million guest nights per annum, over 740,000 rooms in over 5,000 hotels in nearly 100 countries around the world*.

ISSUE

Contents Welcome to Issue Five

InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts

Celebrating 70 years of the world’s largest luxury hotel brand

Holiday Inn Express® 10 Charting 25 years of IHG’s biggest brand

Meet… Ronald Barrott, Chief Executive Officer, Pro-Invest

The man who brought Holiday Inn Express® to Europe

Kimpton ® Hotels & Restaurants

Marking 35 years of the award-winning boutique brand

Travel: Amsterdam

Why the city of cycles, canals and the first Kimpton signing in Europe should be your next weekend break

Interview with... Michael Cockcroft

Chief Financial Officer, Europe

Innovation, Value Creation & You

How IHG’s programme of innovation creates value for owners, investors and guests

Meet... the UK & Ireland Development Team

Andrew Shaw, Anna Corkill and Philip Lassman

Signings & Openings

First quarter signings and upcoming openings

IHG ® on the Road

Where we’ve been: Our presence at events across the patch

Dates for your Diary

Where we’re going: When and where to find IHG in the coming months

A Day in the Life of... Michael Walsh

Vice President Design & Engineering, Europe

IHG ® in the Digital Age

The facts and figures behind our digital expansion

Meetings. We take care of the small details, the very small details and the teeny-tiny ones. Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weekly catch ups with your team, or all singing, all dancing annual conferences, the smallest of details can make a big difference. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why we take care of all of them for you. Everything from the temperature of the room to the sharpener on the table.

crowneplaza.com/meetings

ISSUE

Editor’s letter…

Welcome to Issue Five

Summer is here and we are already halfway through what is a milestone year for three IHG® brands. InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts turns 70, Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants turns 35 and Holiday Inn Express® turns 25, and this anniversary special issue of DQ commemorates the origins and the exciting future of each brand. Anniversaries are as much about the future as they are about the past. As the largest luxury hotel brand in the world, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is in the middle of an enhancement programme. In addition to our growth momentum through signings we are dedicating resources in support of our current estate, helping to deliver a superior brand experience for guests and greater returns for owners. Current refurbishment projects include the InterContinental® Carlton Cannes, which includes an extension and the InterContinental ® Amstel Amsterdam, which has facade and interior renovation planned. Work on the InterContinental® Lisbon’s public spaces has been completed and refurbishments of the guest rooms has begun, while work has commenced on the InterContinental® Paris – Le Grand interior following the extensive restoration of the Salon Opera ballroom. We have developed tools including Design Guides and Brand Standards to help owners with their refurbishment projects and have added resources in the Design & Engineering team, as new Vice President of Design & Engineering, Michael Walsh, tells us on page 34. Owners planning to refurbish an InterContinental hotel or any other IHG branded hotel should contact Michael and his team. Another of our brands to celebrate an anniversary is Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. The award-winning brand introduced the boutique segment to the US 35 years ago with a new generation of design-led hotels and a game-changing restaurant and bar model. Kimpton is an inspiration in that space and has partly informed a renewed focus on our F&B proposition across the board. I am proud to say that our other boutique brand Hotel Indigo® is seeing continued momentum with recent properties being a real enhancement for the brand. An exceptional pipeline will see hotels open in the coming years that will further strengthen the brand’s identity.

Holiday Inn Express has, in its 25 years, become the largest IHG brand through a clear quality and growth agenda. Together with Holiday Inn®, the Brand Family can count itself as the largest hotel brand in the world. Based upon the success of Holiday Inn Open Lobby and Holiday Inn Express Generation IV we have enhanced our programme of innovation. In this issue you will hear how initiatives like Stock Burger Co. at Holiday Inn® Brighton – Seafront and Theo’s Simple Italian at Hotel Indigo® London Kensington – Earl’s Court, give us traction in the food and beverage space and create value for owners, investors and guests. Corporate responsibility programmes like IHG Green Engage™ present owners with hundreds of Green Solutions to reduce energy and water costs and optimise ROI. And our transformation of the Holiday Inn Brand Family continues with the new look Holiday Inn guest room; more of which will follow in the next issue. One of my favourite aspects of DQ is getting the chance to introduce the fantastic team who work so hard to take your hotel from signing to successful opening. In this issue, we chat to the UK & Ireland Development team about their market, industry trends and the secret to a successful team. We discuss IHG’s scale and profit generation with Europe’s Chief Financial Officer Michael Cockcroft and, as I mentioned, we speak to the Vice President of Design & Engineering in Europe, Michael Walsh, about how his expanded team provides owners with greater support than ever. So as the holiday season gets underway, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy summer whatever you are doing and, as always, thank you for your continued commitment to IHG.

Robert Shepherd Chief Development Officer and SVP Development, Design & Openings, Europe

A N NIVER SAR Y 70

Y EA RS

SP ECIAL 35

Y EARS

Y EA RS

InterContinental Hotels & Resorts: Celebrating 70 years of the world’s largest luxury hotel brand ®

Salon Opera at InterContinental® Paris – Le Grand

B R ANDS

Seven decades ago, founder of Pan American Airways, Juan Trippe, had the idea of bringing luxury hotel accommodation to the end of every Pan Am flight route. So in 1946, InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts was born. We delve into the past, explore the present and look to the future of one of the most iconic hotel brands in the world. Say the name InterContinental and thoughts turn to glamour and style. It is a brand that conjures a sense of discrete luxury and prestige and at the centre of it all, a palpable sense of history. Of lives lived and enjoyed. What started as the world’s first truly international luxury hotel brand can, in its 70th year, call itself the largest luxury brand in the world. The origin of this success story can be traced back to the high-flying vision of one man; commercial aviation pioneer Juan Trippe.

The birth of a brand Born in 1899 Juan Terry Trippe was Yale educated and had a future mapped out on Wall Street until he and some former members of the Yale Flying Club bought some surplus planes from the Navy and formed their first airline. Long Island Airways was a taxi service, ferrying the wealthy to and from New York and gave the entrepreneurial Trippe his first taste of the travel industry. He went on, in 1927, to found Pan American Airways, widely considered to be one of the most important airlines of the twentieth century. In the 1940s air travel was a luxury that few could afford. Trippe saw an opportunity to serve this exclusive market who, at the end of their flight, would appreciate somewhere appropriately luxurious to stay. In 1946 he announced the launch of a new luxury hotel brand, known today as InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, and three years later The Grande in Belém, Brazil opened its doors as the first InterContinental branded hotel in the world. The four-floor, 85-room property was a pinnacle of decadence. It even boasted telecommunications; albeit it one telephone per floor which required an energetic attendant to run to and from guests’ rooms whenever they received a call. During the 1950s, the number of InterContinental hotels doubled, expanding in Latin America at a rapid rate. In the ’60s, it debuted in Europe and Asia and became the first international hotel brand to establish a presence in the Middle East. InterContinental® Phoenicia Beirut in Lebanon was a cut above, featuring a beauty parlour, barbershop and a bar named Sous La Mer (Under the Sea), which offered * underwater views of the hotel’s pool. By then InterContinental hotels were establishing themselves as the place to be. When InterContinental® Vienna opened in 1964 it hosted all manner of stars, including young English rock band the Rolling Stones and actress du jour Grace Kelly. When InterContinental® Riyadh opened in Saudi Arabia in 1975, Fortune magazine described it as the most difficult place in the world to get a room. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, the brand continued to reach new markets and the opening of InterContinental® Hong Kong in 2001 kick started the brand’s speedy growth across Greater China, where there are currently 35 hotels.* *As at 31 March 2016.

A N NIVER SAR Y 70

Y EA RS

SP ECIAL 35

Y EARS

Y EA RS

The C word: Commitment Today there are over 180 InterContinental hotels in more than 60 countries around the world and in addition to growth potential, it is the commitment to the heritage properties that will ensure the brand’s longevity. “Growth doesn’t always mean adding new hotels,” Michael Walsh, IHG’s Vice President of Design & Engineering in Europe tells us. “Growth is also preserving what we’ve got so we don’t lose anything. By committing energy and capital to our existing 06

estate, we can stop hotels from exiting the system and achieve a consistent quality in all properties around the world.” Keeping InterContinental hotels up to the luxurious standards expected by guests poses both a challenge and an opportunity to the Design & Engineering department. Michael continues: “Heritage properties offer us gifts from the past. Listed buildings, historical tastes, unique craftsmanship. Our job is to enhance those gifts so that today’s guests can experience them as

B R ANDS

One of those projects was the 6 million renovation of the Salon Opera ballroom at the InterContinental® Paris – Le Grand.

‘‘

guests would have done all those years ago. Working on heritage hotels is a huge responsibility but it’s always an exciting prospect and I’ve been lucky enough to work on some of the most exciting InterContinental refurbishment and renovation projects of recent years.”

InterContinental® New York Barclay

Working with owners to revitalise existing properties, open new ones and expand to previously unchartered markets will introduce a whole new generation to the brand and ensure that the InterContinental legacy continues. ®

A N NIVER SAR Y 70

A fter five months of extensive restoration, the stunning ballroom was re-opened in 2014 and work has now begun on t h e rest of the hotel. Other European hotels currently undergoing some serious TLC include the InterContinental® Lisbon, which has just reopened its refurbished public areas and Club Lounge, as work begins on the guest rooms. The InterContinental® Bordeaux – Le Grand Hôtel was signed last year with a property improvement plan in place and the 150-year-old InterContinental® Amstel Amsterdam is due roof, facade and interior repairs. The InterContinental® Carlton Cannes will undergo two extensions, with new conference facilities, a new restaurant, improved back of house, increased key count and reconfiguration of some existing rooms. Meanwhile, across the pond the InterContinental® New York Barclay has just reopened following a $180 million, 20-month renovation. It features a spectacular new Carrara marble Grand Staircase and 704 spacious guestrooms and suites. In total more than 420,000 square feet of the interior has been redesigned, 15,000 square feet of which is upgraded meetings and events space.

Y EA RS

SP ECIAL 35

Y EARS

Y EA RS

All of these projects require a huge amount of planning, as Michael tells us: “IHG tailors construction work around the natural peaks and troughs of a hotel’s occupancy. We work hard to get the phasing right and make sure that any refurbishments cause the least amount of disruption possible and minimise the revenue lost while rooms are offline. It is this level of understanding that owners buy into. They know that we want to get the hotel back in full working order and get heads on beds as soon as possible.” Working with owners to revitalise existing properties, open new ones and expand to previously unchartered markets will introduce a whole new generation to the brand and ensure that the InterContinental legacy continues. Today it is as relevant as it was when Juan Trippe first saw that tiny gap in the market. Seven decades on, the market has dramatically expanded, but InterContinental Hotels & Resorts remains on top. After all, guests old and new will always want to live The InterContinental Life.

To discuss InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts refurbishments and development opportunities, please contact europedevelopment@ihg.com A brief history of InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts 1946 Entrepreneur Juan Trippe announces launch of new luxury hotel brand

1949 The Grande hotel in Belém, Brazil opens as the first InterContinental hotel in the world

1953 The brand doubles in size with hotels across Latin America, Bermuda, Montevideo, Bogota, Maracaibo and Caracas

1963 The brand debuts in Europe with InterContinental Frankfurt which promptly becomes Europe’s largest hotel

1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. writes his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech at InterContinental® The Willard Washington

1994 Partners with Grupo Presidente to open InterContinental hotels in key Mexican cities and resort destinations

B R ANDS

InterContinental® Lisbon

1995 Joint venture with Southern Sun (now Tsogo Sun) sees the brand enter the South African market

2004 Launches InterContinental® Ambassador loyalty programme, followed by invitation-only Royal Ambassador

2006 InterContinental® London Park Lane re-opens after £60 million investment

2013 Named World’s Leading Hotel Brand for the seventh time at World Travel Awards

2014 Record year in Europe with three signings, two of which are fasttracked to open by the year-end

2016 InterContinental® New York Barclay opens after $180 million, 20-month renovation

A N NIVER SAR Y 70

Y E A RS

Holiday Inn Express® London – Ealing

Y EARS

SP ECIAL

B R ANDS

Holiday Inn Express : Celebrating 25 years of IHG’s biggest brand ®

When in 1991 Bass launched a new member of the Holiday Inn® Brand Family, who could have predicted that it would become the biggest brand of them all? In the 25 years since its inception, Bass has become IHG® and Holiday Inn Express® has become the company’s fastest growing brand. You’ve come a long way, baby

All around the world

A quarter of a century into its lifespan, Holiday Inn Express has come a long way. Evolved from Holiday Inn, the world’s first hotel franchise, Holiday Inn Express launched in the US in 1991. With Holiday Inn cornering the full-service, family-focused midscale market, the leaner model Holiday Inn Express was the perfect sister brand. Europe CEO Angela Brav, who was involved in the brand’s creation, told us: “We needed to come up with a midscale limited service brand to stay competitive in an increasingly popular segment. Demand was there so we worked on the foundation of the incredibly successful Holiday Inn brand and created what became Holiday Inn Express which was encapsulated by our ‘stay smart’ campaign.”

In the last few years Holiday Inn Express has entered over ten new countries, including Russia, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Peru and China, which has seen significant demand for midscale hotels in cities as the middle classes continue to expand. In fact in May 2016, IHG announced the launch of a new franchise model created especially for Holiday Inn Express in the Chinese market.

It was five years before the brand crossed the pond and opened its first hotel in Europe with the Holiday Inn Express® Strathclyde Park M74, Jct.5 in Scotland swiftly followed by a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, backed by Pro-Invest. Ronald Barrott, Chief Executive Officer at Pro-Invest Group, told us why he invested in the brand at such an early stage: “We saw potential in the simplicity and efficiency of Holiday Inn Express, with its sensible design and excellent combination of quality and value. Our faith paid off and that straightforward model has enjoyed huge success in this market and, of course, globally.” This year, 20 years on, Pro-Invest has taken the brand to Australia and opened Holiday Inn Express® Sydney Macquarie Park. The hotel is the first of 15 Holiday Inn Express properties that Pro-Invest plan to develop under a master development agreement. Ron said of the agreement, “Since announcing our partnership with IHG and this portfolio of Holiday Inn Express hotels to open in Australia, our team has scoured the country for prime positions for our hotels. Macquarie Park is one of Sydney’s leading business precincts for this, our first Holiday Inn Express hotel, perfectly-suited to cater for corporate travellers. It’s an exciting time, and we could not have wished for better partners than IHG.”

‘‘

At the heart of ‘stay smart’ was efficiency: everything guests needed and nothing they didn’t. Through this philosophy and with the same commitment to guest satisfaction and owner returns, Holiday Inn Express thrived from the get go.

Holiday Inn Express has the most number of open hotels in IHG’s system. ®

Holiday Inn Express® Strathclyde Park M74, Jct.5, the first Holiday Inn Express® hotel in Europe, opened in 1996.

A N NIVER SAR Y 70

Y E A RS

Y EARS

SP ECIAL

Y EARS

‘‘

Nearly half of IHG’s entire global pipeline is made up of Holiday Inn Express hotels. ®

A brief history of Holiday Inn Express® 1991 Holiday Inn Express launches in the US

1996 Opens first hotel in Europe; Holiday Inn Express® Strathclyde Park M74, Jct.5

1998 Becomes the fastest-growing brand in the midscale hotel segment

2000 Named Top Hotel Brand in its segment by Business Travel News

2002 Expansion in Europe continues at a rate equivalent to a new room opening every five hours

2007 IHG announces plans for a $1bn relaunch of the Holiday Inn Brand Family

B R ANDS

Germany also represents a strong growth vehicle for the brand and today there are over 85 hotels currently either open or planned under MDAs in the country. Made up of partnerships including Foremost, Tristar, Success Group and Interstar, the majority of MDAs are for Holiday Inn Express hotels. So why does the brand resonate so powerfully with the German market? Martin Bowen, Associate Vice President Development, DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) suggests the brand’s simple, smart mantra is at the core of its success: “The German market saw a record number of signings in 2014 and 2015 and Holiday Inn Express was a major contributor to that achievement. Holiday Inn Express is a great fit for the German market and is very well perceived by German franchisees. The brand’s balance of simplicity and high quality presents investors in Germany a real opportunity for fast and importantly quality expansion. Enhancements like Generation IV only strengthen that proposition even further. The Holiday Inn family is our battleship. We are the masters of these brands and the midscale market and nobody can beat us.” Martin’s point is backed up by the stats. Between 2007 and 2015, the brand’s international presence doubled, opening hotels at an average rate of two per week. Today the brand has the most number of open hotels in IHG’s system and nearly half of IHG’s entire global pipeline is made up of Holiday Inn Express hotels. Not bad for a relatively young brand.

Talking about next generation The Holiday Inn Brand Family is the biggest hotel brand in the world. It’s as simple as that. And the key to its success lies in part with continued evolution of the brands. As the hugely successful Holiday Inn Open Lobby is rolled out across the world, Holiday Inn Express has followed suit in Europe with Generation IV design. Devised in line with extensive investor and consumer insight, the refreshed Generation IV design officially piloted earlier this year. Holiday Inn Express® London – Ealing and Holiday Inn Express® London – Park Royal were among the first to launch the schemes and have received consistently positive feedback. Construction is value engineered to reduce build and operating costs, supporting strong return on investment. Mandated bedroom and bathroom designs ensure clear specification and a high quality finish, while robust furniture and fittings reduce the need for costly refurbishments. Rooms occupy less space and the ergonomic layout makes them feel larger while addressing changing guest behaviour; especially working habits which have seen the desk replaced with a portable table and chair. An updated round-the-clock food and beverage offering means better service for guests and doesn’t require additional kitchen or F&B skills, maintaining the lean staffing model. It is truly designed with efficiency at its core.

Holiday Inn Express® London – Ealing

2008 First Holiday Inn Express hotel opens in Asia

2009 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express announced as Official Hotel Services Provider to London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games

Efficiency and comfort have always been at the centre of Holiday Inn Express and it is clearly a model that is working. Twenty-five years down the line, the bread and butter of IHG continues to deliver industry-leading results. Long may its reign continue.

2010 Wins Hotel Brand of the Year at the European Hotel Design Awards

2014 Launches first TV advertising campaign in Europe: Simple. Smart. Spot On.

2015 IHG pilots the Advantaged Pricing lowest price promise booking model with Holiday Inn Express

2016 Generation IV design pilots in Europe

INTER VIEW

Meet…

Ronald Barrott

CEO Pro-Invest …the man who brought Holiday Inn Express to Europe ®

Ronald Barrott is the founding partner of Pro-Invest and has been the group’s CEO since its inception. Based in Sydney, he has over 40 years of experience in real estate investment and development. He has worked with IHG® for over 20 years and together with IHG was responsible for bringing the Holiday Inn Express brand to Europe in 1996, and more recently Australia. We talked to him about the brand’s appeal, being an IHG Owners Association board member and the secret to his success. You opened the first franchised Holiday Inn Express hotel in Europe in Warwick, England following IHG’s pilot asset in Strathclyde, Scotland. What potential did you see in the brand to invest at such an early stage? I saw a brand that is honest to the market and sensibly designed to meet the needs of the corporate traveller. I like the fact it offered quality accommodation and all the services that guests require, but nothing they didn’t. It’s an efficient model and it’s gone on to become very successful.

Earlier this year you opened the first one in Australia, Holiday Inn Express® Sydney Macquarie Park, under a master development agreement. What are your plans for the market? Holiday Inn Express is the perfect brand to develop on scale, so we have plans to develop 15 hotels in our phase one rollout and believe we will achieve up a total of 30-40 assets throughout Australia and New Zealand in coming years. It is especially important to establish quality when introducing a brand to a new market. We achieved that in the UK and we will be bringing that level of consistent quality to all of our hotels in Australia. The key is quantity and quality.

Is the brand proposition the same as in Europe? When we went to Europe, Holiday Inn Express proved to be very successful and we think the time is right to launch the brand in Australia. Engaging communal areas with a lounge, café feel are very appealing to this market and our upgraded interior design meets the requirement of the Australian and N e w Zealand markets. It is modern and attractive to the domestic market and having the Holiday Inn Express name also attracts international guests.

The Holiday Inn brand family is the biggest hotel brand in the world and is undergoing a period of transformation. Is innovation the key to success? Changes should be made for good reason, not just for the sake 14

of it. Focus should always be on occupancy, achieving better ADR and moving ahead of the competitive set. Holiday Inn® and Holiday Inn Express are already hugely successful models, and they have always been the ones to beat. The latest iterations of the brands look great and so far Holiday Inn Express® Sydney Macquarie Park has been fantastically received. I am looking forward to putting our stake in the ground across the country.

Can you tell us more about your role as an IHG Owners Association Global Board member… I consider myself to be in a very fortunate position to be one of the members of the board. The Owners Association says a lot about how important owners are to IHG and it is truly unique to the company. It’s about sharing expertise and reinforcing relationships between IHG and partners – together we are stronger. No other major hotel brand has anything like the Owners Association, which is something that IHG should be commended for.

How did your relationship with IHG start? Our relationship developed with Bass before it became Six Continents and then IHG. Through that time we’ve had a very open dialogue and aligned vision. We both want the hotels to succeed. IHG likes to make sure everything’s been considered and is true to a brand. These are some of the biggest brands in the world, so they’re right to protect them.

What is the secret to a successful partnership? Collaboration, and working with IHG is very much a collaborative process. They are excellent communicators. If we disagree with something, we talk it out, we find a solution. We understand each other, listen to each other and respect each other’s opinions. That’s led to a very strong relationship that’s lasted over 20 years and still going strong.

INTER VIEW

‘‘

Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are hugely successful models. They have always been the ones to beat. ®

A N NIVER SAR Y 70

Y EARS

SP ECIAL 25

Y EA RS

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants: Celebrating 35 years of the award-winning boutique brand ®

Y EARS

Y EA RS

When Bill Kimpton founded Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants in 1981 he changed the American hotel industry forever. Thirty-five years, over 60 hotels and countless awards later, the brand has signed its first hotel outside of the Americas and looks set to make its mark in a whole new region. We look back at the history of Kimpton and the man behind the pioneering brand.

The brains behind the business Born in Kansas City, Missouri, US in 1935, William (Bill) Drennon Kimpton counted typewriter sales and investment banking among his professions before he found his calling as a hotelier. He cited a childhood love of Monopoly as one of the reasons for his move into the business. His passion even then, was hotels. Bill’s first experience in hotel development was handling the financing for the Kapalua Bay Resort Hotel in Maui and the renovation of the Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York, before he struck out on his own in 1981, opening the Clarion Bedford Hotel in San Francisco.

Converting small, old buildings in downtown neighbourhoods into moderately priced but personality-rich hotels, he focused first on San Francisco before expanding outside of California in 1991. A melting pot of cultures, with vibrant art and music scenes and a thriving LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, San Francisco was the perfect launch pad for the people-focused brand that celebrated individuality. To this day, Kimpton’s HQ remains in the city, and the brand continues to garner people-focused awards. This year it was named for the seventh time on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list (2009, 2011-2016) and has also featured as one of the best workplaces for women* and millennials.* In 2004, it received a perfect 100% score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index for LGBT workplace equality; something the brand has achieved every single year since.

‘‘

In the 1980s, a new hotel segment was emerging in Europe, as guests who were tired of one-size-fits-all hospitality, gravitated towards more unique, design-led hotels. These new kids on the block steered away from the look-at-me luxury of traditional five-star offerings and presented personality and style. With sights set firmly on fashion-forward crowds in their 20s-40s, these were much more than just hotels. They were a lifestyle and they opened up a whole new investment channel for hotel owners in what is now known as the boutique segment. Today boutique is the fastest growing segment in the hotel industry and its popularity spans all four corners of the earth. But when Bill Kimpton founded Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants in the US, he was the first to show faith in a model that had so far been restricted to Europe. “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission,” as he once put it, which figures when you look at his reputation as a pioneer in the industry. From opening the first boutique hotel in the US to launching the celebrity chef concept, his career was one of fearless innovation. Bill Kimpton

From opening the first boutique hotel in the US to launching the celebrity chef concept, Bill Kimpton’s career was one of fearless innovation.

*Fortune’s 100 Best Workplaces for Women and Fortune’s 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials, 2015.

B R ANDS

Hotel Van Zandt, A KimptonÂŽ Hotel

ANNIVER SAR Y 70

A history of firsts

Y EARS

Kimpton has become a brand synonymous with people and 70 personal service and from the get go, had a locally-loved restaurant and bar offering that positioned itself alongside and was as important as the hotel. These were restaurants and hotels, not hotel restaurants. Now commonplace, when the first Kimpton hotel hosted ‘evening wine hour’ in 1981, it was an industry first. In 1989, Kimpton launched the first celebrity chef restaurant with Wolfgang Puck at Postrio at the Prescott Hotel. Now, there are over 70 restaurants and bars, many of which have won a host of prestigious awards, from Food & Wine magazine, to AAA Diamond Awards, Zagat’s and Travel + Leisure. Bill Kimpton always knew the value of restaurants and bars, and by operating as a separate business to the hotel, managed to create a successful new operating model. Y EARS

Y EARS

Y EA RS

“Bill 25 completely transformed the industry. He was a true bon vivant with a vision to build boutique hotels and excellent restaurants with equal amounts of heart and integrity,” Mike DeFrino, CEO of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants told us. “Thirtyfive years later, his legacy lives on in everything we do and we’re excited to take his dream to new communities around the globe.” Y EA RS

When in 2015 IHG® acquired the company, taking Bill’s vision beyond the Americas has become a reality. In just 35 years, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants went from one man’s leap of faith to the leading boutique hotel brand in America. With the full force of IHG behind the brand and the first hotel in Europe scheduled to open in Amsterdam in 2017, a whole new chapter in the brand’s history is about to be written.

Amara Resort & Spa, A Kimpton® Hotel

A brief history of Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants 1981 Bill Kimpton opens America’s first boutique hotel – the Clarion Bedford Hotel in San Francisco

1989 Launches the first celebrity chef restaurant with Wolfgang Puck at Postrio at the Prescott Hotel

2003 Becomes the first hotel company to offer free high-speed internet in all guestrooms

2004 Scores 100% on Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index for LGBT workplace equality

TR AVEL

Amsterdam With the first Kimpton® signing in Europe being in Amsterdam, we take a look at why the city of cycles and canals should be your next weekend break. There are more bicycles than people in Amsterdam, so hire yourself a bike – there will be free ones available in the Kimpton hotel – and explore the city using any of its 400km of cycling paths. First stop, the Rijksmuseum to see the famed The Night Watch by Amsterdam hometown hero Rembrandt before something a little more modern at Stedelijk, an art museum chronicling the last 150 years with works by Cézanne, Pollock, Warhol and others. For some architectural eye candy ride over to the Royal Palace, which used to be City Hall and then on to the surprisingly fascinating Museum of Bags and Purses, which started its life as a canal house. For some entertainment get thee to Paradiso for concerts in a 19th-century church.

Holland produces 70% of the world’s commercial blooms and if you visit in Spring, you’ll get to enjoy the nation’s iconic tulips blooming across the river bank. So beloved in this country, tulips created an economic bubble in the mid-1600s, when people would mortgage their houses to get their hands on some of those multi-coloured bulbs. Hungry yet? Until the Kimpton restaurant opens, Amsterdam offers plenty of other gastronomic delights, including a dozen Michelin-starred restaurants. For a peek at the past, stop by a brown café, a traditional Amsterdam pub (the name comes from the tobacco stains on the walls left in the olden days) for local beer and bitterballen, a deep-fried, breaded ball snack with a meat filling. Then find a street vendor selling stroopwafels, a cookie-type waffle with a caramely centre. For a nightcap pop over to the 18th-century Café ‘t Smalle for some canal side genever (it’s like gin) before wobbling back on your bike. The Kimpton hotel in Amsterdam is scheduled to open in 2017.

2009 Implements 12 eco-friendly meeting standards in commitment to green business

2011 Wins Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award for leadership in sustainable hospitality

2015 Acquired by IHG, which opens the brand to global development

2016 The first Kimpton hotel outside of the Americas, is signed in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

INTER VIEW

‘‘

IHG’s well-known brands and world-class booking channels and systems are a winning combination for owners.

INTER VIEW

Interview with…

Michael Cockcroft Chief Financial Officer, Europe

Michael Cockcroft is IHG’s Chief Financial Officer, Europe. He began his career with IHG® 13 years ago working in the Global Internal Audit team in the UK, before relocating to Singapore to establish the function in Asia. He occupied finance and business support roles in Dubai and Tokyo and ran the Investment Analysis team for IHG’s Asia Middle East and Africa region in Singapore before returning to the UK for his current position. Michael is a qualified Chartered Accountant and graduated from the University of Bristol. He lives in Buckinghamshire, UK with his wife and three daughters and in his spare time enjoys playing five-a-side football, running and skiing. Tell us about IHG’s business model At IHG we focus on creating and growing brands that are preferred by both our guests and owners. Our successful, asset-light, brand-rich business model means we now own less than one per cent of our portfolio. Most of our hotels operate under a franchise agreement or are managed by IHG on behalf of owners. This structure enables us to focus our energy on building great brands supported by a great sales, marketing and digital infrastructure.

What does IHG do to generate profits for owners? We drive revenue by delivering on our technology and loyalty initiatives. We have built tools to maximise occupancy, rate and return. Design and construction, particularly of our midscale offering, is value engineered to reduce build costs and operating costs, supporting strong return on investment. Globally, our hotels enjoyed RevPAR growth of 4.4% last year with continued growth of 1.5% in the first quarter of 2016.

How does IHG’s scale and financial strength benefit owners? We are a solid and reliable company to do business with and having a globally recognised brand name enables owners to secure debt. IHG’s well-known brands and world-class booking channels and systems are a winning combination for owners. IHG’s system delivers nearly 72% of rooms revenue globally – that’s a great start if you’re opening a new hotel. Furthermore, having a well-known brand often helps get the financing needed to build or renovate a hotel.

Can you tell us about IHG’s system growth and strategy to become number one? In a nutshell it is about achieving quality and consistency across our estate. As of Q1 2016, we have a European pipeline of 21,073 rooms and a global pipeline of 220,000 rooms, which gives us 13% of the active global industry pipeline. Our GRS upgrade is a big story, so too is our innovation in the direct bookings space, like Advantaged Pricing and the mobile bookings app. Guests buy into our brands, our booking channels and our loyalty programme and in turn owners achieve increased revenue.

Let’s hear a little more about you. What did you want to be as a child? Believe it or not, I wanted to own a hotel. I didn’t dream about becoming an accountant! However, I was always keen to understand business and I joined Deloitte in London after university where I had the opportunity to work with several companies over my five years with them. I found real estate, travel and tourism most interesting and ending up focusing on clients in those sectors. It wasn’t an accident that I ended up at IHG – I knew when I moved out of accounting practice and into industry that I wanted to work for a hotel company.

What’s the appeal of the industry? It’s such a people focused business and has a real energy that feels different to other industries. Having studied Geography at university, I love travelling and experiencing different places and cultures. Doing that while building my career with IHG has been a real privilege.

How do we compare to competitors?

What has been your proudest achievement at IHG?

We have the largest luxury brand in the world and with InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, the Holiday Inn® Brand Family is the biggest hotel brand in the world. With Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants and Hotel Indigo® we have two unique brands in the boutique space and we have the largest loyalty programme – IHG® Rewards Club – in the industry with almost 94 million members. Our strategy for a cloud-based Guest Reservation System (GRS) is on track and will support our efforts to enhance the guest experience through technology.

I was based in Tokyo working for the IHG ANA joint venture when the 2011 tsunami and earthquake occurred. Seeing the dignified and public-spirited way the Japanese population responded in the aftermath of those sad events was incredible. Looking back it was a very worrying time but our management team pulled together and ensured our guests and employees were taken care of and the business continued to operate despite the significant disruption. There was a real bond formed among the management team. 21

TR ENDS

Innovation, value creation & you

InterContinental® Lyon – Hotel Dieu. Opening Q4 2018

Over the years IHG® has shown a commitment to innovation at every level of a hotel’s lifecycle. From design enhancements to restaurant and bar concepts, from green solutions to direct booking channels, from loyalty programmes to unique owner platforms. We look at how these elements create value for guests, owners and investors alike.

“Aligned interests, creative solutions and great relationships,” summarises Philippe Bijaoui, Vice President of Development, Europe when asked how IHG creates value for owners. “We have the brands, we have the scale, we have the delivery and, importantly, we have conversations. We have excellent relationships with our owners and we have developed solutions for different challenges they might encounter along the way.” Developing design solutions in line with owners is a major part of IHG’s appeal. Armed with a dedicated team of architects, designers, operational planning, interior designs, procurement, engineering systems and life safety specialists, IHG provides a professional consultancy. By ensuring owners have design support for new-build, rebrand or conversion properties, IHG creates value from the first phase of hotel development; choosing the brand.

TR ENDS

Holiday Inn® Helsinki City Centre

What’s in a name? A lot… Brands are one of the defining drivers of profitability and value in a hotel. Guests like the reliability of a brand, the security of booking direct with a brand and the consistent service experience of a brand. Brands help hotel owners to secure incremental business at lower cost and having a design and brand team working to enhance the product keeps them a step ahead. “If you’re not moving, you’re standing still which is effectively falling behind,” Philippe tells us. “You don’t get to have some of the biggest hotel brands in the world by doing that.” The Holiday Inn ® Open Lobby and Holiday Inn Express ® Generation IV designs are a case in point. Both were devised with guest and owner insight, giving them foundations for both guest engagement and owner returns. Both models have been value engineered for time-efficient, cost-effective implementation and compact versions have been developed so even the most challenging layouts comply with standards. And now the results have started to come in. A complete rethink of the public space, the Open Lobby is a cohesive one-stop-shop with a restaurant and bar model that mirrors high street dining. Since its pilot in 2014, IHG research shows that guests stay in the Open Lobby on average an hour or more than they did before.1 Not only are they clearly more engaged but, during that extra time, they spend more money.2 Guest satisfaction measurement has seen scores increase by 7.3% points3 and, importantly, owners are committed. So far 33 hotels have implemented the Open Lobby in nine European markets. This year the number of Open Lobbies that are open in existing hotels is set to double and the amount in the pipeline is set to triple. 24

The Holiday Inn Express Generation IV design has seen similarly impressive results. The design, which sees zoned public areas for different usage and ergonomically designed guest rooms has seen guest satisfaction soar. Holiday Inn Express® London – Park Royal has seen a double-digit increase in Guest Love percentage points4 and Holiday Inn Express® London – Ealing has the best Guest Love scores in the UK’s whole Holiday Inn Express estate.

Are you being served? One of the transformative elements of the Holiday Inn Express Generation IV design is the F&B proposition. Now offering round-the-clock dining, it answers guest demands and no additional kitchen space or staff training is required, so there are no extra demands on owners. IHG is in the process of evolving the restaurant and bar concept across brands, and things have started exceptionally well with Stock Burger Co. the new concept devised for Holiday Inn. Now at Holiday Inn® Brighton – Seafront, early indicators point towards a win. Stock Burger Co. has its own identity – locally sourced ingredients and craft beer. It has its own awards – just weeks after opening it won the Signature Burger category at the prestigious National Burger Awards. And these create value. For Stock Burger Co. to be so well received in Brighton where there is no shortage of places to eat, speaks volumes about its quality. Theo’s Simple Italian – celebrity chef Theo Randall’s restaurant at the Hotel Indigo® London – Kensington Earl’s Court – is another example of progression in IHG’s restaurants and bars offering.

TR ENDS

One of the pioneers in the restaurant and bar space has always been Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants who operate them as an entirely separate business to the hotel. This retains the identity and integrity of each and has truly moved the needle in the industry. These are creative answers to what has typically been a more challenging element of the hotel industry.

It pays to be direct… Having the right hotel brand in the right place with the right restaurant and bar concept is only half the story. Once your hotel is open, the focus is getting heads on beds. With the power of direct booking channels and the captive market of a loyalty programme, IHG continues to deliver value. Direct booking lowers the cost of sale for owners and guests pay less for their stay. It is at the core of IHG’s strategy for delivering value for guests and owners, and IHG channels include the IHG website, the Central Reservations Office and an award-winning mobile application. When the Advantaged Pricing booking model launched it was an industry-first. To deliver its lowest price promise, it requires IHG® Rewards Club registration, and subsequently member numbers have rocketed to 94 million, making it the largest loyalty programme in the world. What’s more, IHG research shows that members pay more and stay more.

Lean and green… “What’s measured is managed” as they say, and IHG’s corporate responsibility department works hard to produce effective tools to measure and reduce energy consumption and costs. IHG’s water stewardship programme identifies priority actions for the reduction of water consumption. Similarly IHG Green Engage™ system recommends over 200 ‘Green Solutions’ for hotels to reduce their environmental impacts and operating costs. Hotels can achieve energy savings of up to 25%, so in addition to making the world a better place, these programmes turn conscience into cold hard cash. As Philippe Bijaoui mentioned at the start, creating value for owners is about aligned interests and open conversations. “Unique platforms like the Owners Association see owners work with us to improve revenue and guest experience. In all, our experience, our innovation, our name, our solutions and our people all make IHG brands balanced and bankable to owners, and loved by guests around the world.”

1. IHG research (Tangible Branding), Top 2 Box, 2 Open Lobby hotels UK, 1 Open Lobby hotel Germany (new build), 1 Open Lobby hotel Turkey (new build). 2. Hotel A P&L Jan 2013 - Dec 2015, Hotel B P&L June 2013 - May 2015, Hotel C-E: July - Dec 2014 vs. 2015, excludes room hire revenue, incl. meetings and events. 3. YTD scores to April 2016. Top 3 Box. Non-Open Lobby Aggregate is System View based on 266 hotels. Open Lobby Aggregate is based on 24 hotels which opened by December 2015. 4. 3 months to Jan 2015 vs. 3 months to Jan 2016.

Stock Burger Co. at Holiday Inn® Brighton – Seafront

INTER VIEW

Top left: Andrew Shaw. Top centre: Anna Corkill. Top right: Philip Lassman

INTER VIEW

Meet…

The UK & Ireland Development team The UK & Ireland Development team is made up of Associate Vice President of Development, Andrew Shaw and Development Directors Anna Corkill and Philip Lassman. Together they have a combined experience of 62 years in the hotel industry. We caught up with them about trends in their market, the opportunities for IHG® and what it takes to be a successful development team.

Andrew Shaw: We’ve done a lot of rebadging recently and I see conversions between brands remaining a feature of the market. There has also been a lot of office conversions in city centres, primarily because of lack of available land for new build hotels so you have to look at alternatives. That requires more brand input and brand flexibility, and a number of IHG’s brands are well positioned to continue to benefit from the conversion market. The London residential sector seems to be softening resulting in a reduction in site values which in turn, opens up new opportunities for hotel development. There is typically a brief window where hotels can start winning against residential values and that window is now opening up. Philip Lassman: There are a lot of hotels coming back onto the market that were only sold quite recently. This represents an opportunity for rebrandings to IHG flags. Anna Corkill: From an investment perspective short-hold is gaining popularity. Historically, there have been a lot of long-hold owner operators but today we see more private equity.

What brands have you seen particular demand for in your market? Philip: Boutique is the fastest growing segment and we have two great propositions with Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants and Hotel Indigo®. Andrew: Having an in-house design team at IHG has added real value to Hotel Indigo and they work closely with owners to enhance and value engineer the interior design of each hotel. Interest in Kimpton has a halo effect towards Hotel Indigo as an alternative entry to the boutique market, which is already strong but will only get stronger as the next wave of Hotel Indigo properties open over the next 12-18 months. Anna: There is a strong momentum for all our brands but recent investment in Crowne Plaza® has seen the brand back on people’s radars. We opened some flagships last year and we have a healthy pipeline. I’m also a big fan of Staybridge Suites®. There is a growing number of long-term contractors and consultants who require extended-stay accommodation and I believe there is a place for Staybridge Suites in every major city in our market. And of course the Holiday Inn® Brand Family continues to do well with its ongoing programme of innovation.

What opportunities does innovation present owners? Anna: Now that we have the numbers behind Holiday Inn® Open Lobby, we can demonstrate the potential for returns. Designs like Open Lobby and Holiday Inn Express® Generation IV are developed in conjunction with owners, so they can appreciate the focus on returns from the very outset. Andrew: In addition to our design innovation, owners also benefit from technological innovation – elements like our updated cloud-based Global Reservation System, which will be coming soon. Philip: It’s about cost of sale, whether it’s breakfast or bookings. We work hard to deliver platforms which give owners the lowest costs and drive returns. Food and beverage is also a big story. There are lots of opportunities for Stock Burger Co., one of our new restaurant and bar concepts, which is open now at Holiday Inn® Brighton – Seafront. Andrew: As a multi-brand hotel company, IHG is leading the way in F&B innovation. It is a completely different approach and has huge potential across Europe.

What makes a successful development team? Philip: Working as one makes a team stronger. Here we have confidence in each other and I know we all have the success of our owners and IHG at our core. Anna: The best teams are those where different personalities and skills complement one another. We gel as a team, we communicate openly and this helps us maintain excellent relationships with our owners. Andrew: A great team nurtures the individual but aligns as a group. We each have existing relationships with owners and together we bring different qualities and many years of experience to the table.

‘‘

What trends do you currently see in the UK & Ireland market?

Working as one makes a team stronger. Here we have confidence in each other and I know we all have the success of our owners and IHG at our core. ®

Philip Lassman, Development Director, UK & Ireland

S I G NING S

O P ENING S

Signings & Openings With every new signing and opening, IHG速 adds to its stable of leading brands, preferred by guests and owners around the world. In the first three months of this year IHG has signed six hotels, comprised of four Holiday Inn Express速 hotels, one InterContinental速 hotel and one Hotel Indigo速 hotel. There are also a host of exciting openings scheduled for this year. Partnering with IHG means joining one of the most successful hotel companies in the world, with unrivalled booking technology, revenue management tools, digital capabilities, sales and marketing muscle and operational infrastructure. In the European Development, Design & Openings team, you have dedicated support from ideas to opening. To discuss your project, contact them on europedevelopment@ihg.com Figures as at 31 March 2016.

11 4

6 8 3 7

Q1 Signings

1. Holiday Inn Express® Bridgwater, UK 120 rooms; Signed 4 January; New construction; Due to open 2025 2. InterContinental® Venice – Palazzo Nani, Italy 51 rooms; Signed 1 February; Conversion re-use; Due to open Q1 2018

Holiday Inn Express® Karlsruhe – City Park, Germany

3. Holiday Inn Express® Mannheim – City Hauptbahnhof, Germany 160 rooms; Signed 15 February; New construction; Due to open Q1 2018

4. Holiday Inn Express® Brussels – Grand-Place, Belgium 100 rooms; Signed 18 February; Conversion re-use; Due to open Q1 2017 Hotel Indigo® Krakow – Old Town, Poland

5. Hotel Indigo® Tel Aviv – City Centre, Israel 160 rooms; Signed 17 March; New construction; Due to open Q3 2019

6. Holiday Inn Express® Oberhausen, Germany 140 rooms; Signed 31 March; New construction; Due to open Q3 2017

Future Openings Highlights

Holiday Inn Express® Dublin City Centre, Ireland

7. Holiday Inn Express® Karlsruhe – City Park, Germany 115 rooms – due to open in the summer 8. Hotel Indigo® Krakow – Old Town, Poland 56 rooms – due to open in the summer 9. Holiday Inn Express® Dublin City Centre, Ireland 198 rooms – due to open in the autumn

Staybridge Suites® Baku, Azerbaijan

10. Staybridge Suites® Baku, Azerbaijan 123 rooms – due to open in the autumn 11. Holiday Inn® London – Kensington 708 rooms - 645 of which are due to open in the winter

Holiday Inn® London – Kensington

EVENTS

IHG on the Road ®

Since the last issue of DQ, IHG’s European development teams have appeared at industry events and IHG-hosted roadshows across the patch. We kicked off the year at the International Hotel Investment Forum, one of the most important hotel industry events in the calendar, where we unveiled plans for the global rollout of Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants. In addition to a show-stopping stand, IHG had several speakers on stage including our Global CEO Richard Solomons.

Later in the month our Northern Europe team attended MIPIM in Cannes and in June hosted new and independent hotel owners at the France Investor Day to highlight the power of IHG’s tools and scale. We also had speakers at the Spotlight Hotel Investment event in Warsaw and the Boutique & Lifestyle Hotel Summit in London.

France Investor Day

InterContinental® Paris – Le Grand, 3 June 2016

IHG Chairman visits Poland ®

InterContinental® Warsaw, 14 June 2016

(Left to right) Miguel Martins, Development Director Poland, IHG Chairman Patrick Cescau, Europe CEO Angela Brav and VP Development Europe Philippe Bijaoui 30

EVENTS

International Hotel Investment Forum InterContinentalÂŽ Berlin, 7-9 March 2016

Roman is the leading UK manufacturer of Showering Solutions and Solid Surface Fabrication for the project and specification market.

General Reception: T: +44 (0) 1325 311318 E: info@roman-showers.com UK Sales: T: +44 (0) 1325 328034 E: sales@roman-showers.com International Sales: T: +44 (0) 1325 327989 E: international@roman-showers.com Roman Limited, Whitworth Avenue, Aycliffe Business Park, County Durham, DL5 6YN, England, UK.

www.roman-showers.com

Approved supplier to the IHG Family of Hotel Brands.

EVENTS

Dates for your Diary You can catch IHG’s development and design teams at a number of forums throughout the year. From appearing on speaker panels at key industry events to sharing brand value proposition at roadshows, the teams use these platforms to illustrate what they are doing to achieve IHG’s ambition for profitable growth and great guest experiences. They look forward to seeing you over the next few months. BUCHAREST

LONDON

WARSAW

12 JULY

12-13 J ULY

28 S E PT E M B E R

IHG Romania Investor Day

Serviced Apartment Summit Europe

IHG Poland Investor Day

MUNICH 4-6 O CTOBER

EXPO REAL

JOIN US FOR THESE UPCOMING

EVENTS

MANCHESTER 12-13 O CTO B E R

Annual Hotel Conference

MUNICH

LONDON

18 OCTOBER

19- 21 O CTO B E R

8- 9 NOVE M B E R

IHG Germany Investor Day

MIPIM UK

Deloitte 28th European Hotel Investment Conference

LONDON

WARSAW

LONDON

22 -23 NOV EM BER

28- 29 NOVE M B E R

6 DE CE M B E R

Sleep

Hotel Trends Poland & CEE

IHG UK & Ireland Investor Day

INTER VIEW

A day in the life of…

Michael Walsh

Michael Walsh is IHG’s new Vice President of Design & Engineering in Europe. He joined the company as Director of Capital Projects in 2013 where he was responsible for the planning and execution of property investment across IHG’s managed and leased hotels in Europe. Here he tells us about his journey from a one-man band to leading a professional consultancy in three short years. “I like waking up early in the summer and getting on my bike for an hour. It gets me energised before I head into work which is either at the global head office in Denham, or I’m off to the airport to catch a flight, or into London for one of the InterContinental® projects. There isn’t really an average day, which is one of the reasons I like working here. The day job can range from meeting an owner or a general manager at a hotel or a day full of consultant interviews and team selection. Projects are always very labour intensive from our side early on but once we’ve got a team in place, we can work together to deliver the high standards required. Our design team will visit a project weekly or fortnightly and I’ll generally attend on a monthly basis to provide more strategic direction and make sure projects are on track, offering oversight and guidance. This is the service that we provide to our owners and it is a strong reason to buy into IHG.® 34

When I joined IHG I was a team of one in a newly created role. Within a few days of starting I was asked to sign an insider list and was advised we were selling InterContinental® London – Park Lane. That was fascinating as I hadn’t been involved in a hotel sale this side of the fence, but it was pretty demanding. InterContinental® Paris – Le Grand followed a little later and it became clear I needed an additional resource. So we hired Peter De Wit, now Director of Capital Projects, and later Kam-Ling Wu, Manager of Capital Projects, and within two years, we’d gone from one to three. At the beginning of the year my remit expanded to encompass the whole of the existing hotel estate in Europe. As a result my team expanded further with the addition of two designers, a programme director and PM support. We developed measures to help guide owners through the implementation process of Holiday Inn® Open Lobby and Holiday Inn Express®

INTER VIEW

‘‘

I am proud to be part of such a respected team. Not only has the department strengthened internally, but we have fostered an even stronger and more productive relationship with our owners.

Generation IV. If you look at the Holiday Inn Brand Family, you see well-established much-loved brands but we know we can’t rest on our laurels and design innovation forms a major part of our ongoing success. It’s hard to believe that it’s over five years since the successful global refresh of Holiday Inn and the Open Lobby is the next step in the brand’s evolution. Now results have started to come in from the Open Lobby we can see the incredible impact it’s having. The Development, Design & Openings department is delivering great results and I am proud to be part of such a respected and diverse team. Not only has the department strengthened internally, but we have fostered an even stronger and more productive relationship with our owners. That is a huge part of IHG’s success. By showing owners the value of our team, we can build trust and credibility. We work collaboratively with our owners, having real conversations about issues that really matter to them and their plans. The strength of our owner relationships is a core value for IHG. So far we have established capabilities for managed and leased hotels and we are increasingly interested in extending them to franchised hotels. That is part of the capital planning proposition going forward.

Before IHG I was an equity partner in a consulting firm and had excellent career prospects, but I’d got to a level where I was less involved with projects and felt I had more to offer. I made the decision to move on and my family and friends said the change in me was immediate. I am motivated, challenged and I have excellent people around me. It is the collective efforts of the Development, Design & Openings team that really add value to the business and I am delighted to be a strategic part of this work. Going into my new role as Vice President of Design & Engineering in Europe, I have been inundated with questions about what I’m going to change. There is an expectation that when you take a new role, you come in, change things and make your mark. As far as I’m concerned, two years into our five-year plan, we are in a great place and I have been pleased to contribute to this success. We’ve come this far, we still know where we need to go and we’re going to get there. The difference for me is, I will be in a position in which I will be able to drive the change and I am very excited about the prospect.”

To discuss refurbishments and renovation projects of your managed, leased or franchised hotel, please contact michael.walsh@ihg.com 35

INFO G R AP H IC

IHG in the Digital Age ®

As technology expands and customer demands evolve at pace, there is a greater need than ever for IHG® to provide the best digital solutions. In continuing to develop award-winning direct booking channels, IHG has secured its place as a digital innovator. Enhancements have s een guest satisfaction, app downloads and mobile bookings all increase. We look at some o f the other facts and figures behind IHG’s position in the digital space.

Downloads of the mobile app grew by 27% in 2015

$1.2 billion gross revenue in mobile bookings in 2015 – up from less than $50 million in 2010

90% of app gross revenue comes from IHG® Rewards Club Spire Elite members

13 languages available for instant translation on the IHG Translator App

Over 40% of digital visits re made on mobile a

Guests can create personalised travel guides for almost 80 locations through IHG’s c ollaboration with Stay.com

There are 1.7 connected devices per person in 2015. This is predicted to become 4.3 by 2020

Creating loyalty to drive owner value Introducing Your Rate, a new global benefit that extends exclusive rates to IHG® Rewards Club members and strengthens our loyalty programme, and as a result, drives the most profitable revenue for owners and hotels through our direct channels. ihg.com/yourrate

*IHG® Rewards Club not applicable to Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants; to be included at a future date. ©2016 InterContinental Hotels Group. All rights reserved. Most hotels are independently owned and/or operated.

CONTACTS Robert Shepherd Chief Development Officer, Europe Tel: +44 1895 512 173 robert.shepherd@ihg.com Philippe Bijaoui Vice President Development, Europe Tel: +44 1895 512 976 philippe.bijaoui@ihg.com Michael Walsh Vice President Design & Engineering, Europe Tel: +44 1895 512 791 michael.walsh@ihg.com Rebecca Bryson Head of Hotel Openings, Europe Tel: +44 1895 512 165 rebecca.bryson@ihg.com

InterContinental Hotels Group plc Broadwater Park, Denham, Buckinghamshire, UB9 5HR, United Kingdom Tel: +44 1895 512 000

We would love to hear from you! Please direct any thoughts, suggestions or advertising enquiries to europedevelopment@ihg.com