Currently Holiday Inn has 38 branches in China***, all of which are self-operated.
Here is the introduction of Holiday Inn Group:
Kemmons Wilson established the first Holiday Inn in 1952. He emphasized the importance of location, starting out with a system of hotels mostly located along highways and geared toward the car-owning middle class. He designed the hotels according to the consumption level and needs of the middle class mass market at that time, emphasizing cleanliness, comfort, hygiene and safety, and at the same time focusing on the maintenance of the hotels and keeping the hotels clean and fresh. As a result of the first standardization and joint operation, Wilson made a holiday company with only a few motels grow into the world's largest hotel group in more than 30 years, and made the holiday become a home away from home loved by the public. Holiday's success comes from several main sources.
One, standardized management
Holiday Group's biggest secret to success is to consistently adhere to standardized management, in strict accordance with the unified quality standards to provide products and services. To this end, Holiday has developed a set of strict quality standard guarantee system to ensure that every hotel in the Union to meet the quality standards. The Holiday Group has compiled the Holiday Hotel Standards Manual, which contains detailed regulations on the construction, indoor equipment and service protocols of the affiliated hotels, and no changes can be made to any of the regulations unless approved by the headquarters. In order to ensure that the provisions of the Manual are strictly complied with, the Holiday Inn Group has organized a full-time investigation team consisting of 40 people to carry out spot checks on its hotels four times a year. There are more than 500 items in the spot checks, with a score of 1,000 out of 1,000. If the result of the inspection is not up to standard, a warning is given and a deadline is set for correction; if no improvement is made in the second inspection, the penalty points are doubled and another time is given for correction. If still can not meet the standards within the specified time, the group-owned hotels on the dismissal of the manager, the franchised hotels, by the group headquarters of the relevant agencies to be dismissed or terminate the franchise contract, each year, more than 30 such hotels.
Two, the sale of franchises
1953, Wilson began to sell Holiday Inn franchises. At that time, the linkage was very simple, pay $500, according to the plan to invest about $300,000 to build a hotel, pay 5 cents per room per night linkage fee. Initially, Holiday Inn Group only needed to provide advice on site selection, opening, staff training and promotion, etc. In the 1960s, due to the success of Holiday Inn Group's operations, more and more hotels purchased its franchise, at which time the group expanded its scope of consulting to include various services in addition to real estate, such as hotel design, centralized purchasing network unified purchasing, sales network, and management system, etc. In the mid-1970s, the size of each hotel was expanding, and the previous Holiday Inn Group was not able to provide the same services. In the mid-1970s, the size of each hotel was expanding, and while the number of rooms in Holiday Inn hotels was generally below 30, the average size of Holiday Inn hotels reached 125 in 1975, and each year, more than 10,000 hotels around the world applied for franchises, with Holiday Inn approving a small portion of them (around 200) after a rigorous selection process. The operation of the "Big Signal" project and the installation of the Holidex computerized reservation system led to the rapid expansion of the Holiday Group.
During this period, Holiday established a joint credit card with Gulf Oil, which provided a $10 million loan and a $25 million mortgage for Holiday's expansion, and 15 years later Gulf built more than 500 gas stations next to Holiday Inns. It was agreed that Gulf Credit Cards issued by Gulf Oil could also be used at Holiday Inn to pay for room and board and other expenses. Since then, Gulf credit card holders have used the card to pay $120 million at Holiday Inns. The rate of expansion of Holiday Inn reached its peak at this stage, when the method of association was changed to require the payment of a daily operating fee, which was about 6% of the gross revenues, and which constituted a large part of Holiday Inn's total revenues. This was followed by the merger of coach companies, ferry companies, restaurants and other related businesses, making it a giant in the hotel industry.
Three, reduce costs
Since Holiday is oriented to the mass market, providing inexpensive and good quality services, it is crucial to control the cost at a lower level. First of all, in the construction costs, pay attention to the use of local building materials, no basement, plumbing and heating equipment installed in the top of the building, hotel facilities do not require luxury, but to seek comfort. 1975 years ago, the Holiday Inn Group hotel cost is 10,000 (suburban hotels) -30,000 (downtown hotels) dollars for each standard room, the hotel room average room rate of 20 U.S. dollars. 1975, due to competition factors to increase the cost of construction, the hotel room average rate of 20 U.S. dollars. After 1975, due to competitive factors to increase the cost, in 1984 in the Asia-Pacific region of Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, such as the construction of the hotel cost, the standard room is also controlled in the 40,000 - 50,000 U.S. dollars, the average room rate of 46 U.S. dollars.
In addition, also through the unified procurement savings, cost control in many details, such as the use of wrinkle-free sheets and cheaper carpets, collection of crumbled soap as detergent, the use of energy-saving key power switches, etc..
Strict cost control gives Holiday Group a price advantage.
(92-95, China's two-star cost per room 216,500 yuan; three-star 382,200 yuan; four-star 880,300 yuan; five-star 1,145,800 yuan)
Four, brand innovation
1979 Wilson retired due to health reasons after the hotel group's business strategy A big change occurred, into the gaming industry is the biggest move, in 1980, Holiday Inn Inc. bought Harrah's Gaming (Harrah's) for 300 million U.S. dollars, becoming the largest gaming operator in the U.S. By 1983 a quarter of the Holiday Inn Group's profits came from the gaming industry.
Britain's Bath Group bought all Holiday Inn hotels outside North America in 1988, and in 1990 financed the purchase of all Holiday Inn hotels in North America, renamed Holiday Inn Worldwide, and moved its headquarters from Wilson's hometown of Memphis to Atlanta. The biggest change since the hotel's change of ownership has been the brand extension.
The hotels were divided into six categories:
1. Holiday Inns: the main part of the Holiday Inn Corporation, these are moderately priced, full-service hotels.
2. Embassy Suite & Granda Royale: full-suite hotels, mainly facing the market of business travelers with longer stays.
3. Hampton Inn (Hampton Inns): a new type of economy class accommodation, facing the lowest level of the mid-range market.
4. Holiday Inn Crowne Plazas (Holiday Inn Crowne Plazas): big city downtown hotels, four-star luxury hotels, and must meet the three conditions: ① to open the official floor (Concierge Floor/Executive club); ② there is a flavor restaurant; ③ small and medium-sized conference facilities and banquet halls. The room rates are 40% higher than those of general holiday hotels. Its room rates are 40% higher than the average Holiday Inn, and 5%-10% lower than competitors' similar products.
5. Residence Inns: full-suite hotels for travelers who live for a longer period of time, with full kitchen facilities in each suite.
6. Harrah's: a specialized gaming hotel where, by 1989, gaming revenues accounted for 30-40 percent of the company's after-tax profits.
In 1989, the company underwent a series of changes, Homewood Suite, Embassy Suite & Granda Royale, Hampton Inns and Harrah's separated to form a new company -- Promus Inc. -Promus Inc.
After the separation of the Holiday Corporation is still very much focused on the development of hotel product hierarchy, currently a **** has seven brands:
Holiday Inn (Holiday Inn), Holiday Inn Express (Holiday Inn Express), Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza (Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza), Holiday Inn Garden Court ( Holiday Inn Garden Court, Holiday Inn Select, Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, and Staybridge Suites By Holiday Inn.
V. Continuous Improvement of Computerized Reservation System
Holiday Inn Group has always been in the forefront of reservation system construction.
Initially, each Holiday Inn made a phone call to the next Holiday Inn for the guest, and the guest paid for the phone bill. 1965 Holiday Inn system established its own independent computer reservation system Holidex Ⅰ, and then developed the second generation reservation system Holidex Ⅱ in the 70s, through which every Holiday Inn can make reservation for any Holiday Inn at any time and several times a day. Holiday Inn in a single location and get confirmation within seconds, all for free.
Now owned by Holiday Inn Group, Holidex III (Holidex 2000) is the world's largest civilian electronic computer network, second in size only to the U.S. government's communications network, and was once designated as the U.S. communications backup system in the event of a national emergency. At the same time, the system currently has a dedicated satellite, not only can be used for booking, delivery of information, but also can be relayed live theater, broadcast closed-circuit television, and has been in the United States more than 1,000 holiday hotels in the installation of long-distance videoconferencing facilities via satellite transmission.
In terms of promotion, Holiday also attaches great importance to the impact of media advertising, as well as the establishment of public **** image. As early as the 1960s, as a motel Holiday Group bought out several radio stations from late at night to 5 a.m. that time of the broadcasting rights, dedicated to broadcasting the Holiday Group's message, this time of low advertising costs but also happens to be the best promotional time for the Holiday Motel's target market - driving tourists.
Sixth, the spirit of the holiday
Corporate culture is to maintain the long-term competitive advantage of the Holiday Inn Group to ensure that the spirit of the holiday is a concrete embodiment of this culture: simple and unassuming, honesty and reliability, persistence, optimism and generosity, enthusiasm. The Holiday Spirit has created high-quality staff and won the trust and satisfaction of countless guests.
Motto: Start from the actual needs of the guests everywhere, and provide them with thoughtful service.
"Treat guests as friends" rather than "the customer is God".
Holiday Inn believes that "making guests happy is what makes hotels popular. Providing value for money and friendly service is Holiday's vocation."
Holiday Inn University: established in 1968, now in Olive Branch, Mississippi, with an annual attendance of more than 3,000. The Holiday Group requires that general managers and food and beverage managers, how are employed at Holiday Inns, undergo two weeks of specialized training at this university, and general managers must engage in an additional two weeks of research class training