Back in the day crown plaza was holiday inn, then HI "crown" then eventually split into new brand, but still really just the nicer HIs! Now. Holiday inn competed with hilton, and probably Sheraton & Marriott to some extent, but was more family vacation focused so obviously more on the cheaper end. So this lead to a lot of spread in what a CP became: I think their standard is supposed to be a 3-4 * biz focused hotel with at minimum reasonable biz amenities ( e.g. decent restaurant, some meeting rooms for conference etc, then few other things like maybe a pool & workout room ). Honestly, I still really think of it as an HI but nicer and again still a lot of varation property to property: some just old old old while some very nice. IMHO the closest comparison is Sheraton, with Sheraton on average probably a little nicer?