This is a good idea to fix CP, which is supposed to be higher than HI. As said by many others, HI or even HIX can be better than some CP and CP is way behind IC in some cases. Somewhere in the middle or proper branding of CP is very much needed. Differentiation of HI and HIX should also be clear.

While IHG doesn't own every hotels, it is understandable that a throughout rebranding is not as easy.

You do realize that HI is an abbreviation for Hampton Inn as well as for Holiday Inn?

That's as maybe but here in the IHG forum I think any reasonable person would take HI as meaning Holiday Inn, rather than scratching their heads and wondering whether the poster is actually referring to a Hampton instead.

CP always struck me as a brand which didn't really know where to position itself. It's somewhat amorphous. When I think about what the defining characteristic of a CP is the only thing that comes to mind is that CP stands out for having some meaningful higher-tier status recognition - although I guess even that is becoming less true.

Isn't CP simply IHG's non-luxury full-service hotel brand?

It's just confusing because IHG is a hotel family name that's hard to roll of the tongue.

Ie, the main full-service brand in the Hilton family is simply called Hilton. The main full-service band in the Marriott family is simply called Marriott. The main full-service brand in the Hyatt family is simply called Hyatt.
And the main full-service brand in the Wyndham family is simply called Wyndham.

But IHG didn't want call a brand IHG :eek:, and so they had to break with this habit and give it a totally different name.

IHG- InterContinental Hotels Group, so that hotel brand name was already taken.

Crowne Plazas were originally called Holiday Inn Crown Plazas; later the "Holiday Inn" part was removed. That was before IHG got ownership of the Holiday Inn company.

Broadly, Crowne Plazas are the 4* chain. Intercontinental is 5* and the Holiday Inns are 3*.
Crowne Plaza competes with the the Marriott, Hilton and Sheraton branded full service hotels

New brand has been announced today but without a name as yet. It will be new build, be priced $10-$15 less than HIX, include breakfast and initially be US only. The first properties should open in 2019.

To me, the room description sounds very much like a European HIX.

https://www.ihgplc.com/news-and-medi...le-hotel-brand

Sounds like the equivalent of Home2Suites to me.

Has some conflicting-sounding stuff:
How are "brand-name" options "fresh"? Isn't most "fresh" food at the supermarket unbranded? :confused:

Anyway, how about a promise of no powdered eggs for a start? :eek:

I'm guessing there will be lots of Chobani yogurt at hand, which isn't the worst sweet breakfast option in the world.

I assume the mass-produced, shipped-frozen-from-1500-miles-away, brand name items will be "fresh" because they will have been microwaved no more than 15 minutes before being set out on the counter. And only the customer breaks the freshness seal of the cellophane wrapper! :rolleyes:

Sounds like HIX to me

If you look at the Tru concept and pictures of the property it actually looks like a 100% knockoff of Starwood's Aloft brand. In the end I think it's the "let's appeal to millennials" concept that all the chains are chasing right now but I think Starwood really started developing properties with that type of design.

I would personally think that instead of doing this IHG would focus on the newly launched EVEN brand (or even roll out Indigo in a bigger manner). The properties that are open seem to be getting very good reviews and people seem to like the concept. Why add yet another trendy midscale brand to the mix when you have a new concept that seems to be hitting the right spot with those staying there....and why introduce another brand that could potentially pull customers away from your HI and HIX brand?

I think the biggest problem is that they need new brands to entice investors to build more properties so there likely won't be an end in sight on these new brands from all the chains.

That may because you're in the UK.

Someone mentioned a few posts above that it sounds similar to European HIXs to them.

It does not sound similar to US HIXs. The breakfast there is mostly far from fresh, lots of powdered eggs and stuff like that. (There are also hard-boiled eggs in the fridge, but those are re-thawed typically, as they're not boiled "in house", so "fresh" doesn't sound like a good adjective for them either.)

And since it's going to be a US brand, if you don't qualify you reference to HIXs as "European HIXs" or "UK HIXs", it can be a misleading comment, if you weren't considering US HIXs at all.

From my last decade of heavy US travel, Crowne Plaza's are a tired old hotel that almost always is in need to a major renovation. I have stayed in new HIX that were superb.

When I stay in Houston, I can pop a CP for under $75 - and get a decent free breakfast and extra points.

I know that the Houston CP at 290 and 610 is starting a $17 million renovation, and will be potentially adding a small lazy river to the pool area. Maybe a nod to other destination hotels like Anatole, Great Wolf Lodge or Gaylord? if so, seems like the wrong property brand to me.

Glad to see the renovation, but a lazy river will seldom be used by business travellers that don't bring their families. It seems that they would be better off taking the available space and making it an open area, or even enclosing it to make an atrium.

I would like to see IHG tighten up on brand standards, unless these new brands are a way to kill off older properties.

The last HIX I stayed at offered - tinned grapefruit, egg from a 24in by 12in shrinkwrapped block, shrinkwrapped croissants, baked beans. There may have been sausages but these were best avoided. Bread was standard square white.

All "replenished" as opposed to "cooked" by the lady behind reception.

I am not sure what makes you think a UK HIX offers fresh breakfasts.

Sounds like the Houston CP is trying for the return of the Holidome.

My my impression of Holiday Inn in the late 70s/early 80s of my childhood is that they were the chain trying to be everywhere from the middle of big cities where they were competing with Hilton, Sheraton, and Marriott to smaller towns and just off the highway locations where the other motels were HoJos and Best Westerns. And that CP was an early branding for the bigger city hotels that had interior corridors and such.

IHG builds the brand as a whole by selling itself as comprehensive and big footprint. And since they don't want to lose too much of that footprint and because it's harder to get franchise owners to renovate to new brand standards (many would just reflag instead of putting what they see as too much money into something 'just fine' as it is from a profits standpoint) than it is to get potential owners to build to new brand standards, you get more of the decidedly tired options in the HI and CP brands that have been around a while.

These seriously aren't going to be called "Project Horizon," are they?

Because you said that this new hotel that claims it will have "fresh" breakfasts reminds you of HIX!

So if the HIX breakfast even in the UK is so far from fresh, I don't understand why this new concept reminds you of HIX so much. :confused:

I found this on IHG’s website - a little bit more detail on the new brand, currently known as Project Horizon.

http://projecthorizon.ihg.com/PDF/inc/pdf/flipbook.pdf

Really good soundproofing as part of the construction process is a brand standard that will likely win a lot of customers in that segment, even if they aren't the target age group. Seems like some of the big complaints you get at the lower end Choice and Wyndham spectrum are about noise interrupting work and sleep.

Since when did IHG have any tangible brand standards?

Indigo is actually pretty tight. Saw a short documentary about their head of branding a while back and you could make a drinking game over every time she mentioned correct use of the nautilus theme. The idea there is that each property should reflect local area and culture while a guest still knows it's an Indigo any time they walk into one around the world.

And it does seem to be easier to get that standard when you're getting franchise owners to build from scratch and having to be there from day one compared to asking as existing property to make what are expensive but ultimately cosmetic improvements. Corporate can only really push so hard before the hotel owner decides it makes financial sense to just reflag with Choice or Wyndham instead. So corporate let's the older slide a little and you end with major North American surveys saying guests prefer the newer HIX brand to HI proper in part because IHG was able better work hard product consistency into 1990s construction

HIX elsewhere in the world is a very different beast however so even there where is the consistency? It is a pretty low rent offering in the UK for instance and whilst the newer interiors are nice enough you are in deep trouble if you have a polyester allergy.

Agree re: Indigo it actually is perhaps the most consistent offering of any of the IHG brands and I do like it but often you are paying a premium for some interesting paint in a HIX type space.

The UK CP's seem to be the reverse of the HIX position often being very good and looking after status guests extremely well compared to the US CP's.

All points to me to IHG not really grasping the nettle and trying to appeal to too many audiences (which are mutually exclusive) simultaneously, it just cannot be done effectively.

Meanwhile in the USA, the CPs were/are often the mediocre urban rebrands in the 1970s and 1980s when Holiday Inn was trying to set their more urban 'upscale' properties apart from the roadside exterior corridor Holiday Inns that were also part of the HI category in that era.

If IHG was smart, they'd banish CP from North America. Convert some to HI, some to Indigo, and bounce the rest.

To me there's a difference between "-scale" (up/mid/etc) and ergonomics/modernness. My favorite sub $110 brand is Home2Suites. They are cookie cutter, but for a single person staying 1-3 nights who has a car they are very well laid out. I can even easily work all morning in a H2S room if I'm teleworking as part of a vacation. By comparison, I detest Aloft. I hate the room layout, I hate the the bathrooms, I hate the common areas. Both are "new/modern" but they have very different appeal.

The HIX are what they are, and Candlewoods are getting old in the tooth. IHG needs something to compete both on modernness and price, as I'm finding myself staying at LQ here and there when there is a massive price difference.

The times I've been in LQs for price reasons ($40 or more per night less than the IHG/Marriott/Hilton option in same area) they've been the interior corridors ones and they've been generally solid wth far better reviews than the scary-sounding Choice option nearby. I do wonder how long it is before LQ gets bought out or merges- if Accor wanted a nice 3 star footprint where they currently are not, and wasn't too scared off by the failed Motel 6 experiment, they're really logical dance partners.

Had our first stay in a Staybridge earlier this year, and it's now one of my favorite sub-brands- nice space, comfortable and pleasant rooms, good breakfast, definitely an upgrade over Candlewood. I just wish their footprint was larger.

How many brands are IHG planning to launch? IHG's existing brands are already messy as hell now, what's the difference of CP, Indigo, Kimpton, EVEN , HUALUXE and Voco?