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?