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InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) - an England-Based Hotel Franchise Conglomerate with Over 5,000 Hotels Worldwide


DonRocks

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InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) was founded in 2003, and is an English hotel conglomerate owning such brands as Holiday Inn, Kimpton, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza, as well as several others.

They're based in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, and currently operate over 5,000 hotels worldwide, most of which are franchises.

Believe it or not, the origins of the company can be traced back to 1777.

Practically speaking, being an IHG Rewards Club member (the IHG Rewards Club is the world's largest hotel loyalty program) can result in many unwanted emails unless you're pro-active in preventing it - I just now changed my subscription preferences. I suggest using a "secondary" email account with them (I personally have a secondary email account that is used exclusively for things "such as this," but even that needs to be weeded out from-time-to-time, in order to prevent so much unwanted spam that it's unusable).

Nevertheless, if you can control the spam, or don't mind the spam going to an email account used for this purpose, it's a worthwhile group for special offers and discounts (that said, I don't think I've ever taken advantage of one).

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8 hours ago, DonRocks said:

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) was founded in 2003, and is an English hotel conglomerate owning such brands as Holiday Inn, Kimpton, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza, as well as several others.

They're based in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, and currently operate over 5,000 hotels worldwide, most of which are franchises.

Believe it or not, the origins of the company can be traced back to 1777.

Practically speaking, being an IHG Rewards Club member (the IHG Rewards Club is the world's largest hotel loyalty program) can result in many unwanted emails unless you're pro-active in preventing it - I just now changed my subscription preferences. I suggest using a "secondary" email account with them (I personally have a secondary email account that is used exclusively for things "such as this," but even that needs to be weeded out from-time-to-time, in order to prevent so much unwanted spam that it's unusable).

Nevertheless, if you can control the spam, or don't mind the spam going to an email account used for this purpose, it's a worthwhile group for special offers and discounts (that said, I don't think I've ever taken advantage of one).

We have been partial to the Kimpton group, even before they were acquired by IHG.  Always an interesting property in a unique part of town.  Free wine happy hour at 5pm every day.  They still maintain their own rewards program separate from IHG.

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On 6/17/2016 at 9:24 PM, DonRocks said:

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) was founded in 2003, and is an English hotel conglomerate owning such brands as Holiday Inn, Kimpton, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza, as well as several others.

Practically speaking, being an IHG Rewards Club member (the IHG Rewards Club is the world's largest hotel loyalty program) can result in many unwanted emails unless you're pro-active in preventing it - I just now changed my subscription preferences. I suggest using a "secondary" email account with them (I personally have a secondary email account that is used exclusively for things "such as this," but even that needs to be weeded out from-time-to-time, in order to prevent so much unwanted spam that it's unusable).

Nevertheless, if you can control the spam, or don't mind the spam going to an email account used for this purpose, it's a worthwhile group for special offers and discounts (that said, I don't think I've ever taken advantage of one).

On 6/18/2016 at 6:26 AM, dcs said:

We have been partial to the Kimpton group, even before they were acquired by IHG.  Always an interesting property in a unique part of town.  Free wine happy hour at 5pm every day.  They still maintain their own rewards program separate from IHG.

My comments are not about the IHG hotels or discount program or the Kimpton Group hotels or rewards program but more about the separate hotel programs versus the OTA's (on line travel agencies) such as hotels.com, booking.com, expedia, trivago, etc etc etc.   Think of the hotel discount/reward programs vs the programs of all the booking agencies (and their pal in the middle of the booking world--google)

For smaller hotels and B&Bs and independent hotels, the booking agencies seem to take somewhere between 15 -30% of every booking they make.  (My sources are an expert in the B&B industry and an expert with regard to independent boutique hotels.).   Its an enormous chunk of the cash.   I don't have data from the major chains.

At an earlier time the booking websites did seem to capture discounts.   I don't see it now.   Scrutinize bookings in any number of ways and the hotels will offer the same (or better pricing).

As a consumer/ potential customer....if I book through an OTA I'm costing the hotel...say roughly 20% on the income.  20% because I went to one website versus another.   Additionally if I book through a 3rd party site, if something goes wrong...to correct this I'll have to go through 2 players...the booking agency and the hotel.  Its a hassle; I'll get the runaround and it will be more difficult to get the situation corrected.  Its so easy for the hotel and the booking agency to avoid responsibility and blame the other party.

But mostly I'm costing the hotel roughly around 20% of their revenues.--ranging from 15% at minimum to 30% being the highest total I've had confirmed.).

Lot of money.  Independent hotels simply HATE the booking websites.  Its not just that the costs are so high....but basically on the web...there is a "secretive conspiracy of visibility between google and the booking sites that gives the booking sites visual preference over the sites of the actual hotels.  (Google earns money from the booking packages in certain of the searches).

Its a lot of money.  I'd use hotel rewards programs all the time.  I'd negotiate for better deals direct.  I'd avoid the OTA's.  If I can save $30/hotel visit/per person 10 times/year and its on my own dime...I've saved $300/person.  Frankly the hotels might save more than that by not having to pay an OTA.  We both win.  

I used to book my own travel on the company dime.  I negotiated to get better prices.  Many years ago I'd negotiate aggressively for hotel bookings. Often last minute.  A hotel's inventory of rooms is perishable.  Every day of an unused room is inventory they will never sell again.  Getting $50 on a room priced at $150 that would have gone unsold is $50 of income they never would have seen otherwise.

I really don't give a rat's arse about spam anymore.  I get a ton.  Most of it goes into an accessory email acct that I virtually never look at.  I'm not sure; possibly 1/3 of the sites where I've tried to stop the spam...it never stopped.  So what.  I'd rather save the money by avoiding the OTA's and book direct.  The hotels win and I win. 

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27 minutes ago, DaveO said:

At an earlier time the booking websites did seem to capture discounts.   I don't see it now.   Scrutinize bookings in any number of ways and the hotels will offer the same (or better pricing).... Additionally if I book through a 3rd party site, if something goes wrong...to correct this I'll have to go through 2 players...the booking agency and the hotel.  Its a hassle; I'll get the runaround and it will be more difficult to get the situation corrected.  Its so easy for the hotel and the booking agency to avoid responsibility and blame the other party.... I'd use hotel rewards programs all the time.  I'd negotiate for better deals direct.  I'd avoid the OTA's....I'd negotiate aggressively for hotel bookings. Often last minute.  A hotel's inventory of rooms is perishable.  Every day of an unused room is inventory they will never sell again.  Getting $50 on a room priced at $150 that would have gone unsold is $50 of income they never would have seen otherwise.

Total agreement.  Admittedly, we don't use hotels very much, usually staying at airbnb or vrbo rentals.  But, during this past winter, when we slowly drove down to Florida then back up to NYC 3 months later, I needed one or two nights of places to stay in quite a few different cities.  I started with the discount sites & TripAdvisor but changed over to booking directly with hotels pretty quickly.  I found that, in just about all cases, I got better prices by getting the hotel's site up on line alongside one or two of the discounters and then calling by phone and speaking to a person.  They found me loyalty & membership discounts for various reasons (everything from AAA/AARP to hotel chain memberships to airline memberships) & gave me room upgrades easily.  Sometimes threw in free parking when it was generally an added cost online.  When we arrived, we sometimes found even more upgrades & perks.  We never had a problem with any of the arrangements as they were always confirmed in writing and sent to us by e-mail directly after the phone call.  Some of these phone calls were with the general chain #s (like for Hilton properties), others were with specific hotel front desks.  That didn't seem to matter.

Friends who have recently used discounters have had the opposite experiences.  Hotels have canceled or not admitted that there were reservations even made by the discounter, some have downgraded the room or perks based on non foreseen lack of "availability" or miscommunication with the discounter.  Since the written confirmation is with the discounter and not the hotel itself, the recourse is then an after the fact 3rd party nightmare.  

Big difference from when we started seriously traveling 25 or 30 years ago, when my venere.com code was as important as my credit cards in Europe.

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13 minutes ago, Steve R. said:

Total agreement.  Admittedly, we don't use hotels very much, usually staying at airbnb or vrbo rentals.  But, during this past winter, when we slowly drove down to Florida then back up to NYC 3 months later, I needed one or two nights of places to stay in quite a few different cities.  I started with the discount sites & TripAdvisor but changed over to booking directly with hotels pretty quickly.  I found that, in just about all cases, I got better prices by getting the hotel's site up on line alongside one or two of the discounters and then calling by phone and speaking to a person.  They found me loyalty & membership discounts for various reasons (everything from AAA/AARP to hotel chain memberships to airline memberships) & gave me room upgrades easily.  Sometimes threw in free parking when it was generally an added cost online.  When we arrived, we sometimes found even more upgrades & perks.  We never had a problem with any of the arrangements as they were always confirmed in writing and sent to us by e-mail directly after the phone call.  Some of these phone calls were with the general chain #s (like for Hilton properties), others were with specific hotel front desks.  That didn't seem to matter.

Friends who have recently used discounters have had the opposite experiences.  Hotels have canceled or not admitted that there were reservations even made by the discounter, some have downgraded the room or perks based on non foreseen lack of "availability" or miscommunication with the discounter.  Since the written confirmation is with the discounter and not the hotel itself, the recourse is then an after the fact 3rd party nightmare.  

Big difference from when we started seriously traveling 25 or 30 years ago, when my venere.com code was as important as my credit cards in Europe.

Both paragraphs are interesting as they touch on the individual experience, not the mean/average/aggregate or some marketing report.  On the first paragraph my very long term experience confirms that dealing directly with the hotel or the chain can be very beneficial.  Great info on the upgrades.  TX for the report.

The 2nd paragraph is very interesting.  Are the hotels quietly reacting to the visual web supremacy of the OTA's?  Are they creating problems for the OTA's?   I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was a quiet procedural change. 

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3 hours ago, DaveO said:

Independent hotels simply HATE the booking websites.

2 hours ago, Steve R. said:

Total agreement.

With one exception, I've stayed in more hotels in the past three years than in any three-year period of my life, and I can "feel" the hatred *at the front desk* - it's coming from management.

Once I realized that, it was enough for me to stop using the booking sites - it was similar to being made to feel like a cheapskate because I had a Groupon (which I thought was the greatest thing in the world, until I realized that it wasn't), except a couple of times the hotel situations were even worse than the restaurant situations - if you run into trouble at the front desk, and didn't book through the hotel (or the hotel's website), you're pretty much on your own.

I have one free room left on hotels.com, and that will probably be the last time I ever use it - and I used to be a Gold Member (30 stays in one year). And by the way, what a *worthless* status being a "Gold Member" was - it didn't do shit for me.

What I said about Groupon, now applies to Expedia and all these other discount websites. I don't know about the market cap, but the concept? A long-term loser.

And don't think for a moment that restaurants don't *hate* OpenTable; they do. *Hate*.

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27 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

With one exception, I've stayed in more hotels in the past three years than in any three-year period of my life, and I can "feel" the hatred *at the front desk* - it's coming from management.

If the "anger" is coming from management, and I'm sure the reactions do come from management it is several fold:

  • The OTA's are killing the bottom line
  • Some of the visibility of the OTA's has essentially been nothing more than "web theft" or web misdirection.
  • That web theft never stops.   Its endlessly ongoing.

I suspect that one of these days the hotel industry might join the fray as an one of those industries getting hurt by google's monopolistic presence and making a case against them. 

I don't see the expedia and hotel.com and travelocity discounts these days.  Without discounts they are worthless.

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Here was an interesting find, comment, and observation.  It came from the comments section of the Page I referenced about Local Rankings in Google Maps on DR.com and its directly found on this page. The comment is a response to the first question and it came from Lisa Kolb who knows a lot about a subsection of the travel industry.

Per Lisa in order for a hotel type property to show highly in G Maps it better subscribe to the OTA,s (OnLine Travel Agents (ie hotels.com and others).   In other words if a hotel wants to have good visibility it better use the OTA's  (BTW:  Google has a direct financial deal with the OTA's for all the bookings they get through Google Search).  That total number and value is ENORMOUS

Per comments above and what I've heard from people in the hotel industry, OTA bookings can run a hotel in a range of 10-30%.  Hotels just hate it!!!!   Its a real battle between chains, individual hotels and the OTA's.  Google is on the OTA side. 

I had found a resort city with many hotels and a rather very high percentage of hotels who had refused to work with the OTA's.  Some who weren't connected to the OTA's had chain names wherein virtually all of their hotels across the world use OTA bookings.   I bet the local hotel operators got together to try and fight this.

Following Lisa's reference I went back to that city.  Of the top 20 hotels listed in Google Maps 1 was not listed with the OTA's.  Of the next 20 another 4 weren't listed with the OTA's.  I recall the percentage of hotels not listed with the OTA's at about 30% or more.

Ugh...seems to me google's "local algo" in the hotel vertical is significantly skewed toward helping google make money...and driving hotel room prices UP. 

Frankly I hope google doesn't find ways to adjust its ranking methods for all other industries such that it will make Google more money and cost consumers more money.

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