Holiday Inn 2011 Annual Report Download - page 9

more on the web: www.ihgplc.com Great brands 7
OVERVIEW GREAT BRANDS HOW WE OPERATE WHERE WE OPERATE FACTS AND FIGURES
THE RIGHT BRAND AT THE
RIGHT PRICE
IHG’s direct reservation channels – our
websites and call centres – are among
the best in the industry. Collectively,
they service over 270 million inbound
customer leads and help place our
customers into the right brand for their
travel occasion. Always looking to
improve, we launched our ‘Best Price
Guarantee’, the industry’s most powerful
online price assurance. And in response
to changing customer behaviour, we
have led the industry in mobile apps
so customers can access our brands
conveniently from their mobile devices.
IHG was the first hotel company to have
mobile apps for all four major platforms
– iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry and
Microsoft Windows – increasing our
annual mobile revenues from $2.4 million
to over $148 million in just two years.
Finally, our revenue management tools
enable our hotels to sell the right price to
the right customer. These tools include
our award-winning Price Optimization
system, which helps hotels make better
pricing and yielding decisions, leading
to a 4.3 per cent increase in revenue per
available room (RevPAR).
BRINGING CUSTOMERS BACK
The first and largest hotel loyalty
programme in the world, Priority Club
Rewards drives greater preference for
our brands and higher guest return
rates. In fact, the programme has been
named Global Traveler magazine’s
‘Best Hotel Rewards Program’ for
seven consecutive years (see page 22).
GREAT HOTELS GUESTS LOVE
Great brands are at the heart of Great
Hotels Guests Love. As we have proved
with the Holiday Inn relaunch (see page
14), strong brands with a unique voice
ultimately lead to rate growth.
Guests who know what our brands stand
for, connect with them emotionally and
enjoy a consistent experience are more
likely to stay with us again – three times
more likely, according to J.D. Power and
Associates.
Delighted guests are also more likely to
pay a premium for a hotel experience.
That is why, although we already have
strong brands, we need to continue our
investment in defining and refining the
experience of each of our brands and the
segments they occupy.
The guest satisfaction awards we are
winning shows that the work we do to
refresh our brands is reaching the hearts
and minds of our guests.
BRAND REFRESHMENT
To achieve our Vision of becoming one
of the great companies of the world we
need to bring our brands to life in every
aspect of our business, from recruitment
and service to product innovation,
corporate responsibility and the way
we communicate with guests when we
take a booking.
To make that happen we have dedicated
guest experience and design teams
working to bring innovative products and
services to all our brands. We have our
people, every one of them an ambassador
for our brands. We also have our Brand
Plans to Win, which help us clarify our
brand proposition (what it stands for,
who it’s designed for and how it makes
our guests feel), brand experience and
brand priorities.
The following pages set out some of the
ways we are revitalising our brands in
order to make them stronger and more
distinctive – and to make sure they
deliver a recognisable experience time
and time again.
These include The Hub at Holiday Inn;
our strategy to reposition Crowne Plaza;
telling the neighbourhood story of Hotel
Indigo with a new approach to food and
beverages; and reflecting the social feel
of our evening reception at Staybridge
Suites by serving a range of more
informal food.
We have also repositioned our Priority
Club Rewards scheme, giving it a new
creative look and providing even better
value for members.
Page 8 Page 10 Page 12 Page 14 Page 18 Page 20