Holiday Inn 2014 Annual Report Download - page 11

Our brands
Our award-winning preferred brands
continued to go from strength to strength.
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is twice
the size of any other luxury hotel brand and
the Holiday Inn brand family is the largest
global mainstream brand. We also opened
the 400th Crowne Plaza hotel and 200th
Staybridge Suites hotel during the year.
The number of awards our brands receive
externally is remarkable, reflecting the
work we have been doing to build
awareness, recognition and guest
satisfaction. In 2014 alone, our brands
won over 300 global, regional and hotel
level awards.
For the sixth consecutive year,
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts was
named ‘World’s Leading Hotel Brand’
at the 2014 World Travel Awards; and for
the tenth consecutive year, IHG Rewards
Club has been recognised as ‘Best Hotel
Rewards Programme in the World’ by
Global Traveler magazine. IHG as a
company also had a successful year
– we were listed as one of FORTUNE
Magazine’s ‘World’s Most Admired
Companies’, named as the ‘Best British
Business’ in China and came third in
The Sunday Times ‘25 Best Big Companies
to Work For’ list.
Innovating for the future
We have continued to build on our long
history of innovation to help us both
navigate and evolve our business for
success in what is a changing world.
This is supported by our focus on
delivering preferred brands, building
lifetime relationships with our guests and
developing our strong direct channels.
In 2014, we opened the first two EVEN
Hotels (see page 20) to critical acclaim,
and in February 2015, we opened the first
hotel for the HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts
brand. Both of these new brands address
previously unmet guests’ needs.
We have also taken an innovative approach
to evolving our loyalty and digital offer
around the ‘Guest Journey’ with the launch
of initiatives such as Mobile Check-in and
Check-out and further improvements
to our number one rated mobile app.
Continuing to evolve and enhance our
digital capabilities will be a key area
of focus for us over the coming years.
Trust
In the context of this changing landscape,
the theme of ‘Trust’ was more important
than ever and was the main theme of our
2015 Trends Report (see page 10 for more
details). The report argues that ‘Trust
Capital’ is now the ‘4th C’ of organisational
value – alongside Human, Financial and
Intellectual Capital – and is a key factor
for consumers in making brand choices.
Our people play a critical role in building
trust with our guests and owners. They are
responsible for delivering a differentiated
brand experience for our guests (see pages
16 and 23) and as such we work hard to
build our ‘winning culture’ and our
employer brand and maintain our high
Employee Engagement survey scores
(see page 32).
Responsible Business
Operating as a Responsible Business
underpins each of our strategic priorities
and is a commitment everyone working
at IHG is responsible for delivering
(see page 24 and 25). We made excellent
progress with each of our three corporate
responsibility programmes during the
course of the year. We announced the
global roll-out of our environmental
sustainability tool, IHG Green Engage, as
a brand standard, which was a powerful
demonstration of our commitment to
protecting the environment. More recently,
we announced the opening of our 600th
IHG Academy. Launched in 2006, the
programme provides local people with
bespoke skills-development and
employment opportunities. Finally,
EVEN Hotel Rockville, Maryland, USEpic Miami, A Kimpton Hotel, Florida, US HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts, People’s Republic of China
our disaster relief programme, IHG
Shelter in a Storm, responded to 18
disasters in nine countries.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity
to thank those who work across IHG and
its brands globally for the energy and
enthusiasm they bring to the business.
With their support, and together with our
owners, we can look forward to another
excellent year ahead.
Richard Solomons
Chief Executive Officer
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