Holiday Inn 2014 Annual Report Download - page 22

We announced the launch of a new hotel
brand, EVEN Hotels, in February 2012.
In June 2014, we opened our first hotels
under the brand in Norwalk, Connecticut
and in Rockville, Maryland.
Winning Model
Preferred brands delivered
through our people
As part of having a portfolio of preferred
brands, we continually review our portfolio
of brands in light of the evolving needs and
preferences of our guests. As part of this,
EVEN Hotels was launched in 2012
as the first wellness lifestyle hotel brand.
We developed the brand based on a large
and growing traveller need for maintaining
wellness routines while travelling. More
than two years of research into consumer
insights showed that there are 17 million
wellness-minded travellers in the US
alone who struggle to maintain healthy
eating and exercise habits, get proper
sleep and be productive when they are
travelling away from home. Therefore,
the brand was developed to meet a guest’s
holistic wellness needs in the areas of
exercise, food, work and rest. For example,
an EVEN branded hotel offers nutritious
menus and amenities, such as guest
rooms designed for in-room workouts.
Build and
leverage scale
IHG has committed up to $150 million
of its own capital to the development
of the EVEN brand over the next few
years. In the future, we will look to recycle
this capital, just as we did for both the
Staybridge Suites and Hotel Indigo brands.
As part of matching the brand to the right
location, we are looking at core urban
areas, dense office parks and suburban
markets as well as considering the
expansion of the brand beyond the US. As
at 31 December 2014, we had three hotels
(584 rooms) signed into our development
pipeline and two hotels (296 rooms) open.
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Strong brand portfolio
and loyalty programme
We have been using our loyalty
programme, IHG Rewards Club, to
introduce our members to the EVEN
Hotels brand, specifically targeting
our communications at those guests
who travel to, or have expressed an
interest in, the locations of our first
hotels, wellness or the brand itself.
Effective channel
management
As with our other brands, we have leveraged
our existing booking platforms to create a
brand-specific webpage targeted via the
app. We have specifically customised it to
be brand specific to EVEN Hotels, focusing
on wellness needs with relevant content
and healthy lifestyle features such as
fitness videos, ambient sounds, a diary
of wellness-focused events organised by
the hotel, and ‘wellness travel tips’.
Superior owner
proposition
The EVEN Hotels brand allows owners
to diversify their portfolio with a new IHG
brand in a unique guest occasion segment.
IHG, through its own capital investment,
currently owns and manages the first two
open EVEN hotels. Three additional hotels
are currently in development. Owning
and operating our first hotels enables
us to showcase the brand to other
potential owners.
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Targeted Portfolio
Attractive markets
The US is one of our priority markets, and
we opened the first EVEN hotels in cities
where we have existing brand presence.
Highest opportunity segments
The EVEN Hotels brand has a strategic
fit in our brand portfolio alongside Hotel
Indigo, and now Kimpton, in the boutique
and lifestyle segment. The brand is
targeted at the unique segment of wellness
and lifestyle.
Managed and franchised
We have used our own capital to develop
the brand and will look to recycle this in
the future. We will seek to accelerate
growth for the brand through our
managed and franchising model.
“ The EVEN Hotels brand
allows owners to
diversify their portfolio
in a unique guest
occasion segment.”
EVENTM Hotels
Our Winning Model and
Targeted Portfolio in action
EVEN Hotel Rockville, Maryland, US
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IHG Annual Report and Form 20-F 2014