IHG®'s avid™ hotels To Extend Company's Midscale Leadership

ATLANTA, Sept. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IHG^® (InterContinental Hotels Group) today revealed the name of its new high-quality midscale brand, avid™ hotels, alongside a brand logo and renderings of the hotel exterior, public space and guest rooms. First introduced to owners at the IHG Americas Conference in June, avid hotels is franchise ready beginning today, officially marking the start of licensing in the U.S. for this much-anticipated new brand.

More than 150 owners have already expressed interest in the brand demonstrating the strong demand and great potential for avid hotels in this market segment. IHG expects the first avid hotels locations to begin construction in early 2018, and the first hotel is anticipated to open in early 2019.

Keith Barr, Chief Executive Officer, IHG, said: "We built our Holiday Inn Express^® brand into a hugely successful, leading midscale brand. Now, with the introduction of avid hotels, we're set to add another one and extend IHG's leadership position in this segment. With 14 million potential customers looking for the type of hospitality avid hotels will offer, this new hotel brand represents a significant growth opportunity for IHG and our family of owners."

This brand is designed for travelers who want a hotel stay that finally meets their expectations for the type of hospitality they value most – the basics done exceptionally well – at a price point expected to be about $10-15 less than IHG's industry-leading Holiday Inn Express brand.

Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, IHG, The Americas, added: "Our extensive consumer research and conversations with owners identified a clear opportunity to reach an important set of business and leisure travelers in a vastly underserved $20 billion segment of the U.S. midscale market. We applied our insights, expertise and scale to deliver an experience that features modern and stylish designs, superior guest rooms and public spaces and great service – all at an excellent value. I have no doubt avid hotels will continue IHG's success in delivering what our guests want, while driving superior returns for our owners."

New brand features shared for the first time today:  

• avid hotels logo illustrates the brand's confident and modern design. In its confident and refreshing colors of red and aqua, the logo features a signature checkmark, which acts as a stamp of confidence that avid hotels will deliver an unrivaled experience. This brand is the first to launch using IHG's master brand mark – An IHG^® Hotel – in communications and building signage, underlining its strength as part of one of the world's leading hotel companies.
• Exterior and public space renderings for avid hotels bring the brand experience to life. Setting the brand apart, the modern exterior hotel design includes an open and airy retail-like entry, a canopy and uses the stairwell as an eye catching red architectural feature. On the inside, guests will find vibrant, open public and work areas and inviting communal spaces that allow guests to relax, work, connect or eat. Hotels will offer a focused, high-quality, complimentary breakfast and marketplace options made for guests on the go. The entire hotel will be equipped with IHG Connect^® Wi-Fi with the fastest speed in the industry and the ability for loyalty members to be automatically connected for all future visits. Hotels will also leverage IHG's state-of-the-art, cloud-based next generation reservation system, and guests will benefit from the power of IHG^® Rewards Club at avid hotels.
• Guest room renderings highlight unique hotel features. Rooms are constructed with sound reducing features for a superior night's sleep, and the bathroom experience re-energizes guests with a fresh and bright design. Each guest room will also offer a dedicated workspace and ample open, easy-to-use storage, as well as innovative in-room entertainment options that allow guests to cast content from their smart devices to in-room televisions.

In addition to creating the brand to delight guests, its design and operating model was developed in collaboration with an owner advisory board, ensuring that avid hotels are efficient to build, operate and maintain. Hotels will be designed for new build construction on an average lot size of approximately 1.5 acres, and all avid hotels will be built to lead the industry in environmentally friendly and efficient design. The prototype design features 95-100 keys with a minimum of three stories.

Key elements of the initial owner offer include:

• Five percent royalty fee
• First 100 signed license agreements will be eligible for a two percent fee discount in year one and one percent fee discount in year two (2/1 royalty fee reduction)

To learn more, visit avidhotels.com and follow along at: facebook.com/avidhotels/, twitter.com/avidhotel and instagram.com/avidhotels/.

Notes to Editors:

IHG® (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants, Hotel Indigo®, EVEN® Hotels, HUALUXE® Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Holiday Inn Club Vacations®, Holiday Inn Resort®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,200 hotels and nearly 780,000 guest rooms in almost 100 countries, with more than 1,500 hotels in its development pipeline. IHG also manages IHG® Rewards Club, our global loyalty programme, which has more than 100 million enrolled members.  

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales. More than 350,000 people work across IHG's hotels and corporate offices globally.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.ihgrewardsclub.com for more on IHG Rewards Club. For our latest news, visit: www.ihgplc.com/media and follow us on social media at: www.twitter.com/ihg, www.facebook.com/ihg and www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

SOURCE IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)