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Hotel chain plans expansion due to an unlikely source: cereal
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) already has seven global hotel brands, which raises the question of why they plan to start another midscale chain of hotels in the US?
eHotelier.com says Kirk Kinsell, head of IHG’s Americas division, has the answer. It’s about cereal.
"If you're on a cereal aisle, and you're Post (Foods LLC) or Kellogg (Co.), you want to dominate as much as you can of that shelf space," Kinsell told eHotelier. He added:
"We don't have enough cereal brands of different types to be able to accommodate that basic need of staying away from home. That's why having another (hotel) brand is good."
He added that adding a new brand also gives hotel owners and developers another option when they consider using an IHG brand.
The new brand will likely be slightly below the chain’s flagship Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands, speculated eHotelier, though they added details were scarce.
“The vast majority of IHG's properties are in the Americas, specifically North America. Of its 4,462 hotels around the world, 3,471 are in the Americas. Of the 1,190 IHG-branded hotels under development around the world, 815 are in the Americas,” the site says.
"We constantly are scanning the horizon and surveying our guests and those who are not staying with us," Kinsell said. "The first thing that comes across is that we recognize there is a group of customers who are mainstream, high-frequency travelers and their need is not being met."
The new brand will focus on that customer, he said.
An official announcement is expected early next year.
By David Wilkening
David
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