Holiday Inn Hotels began in Memphis in 1952 as the idea of a home builder named Kemmons Wilson. Wilson conceived the idea after traveling to Washington D.C. with his family and struggling to find an affordable, yet comfortable place to stay. The Holiday Inn name began in jest, a reference to the hotel featured in the Bing Crosby movie, "Holiday Inn."
The company quickly grew and became the standard for hotels for travelers in America. Today, Holiday Inn is a part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group and boasts more than 1300 hotels worldwide.
Holiday Inn was the pioneer in hotel franchising, which it began in 1957. This helped the organization grow from 50 locations in 1958 to 500 in 1964 to 1000 in 1968.
Holiday Inn became Holiday Corp. in 1985 when it incorporated various hotel brands such as the all-suite, Embassy Suites and the luxury brand, Crowne Plaza. Later, Holiday Inn was acquired by the Bass (beer) corporation before becoming part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group in 2003.
Holiday Inn brands include Holiday Inn Suites, Embassy Suites, Harrah's, Crowne Plaza, Homewood Suites and Hampton Inns.
Each Holiday Inn location is slightly different, but all are created to give the traveler a comfortable place to stay. All locations feature a restaurant and lounge area. Many also feature a swimming pool, work-out room, business center and shopping arcade.
Today, Holiday Inn boasts 1338 individual locations worldwide, representing more than 245,000 hotel rooms. According to the Intercontinental Hotel Group (owners of Holiday Inn, the chain logs more than 100 million guest nights each year and three people check into a Holiday Inn location each second. Holiday Inns can be found near airports, in city centers and in resort locations.
Holiday Inn continues to upgrade their properties and add new locations, both in the United States and overseas. Currently, 368 additional hotels are in the works, including what will be the world's largest Holiday Inn, the 1000-room location in Moscow scheduled to open in 2010.
