Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. In 1985, Holiday Inns, Inc. was renamed Holiday Corporation to reflect the growth of other non-Holiday Inn brands owned by the chain (including Harrah's, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Embassy Suites, and Crowne Plaza). In 1988, Bass Brewery purchased Holiday Corporation, keeping the Holiday Inn chain while spinning off Holiday Corporation's other brands into Promus Corporation. In 1990, the Holiday Inn Express sub-brand was introduced; the earliest locations were limited-service and lacked the room service, on-site restaurants (instead featuring continental breakfast), conference rooms, and full exercise facilities (instead featuring a basic exercise room) found in regular Holiday Inns. However, newer Holiday Inn Express locations share the same features as the regular Holiday Inns, with the main difference being the lack of an on-site restaurant in most locations. Holiday Inn Express was known for advertising with normal people doing extraordinary tasks and saying the line "No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!" from 1998-2009, with a revival of the advertising in 2014. The chain was a division of Bass Brewery from 1988-2000, Six Continents from 2000-03, and IHG Hotels & Resorts since 2003. It operates hotels under the names Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, and Holiday Inn Resorts; it previously operated properties under the Holiday Inn Jr., Holiday Inn Sunspree Resorts (rebranded to Holiday Inn Resorts) and Holiday Inn Select names (rebranded to Holiday Inn). As of 2024, Holiday Inn operates more than 1,200 Holiday Inn hotels and over 3,200 Holiday Inn Express hotels worldwide.
See also[]
- Best Western - competitor
- Comfort Inn - competitor
- Hampton by Hilton - competitor