The first Holiday Inn® hotel was opened by an American entrepreneur named Kemmons Wilson in Memphis, Tenn., in 1952. It allowed children to stay free, and offered a swimming pool, air conditioning, and restaurant on the property. Telephones, ice and free parking were standard. Although commonplace today, these services were revolutionary at the time and set a standard for the hotel industry and for every Holiday Inn hotel that would follow. Wilson was committed to offering customers consistently high standards in middle-market lodging, the segment of the market where 65 percent of travelers chose to stay. His attention to quality control and customer service eventually would make Holiday Inn the best known hotel brand in the world. After building and financing the first few Holiday Inn hotels himself, Wilson quickly realized that he could not manage the massive development needed to meet pent-up customer demand alone. He became a pioneer in the franchise business, offering investors the opportunity to purchase the rights to the Holiday Inn name and build and operate the hotels themselves. His timing was impeccable. As Holiday Inn hotels were being built, the U.S. interstate highway system was growing across America. The familiar green Holiday Inn sign soon came to mean comfort, quality, consistency and value to millions of post-war travelers. The demand for mid-market lodging was so great that by the end of the 1950s, there were 100 Holiday Inn hotels in the United States. By 1964, 500 hotels; and by 1968, 1,000 hotels. As the interstate highway system neared completion, Holiday Inn began to turn its attention to sites near airports, in downtown areas, and in suburban office locations. International expansion was next, with Holiday Inn opening its first European hotel in 1968 and first Asian hotel in 1973. In the early 1970s, one Holiday Inn hotel was opening somewhere in the world every 2 days -- and Holiday Inns, Inc., had become the first billion-dollar food service and lodging company in history. But the mid-to-late 1970s brought fierce competition for business and leisure travelers. Other major hotel brands -- even those outside the middle market -- began aggressively discounting and offering increased amenities to attract business. Holiday Inn found itself with a number of aging hotels, a segmented market, and a management focus not consistent with the times. The brand was in decline.

The Acquisition by Bass PLC
Since the early 1970s, Bass had been looking for opportunities to expand outside the brewing business. It had a solid foundation for building a worldwide hotel business with Crest Hotels. But it knew that to be truly global, it had to expand hotel operations beyond its home base. Before selecting Holiday Inn, Bass considered a variety of hotel companies, including Ramada, Radisson, and Dunfey Omni. But Holiday Inn offered Bass a number of selling points, not the least being its remarkable name recognition. The most recognized hotel name in the world, Holiday Inn ranks in the top 100 of all brand names in terms of recognition, surpassing Mercedes Benz, American Express, Diet Coke and Budweiser. In August 1989, Bass and Holiday Corporation signed a conditional agreement completing the Bass acquisition of Holiday Inn. The sale was finalized on Feb. 7, 1990. Bass brought a new global orientation to the company and a new global focus to the brand. Marketing efforts were strengthened and redirected, and the company, now called Holiday Inn Worldwide, began to offer a wider range of hotel options with a larger line of products. In the summer of 1991, Bass moved the corporate headquarters of Holiday Inn from Memphis to Atlanta. Although Memphis had been "home" for nearly 40 years, Atlanta offered the corporate infrastructure, worldwide transportation access, and international presence Bass felt was necessary for Holiday Inn to succeed as a global business.

Holiday Inn Today
Of the more than 1,500 Holiday Inn hotels around the world, approximately 94 percent are operated by a licensee under franchise agreement from Bass Hotels & Resorts Franchising, Inc. The remainder are either owned or leased by Intercontinental Hotels Group or under management contract or joint venture. Holiday Inn operates or franchises approximately 1,200 hotels in the Americas; some 243 hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and 74 hotels in Asia Pacific. To bring customers to these hotels, more than 437,000 Holiday Inn room nights are booked each day through Holidex, the Intercontinental Hotels Group industry-leading computerized hotel reservation system. This highly sophisticated system handles 25 million calls annually -- more than all other hotel chains combined. Over the years, the look, variety and geographic diversity of hotels bearing the Holiday Inn name has evolved -- in some ways, dramatically. But the founding principles of customer service, quality and value that Kemmons Wilson launched in 1952 remain unchanged.