Kemmons Wilson founded Holiday Inn in 1952 in Memphis Tennessee. Wilson’s architect Eddie Bluestein named it after the musical film Holiday Inn as a joke and stuck with the name until this day. After the first motel was built the expansion of the Holiday Inn Empire began to grow. In 1991 Intercontinental Hotels Group took over the Holiday Inn hotels and started to expand internationally.
The companies core business is service. While their main focus is service they do sell merchandise in their gift shops supporting the Holiday Inn business. By providing excellent customer service to guests, guests remember the holiday inn brand and want to continue to come back and stay.
The customers of the holiday inn vary from region to region and from the different brands that the holiday inn represents. For example the Holiday Inn conference center in Barrie caters towards business forward individuals. This particular holiday inn offers private meetings rooms and large conference rooms. But the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resorts that are in the Caribbean would cater towards tourists.
The main customer that visits Holiday Inn is male, between the ages of 40-50 with a household income of $75,000 or more. They also have a college education1.
Most of the Holiday Inn’s have similar or the same facilities, they offer indoor swimming pools, guest