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Holiday Inn Express Launches First Property in South East Asia in Downtown Bangkok

By: Holiday Inn Express |  10 Shares     118 Reads

June 20, 2012 // Franchising.com // BANGKOK – Holiday Inn Express, one of the world’s fastest growing hotel brands, officially launched the Holiday Inn Express Bangkok Siam in Thailand. The opening of the property in Bangkok represents Holiday Inn Express’ foray into the South East Asian market with 12 additional properties to follow in the next two years.

Located in downtown Bangkok, the 300-room property answers the growing demand for smart travel, from independent and savvy business and leisure travellers seeking comfort, convenience and value in the heart of cities and key leisure destinations. With its highly streamlined operations, the Holiday Inn Express Bangkok Siam focuses on providing guests with quality, well designed rooms, a core range of facilities and complimentary Wi-Fi and breakfast, at competitive prices while leveraging its location so that guests can make the most of their stay.

Holiday Inn Express is one of the nine brands under the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) portfolio. First launched in 1991, the brand has grown to more than 2,000 hotels worldwide – the biggest brand within the IHG estate.

Mr Jan Smits, CEO of IHG Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA), said, “We’ve seen Holiday Inn Express grow exponentially over the last two decades into a well-established brand in international markets. This points to strong demand for the brand from both our guests and investors.

“We’re confident that Holiday Inn Express will do very well in a region with popular leisure and business destinations and we’re thrilled to open our first South East Asian property right here in Bangkok.”

Doing business, the Holiday Inn Express way

Holiday Inn Express’ lean business model is designed to deliver building cost control, lower overheads and drive operational efficiency, whilst meeting the highly competitive demands of the market for comfort and value.

To maximise profits while maintaining an effective labour force, various non-guest facing services such as laundry, housekeeping and IT support are outsourced to reliable partners with specialised capabilities. Holiday Inn Express hotel employees are cross-trained and multi-skilled across all general duties, allowing for fewer staff to be employed but without compromising on the guest experience.

Investing in Holiday Inn Express

As part of the IHG family, investors in Holiday Inn Express can draw on the expertise of one of the world’s largest international hotel operators.
While hotel operations are kept lean, Holiday Inn Express hotels are supported by centralised resources that run the hotels efficiently. This supports hotel owners in virtually every area of business, including Sales and Marketing, Finance, Business and IT Systems.

Plugged into IHG’s call centres around the world, the hotels’ advanced reservation systems are directly linked with the Global Distribution Systems, providing the travel trade with fast, 24-hour access to the hotels’ booking system.

“We’re very excited to work with IHG on the first Holiday Inn Express in South East Asia. The brand has a very innovative business model in this category and we’re confident that the hotel will be profitable,” said Mr Sunny Bajaj, Managing Director of Amburaya Hotels and Resorts – the first developer to lay claim to the brand in South East Asia with Holiday Inn Express Bangkok Siam.

Added Mr Bajaj, “This smart operations model allows us focus to meet the needs of today’s traveller by making sure the guest experience is memorable and that they are able to truly experience Bangkok, whilst we maximise the hotel’s potential for high returns.”

With 2,133 properties around the world, the brand is currently one of the largest and fastest growing hotel brands in the world. In Asia Pacific, the brand has 40 hotels in its current estate and 54 in the pipeline.

The brand’s expansion plans in South East Asia include properties in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia over the next two years.

The brand is also continuing to expand across Asia Pacific, in Greater China, as well as India and Australia.

For more information, visit www.holidayinnexpress.com.

About IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with nine hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, as well as our two newest brands, EVENTM Hotels and HUALUXETM Hotels & Resorts. IHG also manages Priority Club® Rewards, the world's first and largest hotel loyalty programme with over 65 million members worldwide.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,500 hotels and more than 661,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories. With more than 1,000 hotels in its development pipeline, IHG expects to recruit around 90,000 people into additional roles across its estate over the next few years.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.priorityclub.com for more on Priority Club Rewards. For our latest news, visit www.ihg.com/media, www.twitter.com/ihgplc, www.facebook.com/ihg or www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

Media Contacts:

Janice Lee Fang
IHG
Tel: +65 6395 6259
janice.leefang@ihg.com

Matt Pearman
Weber Shandwick
Tel: + 65 6825 8016
mpearman@webershandwick.com

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