Dreaming of a Rebound

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SHERI MANSON FOR TIME

Uncluttered front desks, a bright logo, plush beds and a groovy bar have remade the Holiday Inn in Stamford, Conn.

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Pity today's business travelers. They operate in an environment of painful budget constraints and calamitous conditions for air travel. But midlevel hotels like Hyatt Place and Hilton Garden Inn have responded by offering comfort, consumables and great value: complimentary cocktails, free wi-fi, better beds, 24-hour sundry shops and, of course, improved loyalty programs.

Holiday Inn hopes travelers will be won over by all its new goodies: a cheerful but "kept-real" greeting as part of a new staff-training program, the scent of green tea and ginger in the lobby (as opposed to chlorine from the pool) and a sound track that includes Sting and Bruce Springsteen. And when you step into that room — surprise — a pillow-top mattress with crisp white triple sheeting, a flat-screen television, a bright bathroom with a starched shower curtain and upgraded amenities from Bath & Body Works. Stuff you'd expect to find at higher-priced outfits. Which may leave Holiday Inn better positioned at a time when travelers are trading down but still demanding quality.

Yet it's not really luxury hotels that Holiday Inn is chasing. It's your home. In the past decade, consumers have feathered their nests with duvets, technology and plush couches as prices have retreated. So if the hotel is your home away from home, IHG doesn't want you to be greeted by an old tube television if you own a flat-screen. It's the same idea with the bedding. "At home, we don't have heavy old-school floral bedspreads," says Kowalski. And travelers were never enthusiastic about the possibility that those bedspreads weren't washed regularly. Now everything on the bed is changed. The choice of four pillows — two soft and two hard — came, says Abrahamson, from seeing guests check in with their pillows under their arms.

Of course, you can't spot these plush digs from the highway. Hence new signage, from branding consultant Interbrand Design Forum, that's designed to signal this new, modern spirit. The signature color was updated from forest green to a punchier yellow-green. The famous script now slants to the right instead of the left. "Handwriting analysis told us this was more forward-looking," says Amanda Yates of Interbrand. Yup, they analyze this stuff. Green bulbs illuminate Holiday Inns; blue beams shine up the walls of Holiday Inn Expresses. It's "an inexpensive way," says Scott Smith, also of Interbrand, "to make all that different architecture look cohesive."

Despite a ton of changes, the new Holiday Inn has met with mixed reaction from "seen this before" industry analysts, one even likening the refresh to rearranging the deck chairs on hospitality's Titanic. "They're too big a ship to steer a new course," he says dismissively. Less dramatically, the analysts think the Holiday Inn model, with a full restaurant dishing up three meals a day, is spent. Why would you want to eat at a Holiday Inn when you can hit a nearby Chili's?

Mike Patel, whose Newcrest Management owns 19 hotels, including nine Expresses and one Holiday Inn, likes the changes: "It was overdue. We really needed it." In Stamford, Conn. — home to global financial firms like UBS — the outpost's makeover has lifted it from the bottom of IHG's customer-satisfaction scores. "People say, 'Am I at the right hotel?'" says general manager Mike Bennett. "Companies that wouldn't consider us in the past are now staying with us."

Rick Takach, president of Vesta Hospitality, who recently spent $200,000 renovating a Holiday Inn in Lincoln, Neb., says he's grabbed market share every month since the April debut. The Washington-based owner, whose 11-hotel portfolio also includes Hiltons and a Marriott, has a happier staff, and the relaunch has given him a shot at recapturing lost clients.

The next 12 months are about getting the rest of the brand to the finish line. "Convincing the first person to sign up is easy," says analyst Champion. "Convincing the last person is much harder." IHG is going to have to do a good job of showing cash-constrained owners what returns they can get — and proving to road warriors that the changes have created a better hotel. "We've got to meet or exceed guest expectations consistently across the brand," says Bill DeForest, who counts one Holiday Inn among his 10 hotels and manages another, "or we're toast."

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