Socializing at the Holiday Inn

Executives at the InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) have announced their intent to incorporate a "social-hub" into their Holiday Inn chains. Holiday Inn studies have shown that most of their guests—"who are most often middle managers, route salespeople, entrepreneurs and government supervisors—want to be around other people rather than holed up in their rooms." The company plans to overcome the everlasting problem it faces with generating enough traffic to support full-service food services.

The social-hub would join all the aspects of a restaurant, game room and business center into one. There the guests of the hotel can meet and interact even if just briefly. Kevin Kowalski, senior vice president of global brand management for IHG, has said that "these are more extroverted, charismatic people who like people," therefore, they will enjoy this new inclusion. Although the start up cost of such a project will be significant, the project promises to decrease labor costs by limiting the wait staffs. This will result as the planned social hub will have a more "do it yourself" theme where many stations will be set and you, as a guest, pick and choose.

I think that this plan could pay off for IHG as it has been an underperforming sector of the middle market hotels. A restructure could be exactly what this area of the business is looking for to creative a more lucrative field. Social travelers will likely look forward to these hubs as they can turn their stiff business trips into more relaxing and enjoyable ones.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303443904575578613162270270.html