Mr. Kemmons Wilson, a businessman from Tennessee, USA, highly values family. A simple wish for his family to stay in a satisfactory hotel during travels eventually made him the founder of the world's most influential hotel group. Some say his success was "half from his brain, half from luck," and it seems this luck stemmed from his love for his wife and children.
Mr. Kemmons Wilson established the first Holiday Inn in 1952. In less than 20 years, he expanded the chain to 1,000 hotels, covering every place accessible by highway across the United States, and then globally, making the Holiday Inn Group the first hotel group in the world to reach a scale of $1 billion. Although the current Holiday Inn Group has been acquired by the UK's BASS Group and has become an important part of the world's second-largest hotel group, recalling the creation and expansion of the Holiday Inn is still exciting.
Mr. Kemmons Wilson had five children in his lifetime. Like most Americans, whenever he had free time, he would drive with his entire family on trips. However, during these trips, Mr. Wilson encountered too many unsatisfactory experiences. What troubled him most was that after a tiring day, it was very difficult for the whole family to find a comfortable inn to rest. Either they were too dirty or too expensive, or there was no restaurant, or they charged extra for children. At that time in the US, many motels did not encourage families to stay and charged extra bed fees for couples with children. Despite being dirty and shabby, these motels charged high fees, which Mr. Wilson could no longer tolerate. As a businessman, he made up his mind: "I will show you how it's done."
Starting from his own personal experiences, Mr. Wilson designed the positioning of the Holiday Inn: creating a place for people to gather, relax, look forward to, and realize their dreams. First and foremost, guests should feel at home. The hotel would have parking lots outside, restaurants and swimming pools inside, and fridges, air conditioners, and telephones in the rooms. Most importantly, children could stay for free, and the beds in the rooms were especially wide (still true today), so accommodating one or two more children was no problem.
The world's first Holiday Inn was born in Mr. Kemmons Wilson's hometown - Memphis, Tennessee, USA, in 1952. The Holiday Inn was positioned as moderately priced with high-standard service, quickly attracting 65% of the mid-priced market locally. At that time, there were almost no mid-priced hotels in the market, so the success of the Holiday Inn was natural.
Once the Holiday Inn succeeded, Mr. Wilson wanted to occupy more markets as soon as possible. After self-funding the establishment of the initial few Holiday Inns, Mr. Wilson quickly realized that it was difficult to expand large-scale hotels independently to meet the growing customer demand. Therefore, he began allowing investors to purchase the brand rights of Holiday Inn and let them build and operate the hotels themselves. This decision made Mr. Wilson a pioneer in introducing the franchise mechanism into the global hotel industry, and the hotel industry commented: "Mr. Kemmons Wilson changed the development history of the world's hotel industry."
In addition to introducing the franchise mechanism, Mr. Wilson also seized another great opportunity - the U.S. interstate highway system was expanding nationwide. With its positioning as a moderately priced hotel, thoughtful, warm, and comfortable services, and unique franchise model, the Holiday Inn quickly became the most attractive hotel in post-war America. By the end of the 1950s, there were already 100 Holiday Inns in the U.S.; by 1964, the number reached 500; by 1968, Holiday Inns exceeded 1,000. When the construction of the U.S. interstate highway system was nearing completion, the Holiday Inn Group had already started developing near airports, downtown areas, and suburban office districts, spreading throughout the U.S. In 1968, the first European Holiday Inn opened, and in 1973, the first Asian Holiday Inn welcomed guests. At this point, the Holiday Inn was developing at supersonic speed, opening a new Holiday Inn somewhere in the world every two and a half days. The Holiday Inn Group became the first hotel and catering group in history to reach a scale of $1 billion in operations.
Continuous Innovation
Because he had to teach the development history of Holiday Inn and its standardized management model to the employees of 26 Holiday Inns in China, Mr. Tan Hanhui, manager of the Chinese department of Holiday University, was well-versed in the essence of the development history of Holiday Inn. He said: "The development process of Holiday Inn is actually the process of innovation. Due to innovation, Holiday Inn always stays ahead."
Innovation started with the first Holiday Inn: installing telephones, TVs, and air conditioners in each guest room, providing free parking, offering free accommodation for children under 12 years old, and setting up restaurants, swimming pools, and conference facilities within the hotel. Through these innovations, Holiday Inn quickly gained a foothold in the U.S. at the time. The most historically significant innovation occurred in the late 1950s when, after opening a few more Holiday Inns, Mr. Wilson realized that he couldn't expand rapidly relying solely on his own strength. Thus, he introduced the franchise method into the hotel industry, providing a completely new idea and optimal model for the development of the world hotel industry, enabling world-class hotel groups to grow rapidly. At the same time, to support the operation of franchised hotels, Mr. Wilson founded Holiday University to provide comprehensive training for operators and employees of franchised hotels, ensuring consistency between franchised hotels and Holiday Inns in all aspects.
In the following years, Holiday Inn continued to innovate.
In the 1960s, Mr. Wilson turned his Holiday Inns into his largest customer while continuing to operate building materials and decoration supplies. He established a "Hotel Service Center" and encouraged franchised hotels to purchase building materials and decoration supplies from the center to ensure uniform standards in hotel decoration. Eventually, customers commented: "When you wake up from a dream, it's hard to immediately tell if you're in Nevada or California because all the Holiday Inns across the country are the same." However, this kind of uniformity brought great convenience to guests. Holiday Inn was the first to adopt a computerized reservation system - Holidex, allowing guests to book any Holiday Inn through a computer. This system was soon launched in other hotels and has been used until today. Every day, over 437,000 rooms in Holiday Inns are booked through the Holedex system, earning Holiday Inn the reputation of being a leader in computer reservation systems in the industry.
The innovation of Holiday Inn in the 1970s should primarily be credited to the invention of the toll-free 800 telephone. To facilitate guests inquiring about prices and other information about Holiday Inns, Holiday Inn purchased the special number 1-800-HolidayInn from the telephone company. Any call to this number was paid for uniformly by Holiday Inn. This initiative pushed Holiday Inn's service level to another peak. Nowadays, toll-free 800 calls are widely used worldwide and have even become a standard for whether a company can provide thorough service to its customers.
Holiday Inn's innovative measures using high technology from the 1980s to the 1990s included adopting a centralized commission payment system, LANmark integrated hotel computer management system, and providing internet booking. Creating a Holidome indoor entertainment center with a glass ceiling, E-ZONE electronic game hall, and establishing children's suites were innovations in improving service facilities. Innovation gave Holiday Inn a permanent and prestigious position.
BASS Acquisition
In the mid and late 1970s, fierce competition arose in the hotel business targeting business travelers and tourists. Other hotel groups, including those not in the mid-market segment, significantly reduced prices and added facilities to attract customers. At that time, the Holiday Inn Group found some of its hotels starting to age, the market being divided, and its operating goals not in line with trends, leading to a decline in the Holiday brand.
In the early 1970s, BASS Hotel Group was seeking business development opportunities outside of beer brewing. The company already had good conditions for developing global hotel business based on Crest Hotel Group. However, to truly achieve global development, it needed to expand outside its home country. Before choosing Holiday Inn, BASS considered multiple hotel groups, including Ramada, Radisson, and Dunfey Omni, but Holiday Inn showed BASS numerous selling points, including its famous brand name. In August 1998, BASS and International Holiday Inn Group signed an agreement, completing the acquisition in 1990.
BASS formulated a new strategic direction for the global development of the Holiday Inn Group, subsequently strengthening and adjusting market promotion while expanding its range of hotels and services.
In the summer of 1991, BASS moved the Holiday Inn headquarters from Memphis to Atlanta. Although Memphis had been the headquarters for approximately 40 years, Atlanta had excellent infrastructure and a global transportation network. Additionally, BASS believed Atlanta's international status would help Holiday Inn become an international group.
Second Entrepreneurship
Among more than 1,500 Holiday brands, about 90% of the hotels are invested in and managed by the BASS Hotel Group, while others are independently operated and managed by franchise owners. To date, the BASS Hotel Group owns various brands of hotels. Traditional Holiday Inns are familiar to many travelers; "Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts" are located in major cities around the world, offering more comfortable services and facilities for travelers; "Holiday Inn Express" do not have restaurants, bars, or large conference facilities, but provide comfort and value according to Holiday standards; "Holiday Inn Garden Court" offers local characteristics and charm along with Holiday standards. "Holiday Inn Sun Spree" at tourist destinations features comfortable enjoyment and full hotel services. In September 1994, the then Holiday Inn Group announced a new brand strategy, launching two new Holiday brands: "Holiday Inn Select" specifically designed for business travelers who prefer traditional values and environments; and "Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites" specially prepared for long-term travelers and those seeking spacious work and leisure spaces. Meanwhile, the group actively renovated a large number of traditional Holiday Inns in the U.S.
For many years, the appearance, types, and geographical locations of hotels bearing the Holiday name have undergone significant changes, but the basic principles of service, quality, and value established by Mr. Kemmons Wilson in 1952 remain unchanged.
For training now, instead of conducting face-to-face training, we use information dissemination methods, rolling out training level by level from top to bottom. Because at this stage, we focus more on the effectiveness of training, aiming to achieve the purpose of training while saving costs.