IHG s CEO Richard Solomons spoke with us on the revamp of its Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands at last month s IHG Americas Investors and Leadership Conference in Las Vegas.

　　InterContinental Hotels Group, the largest hotel chain in the world based on room numbers, has had a busy few years. It has completely overhauled its iconic Holiday Inn brand, refreshed its Holiday Inn Express, started a revamp of its Crowne Plazas, and is about to introduce EVEN Hotels, a wellness and fitness-oriented brand.

　　IHG's CEO Richard Solomons spoke with us at last month's IHG Americas Investors and Leadership Conference in Las Vegas.

　　In 2007, IHG launched a three-year, $1 billion overhaul of the 61-year-old Holiday Inn brand. What worked and what didn't work?

　　In total now, 1,400 hotels have left the system. That's bigger than most hotel companies. We've added 1,900 new ones, a lot of that in North America. The big relaunch was because frankly the brand really had not been nurtured. It had been neglected for many years. Even though it continued to perform extremely well, what hadn't been done was to make it really fit for the future.

　　You're never happy with any brand because by definition consumers change, markets change, competitors change, but I certainly have been very, very pleased with the relaunch. The brand is growing. The important thing is to make sure you continually nurture and develop it. You don't leave it. If you stand still, you go backwards in a competitive branded world.

　　Now you're taking on your Crowne Plaza brand. What are your plans for revamping that brand?

　　Crowne Plaza is a very interesting brand because it's a big brand for us. It's over 400 hotels now. It's got a big pipeline as well. In Asia it's the fastest growing upscale brand. It's strong in Europe. You go to the Middle East and Asia, it's one of the fastest growing brands. When you come to North America, where it has a very different history, we have some issues, although it is a strong and it's a profitable brand. We're doing a refresh very similar to Holiday Inn, but it's not so drastic. We're removing 40 hotels which is about 20% of the U.S. portfolio. We're dealing with some of the basics of the hotels, cleaning it up. We've done an action plan for every single one of the Crowne Plazas in North America, sorting out the basics as well as piloting some new hallmarks. We said by the end of 2015 we'll be through this round of cleanups and launching the hallmarks, and we're on track to do that.

　　This year, you relaunched the Holiday Inn Express "Stay Smart" campaign. It seems you are now paying more attention to Holiday Inn Express after concentrating so much on Holiday Inn. Why is that?

　　They're different brands that are part of the same family. It's like a little BMW and a big BMW. They have some of the same attributes but they're different products. I think with Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, some of the joint marketing wasn't necessarily clear about what the brands stood for. The customers are different people. With the Holiday Inn Express, it's all about people who just want to come in, preferably never talk to anybody, have a great one-night stay and go back on the road. Road warriors. Holiday Inn is a very different product. It has a restaurant, a meeting space, it's a much more social environment. It's not so much separating (the two brands) but about being more explicit.

　　You're opening your first few EVEN Hotels starting next year. This brand is focused on wellness and fitness. What are your plans for future expansion?

　　It's a very bright future. The fact is we identified 17 million travelers who have a focus that is not being met at this price point . You can always go to some expensive spa or upmarket hotel but this is about the mainstream traveler, which is where our sweet spot is. I think the opportunity is very large but it's early days. It's not going to be a 1,000-unit brand in my lifetime, not in this role. The important thing is to get some great exemplars of the hotel out in some great markets which is what we're doing. We're putting $150 million behind it.

　　How do you predict the guest experience will change in the next few years?

　　You will see a much more targeted and defined guest experience. Technology and the delivery of the experience with technology I think is going to be one of the biggest differentiators. The hotel industry used to be ahead of the game. When Holiday Inn was launched as the first-ever proprietary hotel brand and certainly the first franchise, people at home didn't have en suite bathrooms, televisions, no rooms with air conditioning. Now everyone has that. Flat-screen TVs were in homes before hotels. Understanding the customer better will enable us to stay ahead of the customer or ahead of the trends or even lead some of the trends as opposed to the few years we've been following.

　　This year, you made the decision to offer free Internet to all your IHG Rewards Club members. Hotels have been reluctant to do this. What made you take that step?

　　That was an area where the hotel industry was behind because at home we're all used to having WiFi. You can go and spend 99 cents on a McDonald's hamburger and $3 on a Starbucks coffee and get free Internet. And yet you were spending 1 or 2 or 300 bucks a night at a hotel and not getting it. As an industry we didn't listen to our customers very clearly.

　　It's about defining the trends. People travel differently. People travel, certainly in many parts of the world, as big families. That didn't used to happen. Literally what they want in a property is different than the laptop and latte generation. Those things are going to drive what we need in the hotels. It's going to be understanding the need. At Apple, Steve Jobs' great ability was to define the need and then deliver it, and our industry has to get better at that. There's no really great inside secrets there.