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Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza Wins Renovation of the Year

Where: 350 W. Mart Center Drive [map], Chicago, IL, United States, 60654

The Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza helped shed the shabby image typically associated with the budget hotel chain by winning Renovation-of-the-Year, an industry-wide award given by the InterContinental Hotel Group, for its makeover of the lobbies, restaurants and guest rooms.

Adjacent to the Merchandise Mart and perched on top of the Chicago Apparel Center, the 521-room hotel got J/Brice Design International to give it a facelift. Major changes are visible in the lobby, where designers chose more moveable ottomans and similar backless seating over sofas so that guests could shift things around and their own congregating areas. The design company also put the focus on the view—the hotel looks out over the Chicago River and the city skyline—rather than on installation artwork.

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The Tri-Pack's Holiday Inn is the 1000th 'Relaunched' Property

As you know (er, if nothing else, then from the commercials), Holiday Inn has been going through a major relaunch. The logo is different, the linens are different — and, quite frankly, the whole concept of the new Holiday Inns is a pretty far cry from the crappy-bedspreads and ugly-carpets of the past.

And today the budget brand announced that the makeover spree has officially hit 1000: the media is all a-twitter today because HI sent around a press release to announce the opening of the 39th Street Holiday Inn in NYC (they're calling it the Holiday Inn Times Square — which, like, not quite), part of the Times Square Tri-Pack and a significant milestone for the chain.

The makeovers are spread across 3,200 currently-open hotels, and another 1,050 are in the development pipeline — the global relaunch should be 100% done by the end of 2010.

Tags: Hotel Rates / Michael Jackson / Santa Barbara Hotels / Holiday Inn Hotels / → All Tags

Cheap Hotels Are Hard to Find for Michael Jackson's Neverland Memorial

Here at HotelChatter we have a very informal indicator of how popular an event is going to be: the price of the nearest Holiday Inn.

If the room rate for the Holiday Inns in the city where said event is taking place remain low, we're sorry to tell you, event promoters, but this gig is probably a bust. If the Holiday Inn's rates in the city where said event is taking place have skyrocketed to unreasonable prices that no one would ever fork over for a budget hotel, then you're in luck: your event is going to be a success! Too bad Michael Jackson isn't here to see just how massive his funeral is going to be.

The memorial is taking place at Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California, and the Santa Barbara area is prepping for a flood of one-glove wearing, Thriller album-holding, fedora-sporting fans. And all these "Billie Jean" lovers are going to need a place to stay.

We headed over to Expedia and checked the Holiday Inn Express Santa Barbara hotel for rates from Thursday through Sunday, and the 2.5-star property has rooms open for $222 a night. The Holiday Inn Santa Barbara-Goleta, a 3-star property near the UCSB campus, is down to $182 a night.

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Holiday Inn Declared Official Hotel of the 2012 Olympics

Remember how we told you that What The World Needs Now is a Giant Budget Hotel? Well, someone may have read that post (or, um, agreed with our sentiments and wisely suggested that maybe an ultra-luxe, spendy-spendy chain was not the way to go with the world's economy lookin' like it's been lookin' lately) and has declared wallet-friendly chain Holiday Inn to be the official hotel of the 2012 Olympics.

According to Conference and Incentive Travel:

Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express have been named as the official hotel services providers to London 2012 by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). The Intercontinental Hotels Group-owned Holiday Inn brand will supply team members to work with LOCOG's accommodation and protocol teams in the lead up to the Games in 2012.

The brand is apparently "currently undergoing a £600m global relaunch" (a big ol' rebranding effort) and the Games will be, needless to say, some fab brand exposure — and a wise decision in this economic climate.

Tags: Budget Hotels / Holiday Inn Hotels / Moscow Hotels / InterContinental Hotels / Hotel Hype / → All Tags

What the World Needs Now is a Giant Budget Hotel

Hot on the heels of Hilton announcing the launch of its new luxury lifestyle brand — at a rather unfortunate time for luxury hotels, incidentally — Intercontinental Hotels Group has announced plans to build the world's largest Holiday Inn in Russia.

IHG inked a deal with Crocus Group to develop the massive Holiday Inn with 1K rooms in Moscow, which comes as welcome news at a time where many folks feel that what the world really needs now are budget hotels (sweet budget hotels) and not so many luxury properties.

According to the press release:

Under the historic 20 year management contract, construction is scheduled to start on the 1,000 bedroom hotel in 2011 with the hotel set to open in 2014. It will be located in Crocus City in the rapidly developing Krasnogorsk area of Moscow.

It's difficult to believe anyone has their sights set on opening up a hotel with such a staggering volume of rooms in this economic climate, but we're hoping things will be better by 2014 — and we're thinkin' budget hotels have a much better shot than luxury ones.

Tags: Whistler Hotel Guide / Holiday Inn Hotels / Ski Hotels / → All Tags

Budget-ish Accommodations at the Holiday Inn Whistler

Where: 4295 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, BC, Canada, V0N 1B4

This week, we've taken a trip to the Winter Wonderland that is Whistler in British Columbia, Canada. Aside from enjoying the snow, the mountains and the adorable Canadian accents, we've also been checking out the hotel scene. Every day we'll sum up a hotel in the Whistler Village for your edification. Remember this place will be jammed packed next year with guests as the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Any questions? Let us know.

Now that we've rounded up where Hugh Jackman stays in Whistler as well as the two slopeside hotels that don't come cheap (the Hilton and the Fairmont) we thought we would take a look at the more reasonably priced Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort.

The hotel is located at the edge of the village next to Blackcomb Way but it is still within manageable walking distance to the slopes, even in ski boots.

The hotel looks pleasant on the outside but on the inside the rooms are a bit of an eyesore. While they do all have kitchenettes and fireplaces they also sport some crazy patterns. If you don't believe us, check out the hotel's Flickr photoset. But a few photos from this hotel guest don't look too bad. It is a Holiday Inn after all.

The hotel has a fitness center on-site as well as secured ski locker area, a 24-hour front desk and room service on request.

An advance purchase rate of $204CAD was available for next weekend for a queen deluxe studio which has a double murphy bed as well. That's about $161 in US dollars. Not bad. However, this requires a full pre-payment and is totally nonrefundable. Regular rack rates begin at $239CAD or $189USD.