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This Christmas, Naughty Mothers-in-Law Will Get Banished to the Holiday Inn
The Holiday Inns and Holiday Inn Expresses in the UK are offering monsters-in-law, er, excuse us mothers-in-law 25 percent off at their hotels from December 23-29 as a way to give everyone in the family a reprieve from her incessant nagging about your culinary skills, your "expensive" lifestyle, your unwillingness to visit her more often and the real reason why your kids are acting out.
Considering that Holiday Inn is one of our picks for the worst budget brand hotels in Europe because they are so "bland and boring," we think this is a fitting punishment for "Mom." Who knows? Maybe she will like it.
There's no word on how you can prove she is an actual mother-in-law but if you and your spouse bound and gag Mom and drop her off at the front desk, we're sure that will qualify her for the discount. Merry Christmas!
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Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza Wins Renovation of the Year
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.
Tags: Budget Hotels / Ibis Hotels / Etap Hotels / Golden Tulip Hotels / Travelodge Hotels / Holiday Inns / Hotel Hell / → All Tags
The Five Worst Budget Brands In Europe
You’re headed to Europe and despite all the talk about airline deals, getting there has eaten up a lot of your budget. So you're going to stay on the cheap. Yesterday, we listed our Five Best Budget Brands in Europe so that you will know the best hotels to hit up and what you get for your money.
But you also need to know which ones to avoid. Sure, the prices are right at these budget brands but there are times you may want to pay a little more for your peace of mind.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Holiday Inns / Tri-Pack Hotel / → All Tags
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.
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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.
Tags: Snapshot / Holiday Inn Express / Holiday Inns / → All Tags
Behold: The Biggest Holiday Inn Express Room We've Ever Seen
This just in, dispatched from a tipster road warrior who is currently traveling across the country visiting different baseball stadiums (how cool is that?): there appears to be a Holiday Inn Express in Cleveland, Ohio with absolutely ridiculously large rooms. The Holiday Inn Express Downtown Cleveland, specifically.
He sends this snapshot over to us, along with this description:
So far, I've talked to four different employees and all have been fantastic — friendly and polite. The room itself definitely seems like a value, given the square footage (or, more accurately, the cubic footage, given the super-high ceiling) and the fixtures. I'm normally a no-frills traveler, but I do enjoy feeling like I'm in a nice place as opposed to a run-down motel.
This bad boy goes for exactly $125.34 this evening, and we're totally impressed with space and the hardwood floors. There's also a desk that wouldn't fit into the frame here. Apparently, the hotel is actually inside a 19th century historic Guardian Bank Building and was renovated in 2004.
Another pleasant surprise from the budget chain that seems to be turnin' heads this year.
[Photo: T.J. Ryan]
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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.
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Holiday Inn Santiago Airport Makes You Wish You'd Missed Your Flight
The Holiday Inn brand doesn't necessarily evoke a sense of hipness or luxury, but the Holiday Inn Santiago Airport just may change everything you think about this well-known chain.
Located literally less than 50 steps from the front entrance to Aeropuerto de Santiago, this property has every amenity the business or casual traveler needs for a long layover or comfortable overnight stay. If you miss your flight or get delayed, there may just be no better place to stay in Santiago.
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All Ages Can Partake in the Par-tay with Holiday Inn's Mocktails
Where: United States
Random hotel fact of the day: 64 percent of all drinks consumed in hotels are alcohol-free, or so says PR firm Weber Shandwick. (Side note: We can't help but wonder what percentage goes to those $8 water bottles…)
And nowhere does that stat probably skew even further towards non-alcoholic than at Holiday Inn, a hotel chain about as synonymous with families as Disney World. So it makes perfect sense that Holiday Inn would offer a line of "mocktails" for its guests who want a more sophisticated way to beat the summer heat than a Big Gulp from the nearest 7-11.
Holiday Inn enlisted Virginia Willis, author of "Bon Appetite, Y’all! Three Generations of Southern Cooking," to craft a signature line of libations fit for alcohol-abstainers, from spritzers to slushies to lattes. After a successful launch last summer, the mocktail menu will continue to be served this summer at Holiday Inns nationwide.
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Internet Charges at Holiday Inn Hong Kong Are Just Wrong
Oh noes. Say what you will about Holiday Inns, but HI's Internet is usually, these days, fairly fast and totally free. Well, 'round these parts, anyway. We're sad to hear from Canadian blogger Andrew Currie that, over in Hong Kong, that's notsomuch the case. He documents his Internet troubles at the Holiday Inn Hong Kong Golden Mile:
Unlimited access set me back $160 HKD per day, or about $25 CAD. At this price you might think I'd be tempted to leave my laptop packed and use my phone exclusively, but even with Opera Mini paring down the average full web page to a paltry 50K or so I would still pay 5¢/kB in data roaming charges — or in other words, for the same cost per day I'd only be able to pull down a mere 10 web pages on my phone!
For an extra $40 HKD/day ($6.25 CAD) I could supposedly access the hotel-wide WiFi via my phone — a great idea for reading the morning news over breakfast in the restaurant, except that interTouch uses some kind of stupid web redirect to log in to their network, likely designed with laptops only in mind.
Boo. Oh, and to translate that to US dollars: that daily Internet charge of 160 HKD works out to just over $20, while the 40 HKD WiFi charge comes out to around $5. And the worldwide free WiFi crusade continues.
[Photo: Andrew Currie]
Tags: Budget Hotels / Holiday Inns / 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: Retro Motels / Hotel Porn / Historic Hotels / Holiday Inns / → All Tags
Motels of the Past as Design Inspiration Now
Just because the holiday season is over doesn't mean you have to stop reminiscing over the warm and fuzzy family memories, and for us that most definitely involves road trips around the United States. Back in the olden days when Holiday Inns hosted the Rat Pack and Howard Johnson was the closest thing to a boutique chain, motels began their rise to cult status and their way into our hearts.
Just as it is today with all the hottest properties, motels back in the day were decorated with the latest hip furniture and trendy colors. Thankfully, the look was often times more Eero Saarinen Tulip chairs and Alexander Calder mobiles than grandma's powder room. Of course inspiration for the future usually hearkens back to the past, and we were thrilled to come across a Flickr Set showcasing one person's collection of vintage motel postcards. There's even a set specifically dedicated to Holiday Inns.
The sets pay tribute to the days when motels had names like romance novels--"Melody Manor," "New Townhouse," and "Astro Motel"--but also include some recognizable properties like the Hyatt Lodge in Palm Springs or Las Vegas' Boulevard Motel, which gets no love from the Flickr user: "This motel was built in 1963 and demolished in 2005. It was, by far, the ugliest hotel on the strip." Others were luckier, as most exist today as renovated Comfort Inns or something as such. Next time you roll through Yuba City, California or Michigan City, Indiana, keep your eye out for these relics; one of them could be a favorite designer haunt.
[Edgewood Motel, NY postcard: roadsidepictures]
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