1950s–1970s Kemmons Wilson, a resident of
Memphis, Tennessee, was inspired to build a motel after being disappointed by the poor quality of roadside accommodations during a family
road trip to
Washington, D.C. During the construction, the name "Holiday Inn" was coined by Wilson's architect Eddie Bluestein as a joking reference to the 1942
musical film Holiday Inn. Their first hotel/motel opened in August 1952 as "Holiday Inn Hotel Courts" at 4941 Summer Avenue in Memphis, then the main highway (U.S. Hwy. 64/70/79) to
Nashville. It was demolished in 1994. Wilson partnered with Wallace E. Johnson to build additional
motels on the roads entering Memphis. In 1953, three more Holiday Inns were built on
U.S. 51 South, Highway 51 North, and
U.S. 61. By 1957 there were 30 Holiday Inns, and Wilson began marketing the chain as "Holiday Inn of America". There were 50 locations across the US by 1958, 100 by 1959, 500 by 1964, and 1000 in 1968. A number of early locations were
franchised, some by the Albert Pick corporation of
Chicago. Because a number of Albert Pick franchisees were recommending customers to other Albert Pick hotels instead of to Holiday Inn, the Holiday Inn corporation enacted a rule that franchisees could not own locations of another hotel as well as a Holiday Inn. This led to the Albert Pick-franchised locations exiting the brand by the end of the 1950s. The rule on franchising remained until 1973, when a franchisee was denied the rights to build a location in
Newark, New Jersey because of this rule; the
United States District Court thus declared the rule a violation of a United States anti-
monopoly law. In 1965, the chain launched Holidex, a centralized reservation system where a visitor to any Holiday Inn could obtain reservations, by
teleprinter, for any other Holiday Inn location. Promoting itself as "your host from coast to coast", Holiday Inn added a call center after
AT&T's introduction of 800
toll-free telephone number service in 1967. Holiday Inn opened their first
campground, Trav-L-Park, in
Angola, Indiana, in 1970. Branded as "The Nation's Innkeeper", the chain put considerable financial pressure on traditional motels and hotels, setting the standard for competitors like
Ramada Inn,
Quality Inn,
Howard Johnson's, and
Best Western. By June 1972, with over 1,400 Holiday Inns worldwide, Wilson was featured on the cover of
Time magazine and the franchise's motto became "The World's Innkeeper". In 1963, Holiday Inn signed a long-term deal with
Gulf Oil where it agreed to accept Gulf credit cards to charge food and lodging at all of its American and Canadian hotels, in return for Gulf building
service stations on many Holiday Inn properties, particularly near major U.S. and Interstate highways. The arrangement was copied by competing lodging chains and major oil companies during the mid-to-late 1960s, but fell out of favor following the
1973 oil crisis. The Gulf/Holiday Inn arrangement ended around 1982. In 1969, Holiday Inns acquired TCO Industries, the holding company for what is now
Trailways Transportation System, and the
ocean liner and cargo shipping company
Delta Shipping. In 1971, the company constructed the Holiday Inn University and Conference Center, a teaching hotel for training new employees, in
Olive Branch, Mississippi. In 1973, the company built the
Olive Branch Airport north of the university as a home base for its corporate aircraft. In 1979, the company sold Trailway Transportation System. It is said that the sign's colors were selected because they were favorites of Wilson's mother. In 1982, following Wilson's departure, the Holiday Inn board of directors phased out the "Great Sign" in favor of a cheaper back-lit sign; Wilson considered it "the worst mistake they ever made". He loved the "Great Sign" so much that it was engraved on his tombstone, with the marquee reading "FOUNDER" and the arrow aimed at his name. The majority of the signs were scrapped but working examples are owned by the
American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio,
The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and a private collector in Park Hills, Kentucky.
1980s–1990s Although still a healthy company, changing business conditions and demographics saw Holiday Inn lose its market dominance in the 1980s. Holiday Inns, Inc. was renamed "Holiday Corporation" in 1985 to reflect the growth of the company's brands, including
Harrah's Entertainment,
Embassy Suites Hotels,
Crowne Plaza,
Homewood Suites, and
Hampton Inn. In 1988, Holiday Corporation was purchased by UK-based
Bass PLC (then owners of the
Bass beer brand), followed by the remaining domestic Holiday Inn hotels in 1990, when founder Wilson sold his interest, after which the hotel group was known as Holiday Inn Worldwide. The remainder of Holiday Corporation (including the
Embassy Suites Hotels,
Homewood Suites, and
Hampton Inn brands) was spun off to shareholders as
Promus Companies Incorporated. In 1990, Bass launched Holiday Inn Express, a complementary brand in the limited service segment. In 1997, Bass created and launched a new hotel brand,
Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn, entering the North American upscale extended stay market. In March 1998, Bass acquired the
InterContinental brand, expanding into the luxury hotel market. In 2000 Bass sold its brewing assets (and the rights to the Bass name) and changed its name to
Six Continents PLC.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) was created in 2003 after Six Continents split into two daughter companies:
Mitchells & Butlers PLC to handle restaurant assets, and IHG to focus on soft drinks and hotels, including the Holiday Inn brand. The brand name Holiday Inn is now owned by IHG, which in turn licenses the name to franchisees and third parties who operate hotels under management agreements. In 1999, the hotel that changed into the
Nickelodeon Suites Resort Orlando in 2005, opened, called "Holiday Inn".
Development since 2000 The Wall Street Journal reported in 2002 that the company, led by Ravi Saligram, was producing a new 130-room "Next Generation" prototype hotel to rebuild the brand. It would include a bistro-like restaurant and an indoor pool. The first of these prototype hotels, the Holiday Inn Gwinnett Center, was built in
Duluth, Georgia, in 2003. In 2008,
Mitchells and Butlers sold off 21 Holiday Inn hotels in exchange for 44 standalone pubs to
Whitbread. In September 2008, IHG announced the creation of a new timeshare brand, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, a strategic alliance with The Family of Orange Lake Resorts. On October 24, 2007, IHG announced a worldwide relaunch of the Holiday Inn brand, which spelled trouble for the remaining motels. The relaunch was "focused on delivering consistently best in class service and physical quality levels, including a redesigned welcome experience [and] signature bedding and bathroom products". The first relaunched Holiday Inn opened in the U.S. in spring 2008. Currently there are more than 2,500 relaunched Holiday Inn brand hotels around the world, and the Holiday Inn global brand relaunch process was completed by the end of 2010. By then, the majority of the HI motels were removed from the chain, with a few exceptions. (In the 1980s and 1990s, HI hotels were built alongside the motel properties [i.e. Baton Rouge, Louisiana] in order to provide more amenities and newer rooms.) When the relaunch occurred, these motels were either demolished or closed off, even if a full-service hotel was already on site. Today, fewer than 10 original Holiday Inn motels still operate, others having been replaced by newer Holiday Inn Express locations or having switched to other chains. In August 2012, the chain celebrated its 60th anniversary. In 2024, IHG announced a vast expansion of the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands in
Germany as part of a franchise and cooperation agreement with German hotel operator
Novum Hospitality which in turn will rebrand the majority of their currently over 100 properties into Holiday Inn, including a newly created sub-brand named
Holiday Inn - the niu. ==Brands==