According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Holiday Inn is losing 700 hotel properties from the brand, many because they cannot afford the updates that the Holiday Inn brand is requiring. The article sites new signs, furniture, bedding, carpet, bathroom tile, shower fixtures and TV sets among other improvements that come with a price tag that many of the older Holiday Inn properties cannot afford. Roughly 100 of the former Holiday Inns have switched to Choice Hotels International with brands like Comfort Inn, Quality Inn and Clarion and another 120 have moved to Wyndham International brands such as Ramada and Howard Johnson. The hotels still required updating, but not to the extent that Holiday Inn is requiring.

Bottom line: Of those hotels that were able to match the requirements of the Holiday Inn brand, they report that business has improved. Don Houseworth, who has owned a 156-room Holiday Inn in Blythevill, Ark. for 34 years said that, “history will prove they were right” to revamp the chain. Members of Priority Club Rewards can expect a more consistent hotel experience when staying at Holiday Inn and members of the loyalty programs of Choice and Wyndham will now have more properties from which to choose.