A year after it first announced a plan to refresh the Crowne Plaza brand, particularly in the Americas, IHG outlined details of the next phase of the Crowne Plaza initiative during the 2012 IHG Americas Investors & Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida.
IHG has said the revamped Crowne Plaza is targeting “strivers,” “new-school” business travelers looking for “purposeful quality” that is clean, crisp and modern rather than luxury for the sake of luxury, according to Janis Cannon, global brand portfolio leader for Crowne Plaza. “We have an opportunity to own the softer side of business, something we’re calling ‘relaxed formality,’” Cannon said.
The first phase of the Crowne Plaza refresh, dubbed “Freshen up,” has been started at all the brand’s hotels in the United States and Canada, according to Gina LaBarre, IHG’s vice president, brand delivery, for the Americas, and will be underway at all Crowne Plaza properties in the Americas by early next year. The first phase focused on six areas — quality, service, sleep, meetings, brand identity and Green Engage, IHG’s sustainability program — with specific initiatives including a new bedding program and sleep amenities, a new employee training program and a new meetings sales tool.
Second phase: ‘Move up’
The next phase of the Crowne Plaza refresh, titled “Move up,” focuses on four phases of the guest experience at hotels: arrival and check-in, the guestroom, F&B and fitness and recreation. All initiatives must build on things hotels are already doing, add no or low cost to operations, be easy to implement and execute and be relevant and valuable to guests, Cannon said.
For arrival, Crowne Plaza will test strategies such as mobile check-in and will employ a “lobby host” as a go-to person for guest needs ranging from bag check to business printing. “It puts guests in control,” Cannon said, calling the lobby host “more than a concierge,” since they are providing functional business services as well as a warm greeting.
In the guestroom, the brand is working toward better business connectivity with free Wi-Fi, one-click printing and international electrical outlets.
In F&B, Crowne Plaza is aiming to provide fresh menu items guaranteed to be ready in 15 minutes or less as well as a more consistent, fast, high-quality breakfast.
In the area of fitness and recreation, the brand will experiment with exercise mats and fitness videos guests can use in their rooms, running stations and water, fruit and juice in public areas.
“We will pilot everything before rolling it out,” Cannon said. “We want to make sure what we do is compelling for guests and profitable for owners.”
Crowne Plaza currently has 390 hotels in its portfolio worldwide, according to the IHG website. Removing hotels is part of the brand refresh, and LaBarre said 16 hotels were removed during the first half of 2012, with 25 more expected to exit over the next two to three years.