Service Cuts at Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Related Brands

by Gary Leff

It’s tough times for the hotel industry, and unsurprisingly hotel brands are looking to cut back on expenses. Intercontinental Hotels Group has announced a series of changes delaying large expenses for their hotels (.pdf) and also lowering service and amenity standards (.pdf) for their varous brands.

On the capital expense front, they’re delaying the date by which all hotels have to have flat screen TVs, and the date by which Crowne Plazas have to have more comfortable banquet chairs. They’re also pushing back the requirement for Holiday Inns to purchase new beds.

On the service expense front, all brands can skip leaving newspapers at each room door and make them available in lobbies instead.

Crowne Plazas won’t be required to have bellmen, can reduce restaurant hours and room service hours (eliminating lunch service), can offer fewer towels, and eliminate complimentary coffee in the lobby. Changes are similar at Hotel Indigo and Holiday Inns, although Holiday Inn Resorts still have to maintain lunch service.

Holiday Inn Express won’t have to offer cotton towels, and Candlewood Suites won’t have to staff their front desks overnight.

Good to know what to expect…  And I suppose it’s not nearly as severe as Embassy Suites actually eliminating suites.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Oh joy. How can a hotel not staff their front desks overnight? I’ve never seen or heard of that before.

  2. You probably haven’t stayed at too many roadside fleabgs, eh?

    I suppose a non-front desk staffer might respond to a bell placed at the desk (when they get around to it)….

  4. UH…stupid question here.

    What else can you make towels out of besides cotton? Polyester? Really I’m not being a snarky, I just can’t imagine drying off with anything but cotton, but maybe I already have an didn’t know it.

  5. With regard to the Candlewood 24 hour front desk staffing–>in the extended stay industry, a lot of the properties have on-call front desk services over night. IHG is probably motivated not only to save its properties some money, but also to keep them from reflagging.

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