As a child one of my fondest travel memories was staying at a HoliDome, a Holiday Inn that featured a "dome" over the pool area, for the weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with my parents and younger brother. The dome area not only had a pool and hot-tube, it also featured a small mini-golf area, a huge game room, pool table, and a ping pong table. As a kid, this was the best hotel ever! My brother and I were impressed as only kids could be when mom and dad ordered us hot fudge sundaes by the pool. As I re-call, we didn't wait the customary 45 minutes to jump into the pool after we filled our bellies with ice-cream.
I thought of this experience as I read a recent article that mentioned the Holiday Inn brand was changing their iconic signage with new streamlined signage. Below is an example of the new signage with Andrew Cosslett, Chief Executive of InterContinental Hotels Group. Also included below is a rendering of the classic Holiday sign.
A few interesting and fascinating facts:
- The brand was established in 1952, and currently has 3125 hotels worldwide.
- The brand was first to offer free ice and telephones in every room.
- Around the world, Holiday Inn is opening a hotel a day and signing two.
- Holiday Inn has a development pipeline of more than 110,000 rooms (942 hotels).
- Around the world, three people check into a Holiday Inn every second.
- Every night more than 300,000 people stay at a Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express.
- Holiday Inn has been mentioned in song lyrics by Elton John and rappers Snoop Dog and Chingy.
- Personally, I've stayed at a Holiday Inn product 5 times over the past 5 years. I've eaten an average of 3 cinnamon rolls at the free breakfast on each of my 1 night stays. :-) yum!
