InterContinental Hotels Group has a very long and exciting history and probably the most colorful one among the business world and hospitality industry. The history can date back in 1777 with Bass Brewery, a UK based company who pioneers in brewery in Burton-on-Trent. Over the years it acquired some well-known regional breweries which marked as the spark of the business.

After the Second World War, jet-engine technology was just around the corner and, therefore, civilian air travel would soon be within the reach of millions of people around the globe.

In 1946, Juan T. Trippe, the chairman and founder of Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) with its headquarters in New York City anticipated the need for additional hotel accommodation and decided to create, what is today known as, the InterContinental Hotels Group. This also blossom the historical partnership of Pan Am who carries travelers, InterContinental Hotel that houses millions of guest and Bass Brewey who caters the hotel clients as the in-house lounge and bar.

Since 1933, in the early days of the first term of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the U.S. government had decided to encourage business and travel within Latin America. The predominant user of an InterContinental Hotel was the medium-income business traveler. In this sense, one-bedroom suites designed for extended stays and trunks full of clothing would become obsolete. Instead, the new traveler would need basic comforts: cleanliness, a good bed, reliable hot and potable water, a private bathroom, fast laundry, a valet service, safe food, telephone and wire service provided in the guest's own language, all at an affordable price for the business traveler and his company.

In the 1950s, the InterContinental Hotel Group developed rather very quickly. First in the Americas and, in the 1960s, it expanded to Europe, Asia and around the globe. In 1954, the group recorded its first, admittedly small, profit. Many of the hotels were purpose-built and avant garde at the time of their construction. Today, some of the architecture is less appealing, but for many years it was fashionable and InterContinental was considered the hotel of the future.The goal was to assist local developers in the design, construction and management/operations of individual hotels in important international gateway destinations and traffic centres. The first truly international hotel brand in the world, each hotel was designed to provide an experience uniquely and distinctly its own. The InterContinental brand became the symbol of glamour, sophistication and success that years later, continue to define international travel and commerce.

While Pan Am and InterContinental Hotels jointly dominates the Western air traveling and glamor in hotel accommodation, Klemmon Wilson a US based home-builder envisioned to provide inexpensive family accommodation for travelers within the United States. Wilson opened the first Holiday Inn on August 1, 1952 at 4941 Summer Avenue in the Berclair district of Memphis on the main road to and from Nashville. Though the actual hotel does not exist anymore, a historical sign marks where it once stood. In 1954, Wilson incorporated the chain with Wallace E. Johnson.

Wilson initially came up with the idea after a family road trip to Washington, D.C., during which he was disappointed by the quality and consistency provided by the roadside motels of that era. The name Holiday Inn was given to the original hotel by his architect Eddie Bluestein as a joke, in reference to the Bing Crosby movie.

In 1957, Wilson franchised the chain as Holiday Inn of America and it grew dramatically, following Wilson's original tenet that the properties should be standardized, clean, predictable, family-friendly and readily accessible to road travellers. By 1958, there were 50 locations across the country, 100 by 1959, 500 by 1964, and the 1000th Holiday Inn opened in San Antonio, Texas, in 1968. The chain dominated the motel market, leveraged its innovative Holidex reservation system by IBM, put considerable financial pressure on traditional hotels and set the standard for its competitors, like Ramada Inns, Quality Inn, Howard Johnson's, and Best Western. By June 1972, when Wilson was featured on the cover of Time magazine, there were over 1,400 Holiday Inn hotels worldwide. Reservation offices were created and were strategically positioned in different regions of the world available in different languages.

The company later branched into other related enterprises, including Medi-Center nursing homes, Continental Trailways, Delta Queen and various related enterprises. Wilson also later developed the Orange Lake Resort and Country Club near Orlando and a chain called Wilson World Hotels. The family of founder Kemmons Wilson still operates hotels as part of the Kemmons Wilson Companies of Memphis. Wilson retired from Holiday Inn in 1979.

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. In 1988, Holiday Corporation was purchased by UK-based Bass PLC (the 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.

In 1991, Bass launched Holiday Inn Express, a complementary brand in the limited service segment. In 1994, Bass launched Crowne Plaza - Originally branded as "Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza", the first United States Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Hotel was opened in Rockville, Maryland, in 1983, within a couple of years the brand was spun off as an independent chain (still owned at the time by Holiday Inn). The first Crowne Plaza Resort opened in Madeira, Portugal in 1999. Crowne Plaza once owned the Isle of Capri Casino resort chain. Today, the Crowne Plaza brand represents over 400 hotels globally, with 70,082 bedrooms, and an expanding 58 hotels in the pipeline.

In 1997, Bass created and launched a new hotel brand, Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn, entering the North American upscale extended stay market. The first Staybridge Suites opened in Alpharetta, Georgia, U.S. in 1998. In 2004, Staybridge Suites reached 75 hotels with addition of Eatontown, New Jersey. The brand reached this point of significant mass faster than its competitors. The brand currently has 17,899 rooms, 164 hotels, and another 140 hotels in the pipeline.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 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.

In January 2004, Candlewood Suites were acquired by IHG. This hotel chain started in 1995 by Jack Deboer, founder of the Residence Inn and co-founder of the Summerfield Suites chain. The first hotel was built on North Webb Road in Wichita, KS and opened in 1996. The brand's locations are extended-stay hotels focused primarily on rate-sensitive business travelers, also known as corporate transient travelers. From 1995 to 2003, Candlewood Hotel Company franchised and managed hotels throughout the US. As of September 30, 2007, there were 151 Candlewood Suites hotels currently open with 187 hotels in the pipeline, with an estimated 50 of these hotels opening during 2007.

To further gain edge from competitors, IHG lauched a contemporary hotel brand called Hotel Indigo. The first Hotel Indigo opened in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2004. It is promoted as being "the industry’s first branded boutique hotel experience." The concept includes a retail-inspired design concept with changes throughout the year to keep the hotel fresh, similar to the way retailers change their window displays. Guestrooms feature murals, area rugs, hard wood floors, oversized beds and pillows, fluffy duvets and slipcovers that will change periodically, while public spaces will be transformed seasonally through changing aromas, music, artwork, murals and directional signage depending on the season.

The latest addition to IHG Brands was the acquisition of All Nippon Airways hotels in Japan last December 2006. 31 of ANA hotels were re-branded following the names currently exisisting under the group, retaining the sign of ANA for quick recognition.

The IHG did not stop winning customers by simply providing world-class accommodation experience but also spent so much to retain patronage from clients. The very first hotel Loyalty program was also lauched to focus in fortified the business-customer relationship. Priority Club Rewards is one of the strongest frequent guest programs in the hospitality industry. It features an expanded selection of awards designed to appeal to the broadest audience of travelers.

The objective of the Frequency Marketing program is to provide InterContinental Hotels Group properties worldwide with the vehicle to build a brand loyalty by rewarding its most frequent guests, thereby increasing occupancy and profitability on an ongoing basis.

Holiday Inn had been going strong since 1952 when Kemmons Wilson opened up the first hotel of this brand in Memphis, TN, but something was still lacking. A need arose for a frequency program that would award guests for staying at Holiday Inn Hotels. From this need came the “Inner Circle” in 1977. While it was not a point-based program, members still received credits for every stay. In time, much like the clothes of this decade, the Inner Circle program became outdated and was soon replaced with Priority Club in 1983.

While the name was new, the program itself was not. There were still no points, and members continued to earn credit for their stays. Also, to cause further unrest, all the membership data from the Inner Circle was transferred to the Priority Club Program but none of the stay credits transferred.

Eventually the problems with the early version of Priority Club became too numerous to rectify. There was confusion over what a night was versus a stay. Members couldn’t tell the two apart and Priority Club ended up being the second largest issuer of Pan-Am flight vouchers to Europe. The situation was not looking good for us. Fortunately, a little clause in the terms and conditions allowed us to capture the situation, and after one year the Priority Club program was cancelled. Priority Club was re-launched immediately as an amenities only benefits program that lasted until 1986. For this reason, you will never see point activity prior to 1986.

It was around 1986 that other hotel chains began marketing frequency programs that awarded points for stays. To remain competitive Holiday Inn had to take action, and fast. This brought on yet another re-launch of the Priority Club program in October of 1986. It was structured much the same as the program is today, with the exclusion of the airline partners who weren’t added until August of 1993.

Priority Club Worldwide was off and running. The next major change came with the inclusion of the Crowne Plaza Preferred Program, in the spring of 1999. This merger brought with it an updated name for the club, Priority Club Worldwide. Not a huge change, but a significant one nonetheless.

The most recent re-launch took place on January 1, 2002. With a growing business we needed a program that fit the global nature of our members. A new name was given to the program, Priority Club Rewards. With the new name came some big changes in the elite levels and benefits therein. However the most significant change was the ability for members to transfer and purchase points.

Today, frequent travelers continue to recognize Priority Club® Rewards with numerous Freddie Awards for its wide variety of point earning and redemption opportunities, unique program offerings and outstanding promotions. In 2008, Celebrating 25 years of service, Priority Club Rewards received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” as an honor for pioneering the first hotel loyalty program and establishing a standard of excellence. And for the fourth consecutive year, the readers of Global Traveler magazine have named Priority Club® Rewards, the “Best Hotel Rewards Program in the World” in the annual GT Tested Awards.