InterContinental Hotels Group Plans Hotel Chain For Healthy Living

NEW YORK -- Holiday Inn's parent company is developing a new hotel brand aimed at travelers who want to work out and eat healthy on the road.

U.K.-based InterContinental Hotels Group PLC said Tuesday that it's planning to open the first Even hotels in early 2013. The hotels will have guest rooms with space to exercise and amenities such as hypoallergenic linens and healthier food options.

The mid-priced chain will have large gyms behind the front desk, as well as a "marketplace" in the lobby that will offer food including smoothies, soups and salads.

Rooms will have traditional features that can also be used to work out, like a weight bench that's replaced a luggage rack at the foot of the bed, or a coat rack that's built strong enough to double as a pull-up bar. Rooms will also have an exercise mat, LED dimmers and anti-bacterial wipes. They're designed to let in more natural light than standard rooms and provide more space to lay out a yoga mat or do aerobics.

IHG will spend $150 million to kick off the brand by buying other hotels and rebranding them. The company, which also operates Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza and Candlewood Suites, expects to sign franchise deals for 100 Even hotels within the next five years. The first hotels are expected to be in big markets – Los Angeles and San Francisco in the West and New York, Boston and Washington D.C. in the East. IHG plans to announce the location of the first Even hotel this spring.

Rooms will be more expensive than Holiday Inn but will vary widely depending on the location, IHG CEO Richard Solomons said in an interview with The Associated Press. Solomons said the company plans to eventually expand the brand outside the U.S.

The idea for the new hotel brand came from customer feedback. Many lamented that they "fall off the wagon" while traveling and want a way to stay healthy while on business trips or vacations, Solomons said.

Comments

[seajewel]

02:35 PM on 03/03/2012

Improvement is always welcome but I don't care about pull up bars and workout benches. Yoga mat??? I'm not using someone else's yoga mat. I think that idea will bomb.

How about clean high quality filtered or restructured water to drink and bathe in? Organic and vegan options. Access to fresh air or filtered air in those stuff places. Get rid of all the chemicals they bombard us with cleaning the place like RiverDivine mentioned below and most importantly

A FRESH DUVET COVER EVERY TIME. Who knows what the people before me did on those things.

[riverdivine]

02:07 PM on 03/01/2012

How about instead of improved workout rooms, and hypoallergenic linens (whatever silly marketing ploy that might be)- these large hotel chains stop spraying cancer-causing, toxic, 'cleaing' products in the air, on the furniture, and in the carpet. As one who used to NOT be chemically sensitive, but now I am, as a result of travelling alot, and having no choice but to stay in these toxic rooms....I did alot of research. The majority of these cleaning products that are liberally used in chain hotels negatively affect the nervous system, the respiratory system, suppress immunity, and are clearly linked to DNA mutations- the development of cancer. Why don't these corporations make some courageous changes that are actually useful, and actually "healthy", for their patrons, instead of these cheap marketing tactics- which benefit no one but hotels/corp execs who use these marketing tactics as an excuse to raises their rates. Consumers should raise hell, and demand a healthy environment.

[seajewel]

02:25 PM on 03/03/2012

That's absolutely right!!

[norkas]

01:20 PM on 02/29/2012

Sure and when I work out the sweat rolls of my body. Have they thought about this at all . The rooms will have to be very soundproof I have seen people make noises like MOOSE CALLS and that can be distracting.

[Iatros78]

10:22 AM on 02/29/2012

I'm assuming these hotels will be 100% smoke free, right?

[Kingfam480]

01:36 AM on 02/29/2012

As an IHG employee this will be very nice. Guests have been asking for awhile now for something like this.

[qtpeye46]

05:14 PM on 07/29/2012

roflmao

[atlasusa]

07:46 PM on 02/28/2012

It's about time.
For years I have been suggesting to hotels, especially those with complimentary breakfast, to regularly include a selection of healthy options for their guests. Most offer one, maybe two measly choices and it makes traveling unpleasant. I look forward to this new lodging brand and hope other chains follow suit.