Hospitality Organisation Marketing: of Crowne Plaza - Case Study Example

The paper "Hospitality Organisation Marketing: Case of Crowne Plaza" is an excellent example of a case study on marketing. The Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) is a multinational hotel company from Britain whose headquarters is in Denham in the UK (Hephaestus Books 2011). IHG happens to be the largest company on the globe with 646,000 as found in January 2010. It has more than 4,500 hotels spread out in 100 countries. Some of its brands are Crowne Plaza, Stay bridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Even, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn Express, and Hualuxe. Bout 3,900 hotels under its umbrella are operated on the basis of franchise agreements. 52 of them are under company management although they have separate ownership while 10 are owned directly by the company. InterContinental Hotels as a company is primarily listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is part of the FTSE 100 Index. Secondarily it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Hotel Club, 2013).

The InterContinental Hotels Group started in 1777 with the establishment of the Bass Brewery by William Bass in Burton upon Trent. The red triangle trademark was the very first to be registered within the UK in 1876. The UK government’s move of limiting the number of pubs brewers could have direct ownership over caused Bass to make investments in small hotel lines. In the year 1990, the group purchased the Holiday Inn International which was owned by Kemmons Wilson and spread to North America. The founder of Pan American Airways Juan Troupe set up the InterContinental brand as a part of Pan Am and he launched the first hotel in Brazil, specifically in Belem in 1946. In 1981, InterContinental Hotels Corporation as the holding company was sold to Grand Metropolitan based in the United Kingdom. As the Grand Metropolitan concentrated on its fundamental business and invested more into fast food by purchasing Burger King, it disposed of off the InterContinental Hotels Group in 1988 to Saison Group which was based in Japan. In 1988, Saison Group also sold the IHG to Bass which was a brewery from Britain. The brewery started in 1977 with William Bass (Hotel Club, 2013).

In the year 2000 Bass disposed of its assets formerly used for brewing as well as the Bass name rights for £2.3 billion to Interbrew, a brewer from Belgium. Upon this sale, its name was changed to Six Continents. In 2003, there was a split in the Six Continents which resulted in the formation of the InterContinental Hotels Group which concentrated on soft drinks and hotels while Mitchells &Butlers took up the restaurant assets. InterContinental Hotels Group maintained Britvic which dealt in soft drinks up to December 2005. Through an Initial Public Offer, the IHG sold off its share in the company (Hotel Club, 2013).

IHG does the work of management of those hotels that are under the ownership of other parties as well as franchising hotel brands. The group sells expertise in the management of hotels, marketing, and systems.