Holiday Inns
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| Subsidiary of the InterContinental Hotels Group | |
| Industry | Hotels |
| Founded | August 1, 1952 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Founder | Kemmons Wilson |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
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Number of locations
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2,649 |
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Area served
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Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific |
| Services | Food services, lodging, conventions, meetings, timeshares |
| Parent | InterContinental Hotels Group |
| Divisions | Holiday Inn Express |
| Website | www |
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Footnotes / references |
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Holiday Inn is an American brand of hotels, and a subsidiary InterContinental Hotels Group. Founded as a U.S. motel chain, it has grown to be one of the world's largest hotel chains, with 2,649 active hotels as of September 30, 2016[update]. The hotel chain is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kemmons Wilson, a resident of Memphis, Tennessee, was inspired to build his own motel after being disappointed by poor quality and inconsistent roadside accommodation during a family road trip to Washington, D.C. The name "Holiday Inn" was coined by Wilson's architect Eddie Bluestein as a joke during construction of the first hotel, in reference to the 1942 Christmas-themed, musical film Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Their first hotel/motel opened in August 1952 as "Holiday Inn Hotel Courts" at 4925 Summer Avenue in Memphis, the main highway to Nashville. In the early 1990s, it was demolished, leaving behind a plaque commemorating the site.
Wilson partnered with Wallace E. Johnson to build additional motels on the roads entering Memphis. At the time Holiday Inn's corporate headquarters was in a converted plumbing shed owned by Johnson. In 1953, the company built its next three hotels which, along with their first hotel, covered the roads that led to Memphis. The second motel was built on U.S. 51 South. It was followed by two more in 1953, one on Highway 51 North, and another on U.S. 61. Upon Johnson's death in 1988, Wilson was quoted as saying, "The greatest man I ever knew died today. He was the greatest partner a man could ever have." What they started together, with Wilson later helming the project, became the Holiday Corporation, one of the world's largest hotel groups.
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Wikipedia