Holiday Inn marks own golden jubilee

Holiday Inn, the largest hotel chain in the world, celebrates its 50th anniversary today. Founder Kemmons Wilson opened the first Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, on 1 August 1952.

Wilson, born on 5 January 1913 in Osceola, Arkansas, decided to build hotels after returning from a family holiday disappointed by the lack of value and service in family hotels. Wilson, who had five children, had been charged an extra $2 for each child.

He came up with the Holiday Inn name after watching the film of the same title, which starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

When the first Holiday Inn opened, bedrooms were priced at $4 for a single and $6 for a double. As Wilson had promised, it became the first hotel to offer free accommodation for children, in-house swimming pools, restaurants, phones and free parking.

With the first Holiday Inn barely open for business, Wilson set about building more and, on 19 August 1963, the company went public, trading stock for the first time. On the first day, buyers snapped up all 120,000 shares, providing the company with more than $1m.

By the 1970s, a Holiday Inn was being built somewhere every two-and-a-half days, and a bedroom every 20 minutes.

In 1989, Holiday Inn was sold to British company Bass, now known as Six Continents, for $2.23b. Today, Holiday Inn has 1,600 hotels worldwide and attracts more than 85 million guests each year.

by Louise Bozec
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 1-7 August 2002