Now You’re Winning Big!

69IHG® Visit IHG® Brand Central Return to: • Introduction• Design toolkit• Tone of voice

• Identity in action• Sign-off process• Contacts

Our hotelsOur beloved hotel brands span the globe. From the hustle and bustle of New York City to the tranquil ocean fronts of Phukhet, IHG® properties cater to unique hotel and guest experiences.

Our iconic buildings celebrate the authentic heritage of our communities through thoughtful design and local accents.

Design toolkit: Photography

What’s Inside

IHG is one of the world’s leading and largest hotel companies — with a long standing history of innovation and passion towards building Great Hotels, Guests Love.

Travel is one of the largest industries in the world — and InterContinental Hotels Group is one of the largest players in that industry, beginning with the iconic Holiday Inn brand of hotels in 1963.

IHG is a global enterprise: meaning that your prospects are global. For travel. For service. For experience.

Working for IHG your career options will be astonishing, your travel options exciting, and your opportunities for service satisfying.

Our AmbitionAbout IHG

About the CompanyOur Winning Ways

The Possibilities of TravelAbout the Job The Possibilities of TravelAbout the Job

The Possibilities of TravelAbout the Job Our GuestsYou Are a Problem Solver

About the CompanyOur Winning Ways

The Possibilities of TravelAbout the Job Our Place in the MarketSocial Media

Brand Summary

Why Customers Come Back

The Rewards of Loyalty

#1 FOR GUESTSWe will deliver a great guest experience across our family of brands.Our brands will be tailored to meet the needs of our guests, whatever the occasion. We will continue to innovate and develop our brands, and strive for them to be consistently preferred.

Our Ambitionis to be

#1 FOR OWNERSWe deliver stronger returns on investment by focusing on the fundamentals of our business, thoroughly embedding initiatives, and improving operational efficiency.

This means industry-leading returns on investment — and compelling opportunities for existing and prospective owners.

Scan the QR Code or click here to see a video overview of our company.

#1 FOR COLLEAGUESCreating a Winning Culture . . . We will create a Winning Culture in which we never accept second best from ourselves or from each other.

We will be recognised as te #1 employer in the hotel industry and en employer of choice globally.

We will ensure our people are driven to deliver the best results against clearly defined plans and goals which directly support our Ambition to be #1.

How we behave

We keep our promises and we don’t

let people down.

We make decisions . . . even

when they’re difficult.

We work hard to develop excellent

working relationships.

We think about what we do and

how it might affect others.

We are respectful of all cultures. We look to learn from

others.

We play an active role in the

communities in which we operate.

IHG is ambitious to win in the hotel marketplace by investing in people — encouraging people — and showing employees Ways to Win in the market, and in their careers.

We treat people as individuals.

We look and listen for the little things that

make a difference.

We put our hearts into learning new

things.

We always look for ways to improve.

Scan the QR Code or click

here and use this link to explore

more about our Winning

Ways!

Every successful group has a clearly defined mission and purpose.

Reservations and Customer Care is no different. Our mission statement also defines our value proposition to our stakeholders. It is what we aim to do and strive to accomplish.

Deliver a BrandHearted customer experience through a world class call center operation that maximizes

profitable revenue, optimizes cost of sale, promotes brand preference, and builds customer loyalty. What do we do?

Put simply: we solve travel problems, in real time, for travelers all over the world.

People are occasionally surprised that call, or contact, centers still exist. The rapid growthof the web, the mass appeal of social media platforms, and smart phones being capable ofmore tasks than ever before it would seem that necessity for a voice driven platform would bedeclining considerably. However the voice platform continues to be a powerful one, especiallyfor IHG: as you can see from the statistics listed here.

8

John Bowden is the Vice President of Global Reservations and Customer Care

Scan the QR Code or clickthe video icon to see how IHGworks to create rewardingrelationships for life.

Professional booking and supportM ost lodging is now booked through the Internet, so an effective voice channel needs to offer something more than just a pair of hands typing on a keyboard.A great hotel is the happy solution to a travel problem: “Where will I stay when I get there?”Conducting sales conversations, you are part of that solution. Even though there are many ways to book a room using modern technology, as long as people still want to talk to people, the voice channel for hotel booking will remain relevant.More than just booking hotel rooms, you are part of creating customers for life: part of a team that sustains our loyalty objectives (see How Do We Create Loyalty? below) — quality objectives through the Quality Team — and enduring guest satisfaction through Guest Relations.

The Nature of the JobYou Are a Problem Solver.

The Guest Journey has five stages: Dream, Plan, Book, Stay, and Share.

Everyone who has done trip planning — no matter how long the journey, or how far — understands the calculus of putting together a successful trip away from home.

The possibilities are not endless of course:

AIRPLANEAUTOMOBILE

OX CARTCANOETRAIN

BUSWALK

BICYCLESKATEBOARD

HOTELAUTOMOBILECOUCHSURF

VIADUCTFOXHOLEFRIEND

RELATIVEDUMPSTER

MUSEUMPARK

BALL GAMECONCERT

TOURROMANCE

STREET FOODFINE DININGSHOPPING

how toget there

+ where to stay+ amazingexperiences= great trip

how toget there

+ where to stay+ amazingexperiences = great trip

Getting back to competition between hotels: it is fierce, and getting worse. As always, strong competition will tend to drive prices down — even while you are trying to book room rates that allow a hotel to pay its bills — and make a profit.

What you are offering in response to the question “How Much?” is Confidence and Value — the travelers’ perception that they are on their way to a Great Hotel Experience at a rate that makes sense to them.

Not the “rock bottom” price.

Sleeping in the street, in a cardboard box, might be free. Sleeping in a car might be free. Sleeping on a park bench might be free.

None of these things express Value.

What you are offering is a guaranteed Great Hotel Experience, at a rate that reflects Value.

The vast majority of your callers will want to be close to a popular destination. Hotel owners know this, so hotels tend to cluster around places which are

popular.

All the red dots on this map of Berlin represent hotels. This is the kind of competition that hotel companies face every day.

Several of these red dots are IHG properties — the brands you represent — so in this case (as in any other case) you are always making strong arguments for why an IHG hotel is the best option.

Where

You have to be aware of the details of the calendar.

Strange little details: like the fact that, in most years, the days of the week for each numerical date are the same in February and in March. This makes booking errors for these months especially easy.

Hotels which cater to business travelers often decrease room rates during weekendsd — and increase them again during weekdays.

Rates can also vary according to season. If a hotel is on the beach, room rates will be higher in summer than in winter. Rooms will be more expensive during Spring Break than they will be at Thanksgiving.

When

How Many

How Much

Do you have rooms big enough for the number of people who want to stay in the same space?

You always have to ask. And it is probable that a hotel charges a little extra if a room is occupied by more than two people.

People traveling to an unfamiliar place cannot stay in a burrow, or in a tree.

This means that — on every call — you are doing your best to solve the “Where to Stay” part of the travel equation for the traveler you are talking to.

You Are a Problem Solver

Solving the Lodging Problem

These people travel as part of their jobs. They know hotels because they have stayed in a lot of them.

When a flight attendant finishes work, she will typically be far away from home: in a hotel. The airline pays a discounted “crew” rate for her stay. We call this an Industry Rate — a discounted price for people working in the travel industry.

A music executive stays at a Corporate rate, in luxury hotels, as a perk of his job. He tends to stay in places that give him Very Special Treatment.

A corporate trainer may be in an unfamiliar city for weeks — or even months. She wants a hotel that is more like an efficiency apartment: where she can do some of her own cooking, and where the living area is distinct from the bedroom.

Maybe a guy just starts off with a backpack...a dream...and not much cash. Leisure travelers are always paying for lodging out of their own pockets — so they tend to respond strongly to the idea of Value — and Consistency. Everything else about their journeys is unfamiliar: so they like a recognized Brand at a price that seems “right”.

The same can be said of families: who are also looking for Value. In addition, they appreciate kid-friendly environments.

Hotels depend on groups, special events, and meetings for a lot of their revenue.The dates are set — the facilities are booked — and the rooms set aside in advance: so these travelers have been told what kind of rooms are available, and the nightly rates they should be getting.

Corporate

Groups

Here are some types of travelers you will grow to recognize.

The longer you do the job of IHG Voice Sales Specialist, the more recognizable these “segments” will be.

Looking through the IHG Brands, in the following pages, you will be able to see how the logic of the Brands dovetails with these

Our Guests

Recreation

Sharing....People talk about their travels because, for most people, travel is not a routine. Even for people who do travel routinely, there are unusual travel stories they want to share.

The point being: each caller is unique. You never know who you will be talking to next. It might be someone on the way to someplace special.

“After my meetings are over I always go down to the hotel bar for a drink before dinner. Last time I was there, a clown — full makeup, you understand — comes in after me, gets a drink, sits there for a while, and then leaves. I ask the bartender: ‘What was that?’ And he says: ‘That’s a clown. You’ve never seen a clown?’”

“Once the re-enactment started, the battle seemed so real that I felt like I wanted to get into the fight.

When I looked around I saw a musket on the ground, and I thought: ‘Well — why not?’

Then a kid in one of the old uniforms walks up to me and says: ‘Can I have my rifle back, please?’”

“Nothing was going in or out of the airport, the weather was so bad. I told them that there was a wedding that I couldn’t miss: but they just patted me on the head and put me in the airport hotel overnight. When I finally got a flight, I had to walk my daughter down the aisle in the suit I’d worn on the plane, since there was no time to change before I got to the church.”

“The hotel’s up a little higher than the street, so you don’t really know what the view is like until you get up to the room.

Then we go out on the balcony — with a little bit of a wind blowing — and I tell my wife: ‘This must be heaven’.

Then she says: ‘Sure looks like it.’”

....On Social MediaTravel used to be a matter of just conversation. Talk around the office. Stories between family members. The scope of delight (or disappointment) quite small.

Now travel reporting is global. And all the reports are in the voice of the traveler. They can be read anywhere in the world, by anyone — and travelers make decisions based on the experiences of total strangers.

Level of Offerings

Pric

e

C lick on any of the brand logos to visit the brand’s web site.

Our Place in the MarketWith all these different needs in mind, each of the major hotel companies creates a brand spectrum.

As you might expect, as the room-rate-per-night increases (the Price) the Level of Service also increases — most travelers understand that “you get what you pay for”.

Because IHG Brands always offer Value, and Consistency (a Great Experience to Love) InterContinental has no properties rated lower than 3-stars.

But, within this range, there is quite a bit of variation.

How

we

defin

e ou

r bra

nds?

Boutique & Lifestyle brands are the fastest growing segment today within the hospitality industry. These brands appeal to those who are paying for an experience which reflects a desirable or aspirational lifestyle.

These brands are often luxury brands or often have higher star-ratings due to the premium services and amenities offered such as concierge, premium bedding, on-property spas and destination restaurants.

EVEN Hotels as an example appeals to those to aspire to maintain wellness wherever their travels may take them.

InterContinental hotels caters to those who enjoy the finer things in life through deeply authentic travel experiences across six continents.

Kimpton and Hotel Indigo brands are appealing to guests who desire something different through inspiring design and deeply personalized service to satisfy their expectations.

Upscale brands are de-sirable for those seek-ing a full-service hotel experience with an emphasis on preferred features and amenities guaranteed in most brands of this nature.

These features include valet parking, bell staff, restaurants, lounges, expanded business services and turn-down service.

Upscale brands target business travelers who value the convenience of all these amenities being readily available.

These hotels are also acceptable for leisure travelers who want a step-up from a stan-dard hotel experience.

Midscale hotel brands such as Holiday Inn pioneered the lodging industry and continue to be the most popular and sought after brands in the industry.

Why you might ask? Because these brands are comfortable, familiar and offer just enough but not too much at the same time. Guests seeking midscale brands are sometimes value conscious but they are also willing to pay for something they derive value from.

Midscale guests could be solo-business travelers or families traveling on leisure. These guests are generally no-frills but also appreciate simple conveniences such as a full-service restaurant, swimming pools and laundry facilities common in full-service hotels.

Holiday Inn Express is a limited service hotel as there is no on-site restaurant however a complimentary hot breakfast bar is offered to guests.

Extended stay brands are just that, meant for guests who will be needing accommodations for an extended stay period– usually 7 or more nights.

These brands feel more like apart-ments and are con-sidered suites due to the larger room sizes and amenities.

Full-kitchens includ-ing full-size refrigera-tors, stovetops, pots and pans, dishwash-ers, microwaves are all standard among many other features to help our guests make the most of their long stays away from home.

All brands seek to build strong relationships with their customers which leads to a lifelong stream of loyalty. We leverage our IHG Rewards Club brand to do just that because it’s all about the people, not about the points.

Through IHG Rewards Club we strengthen the relationship we have with our guests by offering them points or miles based on their spend as a token of our appreciation.

Members benefits include free wi-fi Internet access, member exclusive rates and complimentary newspapers during their stays with us. Members are additionally recognized and rewarded through everything else we offer them.

Boutique & Lifestyle Upscale Midscale Extended Relationship

Why Customers Come Back

“The hotel is in a good area. I never feel anxious going into the neighborhood....”

“The rooms are always clean and well-equipped....”

“It’s the fastest Internet I’ve had in a hotel....”

“I always get the same rate. I can depend on it....”

“There’s no extra charge for having my dog in the room....”

“The loyalty program is administered fairly, and I see tangible benefits from it....”

We are all consumers: so we all understand how a business — large or small — earns our loyalty. “Loyalty” is an emotion, and much of consumer loyalty is associated with emotional touchpoints:

Of course, consumer loyalty is also associated with practical things:

“This brand of hotel is the same as the first hotel I ever stayed at when I was traveling with my family....”

“This brand is the same as the hotel where we spent our honeymoon....”

“This hotel is my first choice when I go to Chicago on business....”

“This hotel always treats me like I’m, someone important....”

72IHG® Visit IHG® Brand Central Return to: • Introduction• Design toolkit• Tone of voice

• Identity in action• Sign-off process• Contacts

Our guestsShowcase our guests enjoying a variety of activities in our hotels. For example, a family may make use of amenities like a pool or complimentary breakfast in the lobby. Or, a business traveler may use the business center or the desk in a hotel room.

Considerations for styling, attire, and props should be made on a guest-by-guest basis. Use relevant target audience information to inspire the relevant clothing and props.

Be sure wardrobe and styling are reflective of the geographic market being photographed.

Guests should be seen in an optimistic and positive state of mind. They can appear smiling (ranging from a wide smile to closed-lip), but that isn’t required at all times. When appropriate, a guest can be portrayed as focused or in a contemplative state, but never unhappy.

Design toolkit: Photography

71IHG® Visit IHG® Brand Central Return to: • Introduction• Design toolkit• Tone of voice

• Identity in action• Sign-off process• Contacts

Our guestsGuests are at the heart of what we do. The more we feature guests when showcasing our hotels, the better we can demonstrate true hospitality.

We capture the moments of their stay that make it special — from check-in to checkout.

Guests should be shown within the property, interacting with other guests, colleagues or enjoying the hotel experience.

Design toolkit: Photography

How Do We Encourage Loyalty?

L iterally.

We can literally count the different ways in which the members of our loyalty program—IHG Club Rewards—are rewarded.

A hotel loyalty program is intended to build long term bonds with guests—and our program is the best one in the hotel industry.

As the program becomes more valuable to them, members become more “brand aware”: remembering what hotels are part of our brand umbrella and actively looking for opportunities to stay with us.

Ideally, for any city a Rewards Club member is visiting, they should always be looking for our brands first.

Let Us Count the Ways....

To Do Before Class

Click on the link, or scan the code, to go to the IHG Rewards Club web site: where you can establish a membership for yourself — complete with a unique, 9-digit membership number that you will need when you start the first day of class.

Just click on the word Join in the gray bar at the top to enroll.

To Do Before Class

Use the Get Rewarded link: taking some time to research the “payoffs” for membership.

What is a Reward Night?

What can you get with a million points?

Can points be converted into frequent flyer miles?

Can you give points to someone else?

You are the Voice of IHG!