IHG Hotels & Resorts last week launched an updated online reservation tool with broadened booking features and fee-based personalization capabilities.
According to the hotel company, as part of the “redesigned booking flow,” users can choose individual room attributes, including pre-paid parking, food and beverage credits, room floor, specific view and in-room amenities. Some attributes will include an additional fee.
Room attribute capabilities now are available at more than 5,000 IHG hotels, and more than 100 hotels will have “stay enhancements” live by the end of 2023, the company said in a statement.
IHG’s updated booking capabilities—in collaboration with technology partner Amadeus—are part of a larger digitization overhaul by the company, following IHG’s recent companywide online refresh. According to IHG, more than 80 percent of the company’s hotels have new websites, and the company continues to update its “newly relaunched” IHG One Rewards mobile app.
Part of IHG’s online overhaul includes the standardization of room-type descriptions. For example, “a Holiday Inn brand premium room type is always 15 percent larger than a standard room type,” the company said.
“The innovative technology that powers this level of customization for IHG’s guests has allowed us to fully reimagine the booking experience, adding greater choice through the convenience of the platform,” IHG Hotels & Resorts chief commercial and technology officer George Turner said in a statement.
These upgrades also are beneficial to the hotel company, as, on average, “when a guest purchases an attribute for their stay, hotels see additional revenue of $22 per night for that booking, with Luxury & Lifestyle brands seeing up to $41 of additional per night revenue for upsell bookings,” according to IHG.
