Crowne Plaza Rolls out Flagship Hotels Around the World
Main Photo: The new Crowne Plaza flagship of the Americas, the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia, reopened in April 2019.
Date: July 2019
Location: Global
Name: Crowne Plaza Flagship hotels to be launched in the USA, Europe and China by early 2020
No. of Keys: 120,000
Brand Owner: IHG….The new Crowne Plaza flagship of the Americas, Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia, reopened in April following a renovation, while openings and renovations are slated for hotels in Paris; Hamburg, Germany; and London. Two additional flagship properties are scheduled to open in China by late 2019: Crowne Plaza Shenzhen Nanshan and Crowne Plaza Wuzhen.
Each flagship property will include new designs for public spaces and guestrooms, while some will have flexible lobby areas featuring on-demand meeting spaces.
In Europe, IHG collaborated with design studio Conran + Partners to create “more inspiring, practical” spaces. The Crowne Plaza Paris Republique is the first hotel to show off the new look. While maintaining its 19th-century architectural features, the hotel will have modern flexible spaces within its lobby. Curators are assembling work from local artists to enhance the overall design approach. The hotel will open before the renovations wrap.
The Crowne Plaza Hamburg – City Alster will debut a new, flexible lobby experience in October and will be the first Crowne Plaza Flagship in Europe to offer the WorkLife guestrooms.
Crowne Plaza London – Heathrow will undergo a renovation and will reopen as a new flagship in early 2020.
Launched in 2016, the $200 million Crowne Plaza Accelerate program was developed to update the brand’s hotels across the Americas. In late May, IHG launched the next multiyear phase of the program called Accelerate Ahead, touching on every aspect of the brand: “sales, marketing, design, F&B and service; driving performance and improving quality and consistency.”
The Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia completed its renovation in April 2019 following a nine-month closure and renovation. The hotel has reopened with 495 of the WorkLife guestrooms, three restaurants (designed in collaboration with sister IHG brand Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants) and 32,000 square feet of meeting space. The lobby uses the Plaza Workspace design, including two bookable-by-the-hour studios.
The Crowne Plaza Shenzhen WECC will be located near the Shenzhen Boa’an International Airport and next to Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Centre, which is expected to be the largest convention centre in the world. This hotel will be the first Crowne Plaza in Greater China applying the upgraded guestrooms and flexible public space design schemes. The hotel will have 1,400 square meters of meeting space with five meeting rooms, including a grand ballroom that seats up to 500 people.
The Crowne Plaza Wuzhen, on the other hand, will have 216 square meters of event space in three meeting rooms, and another 500-square-meter banquet room that seats up to 260. The new flagship hotel will be located near Hangzhou International Airport and close to the canal-filled village of Wuzhen West Scenic Zone and the World Internet Conference Center.
As of the end of March, there were 427 Crowne Plaza properties with nearly 120,000 rooms worldwide.
THPT Comment: Even the major brands within the likes of IHG need to refresh and re-enliven to keep competitive. 6 down, 421 to go!
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