InterContinental

File:Praça da república e grande hotel 1949, em Belém do Pará.jpg

File:InterContinental Vienna Stadtpark view.jpg, the oldest continuously operating member of the chain, since 1964]]

File:A Vigadó és a Hotel Duna Intercontinental a budai alsó rakpartról nézve. Fortepan 84826.jpg

In 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Juan Trippe, President of Pan Am, discussed their concern for Latin America's need for development funds at a White House breakfast. The two men thought that one way to attract businessmen and tourists would be to offer luxury hotels in key cities.{{cite web |url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/intercontinental-hotel-75-years/index.html |title=The inside story of InterContinental Hotels' quest to export 1960s American glamor to the world |last=Street |first=Francesca |publisher=Cable News Network |date=December 8, 2021 |website=CNN |access-date=December 9, 2021}} Trippe contacted Statler Hotels' chief executive H.B. Callis, and his company undertook a feasibility study, but the company decided the program would be too expensive. Trippe contacted multiple other US hotel chains, but none showed interest. Roosevelt requested that Pan Am take the lead in developing 5000 hotel rooms in Latin America, with a projected cost of $50,000,000. Pan Am's profit that year was only $3 million, so a $25,000,000 line of credit was arranged for Pan Am with the Export–Import Bank of the United States.{{cite book |last=Potter |first=James E. |author-link= |date=1996 |title=A Room With A World View: 50 Years of Inter-Continental Hotels and Its People: 1946-1996 |url= |location=London |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |page= |isbn=0297-83578-5}} Trippe agreed to form a subsidiary company to foster the implementation of the idea. The hotels would also serve to accommodate Pan Am crews and passengers in destinations where upscale hotels were not yet present.

On 4 April 1946, the International Hotels Corporation was founded, with Pan Am owning a 100% stake. Throughout 1946, company executives traveled to cities across Latin America on fact-finding trips to scout potential locations. In early 1947, Pan Am decided that Intercontinental Hotels Corporation would more accurately reflect the chain's eventual global goals for expansion, and the company was renamed. The company signed its first lease that year, for the partially-completed Hotel Victoria Plaza in Montevideo, Uruguay. Construction there would end up continuing for more than five years. Throughout 1948, more locations were scouted, and in early 1949 agreements were signed for properties in Caracas and Maracaibo, Venezuela.

On 1 May 1949, Intercontinental assumed operation of its first hotel, the 85-room Grande Hotel, in Belém, Brazil, which had been constructed in the early 20th Century.{{cite web | url=https://www.ihgplc.com/en/news-and-media/news-releases/2021/growing-up-at-the-grande-living-at-the-worlds-first-intercontinental-hotel | title=Growing up at the Grande: Living at the world's first InterContinental hotel }} On 1 January 1950, Intercontinental assumed operation of its second hotel, the Hotel Carrera, in Santiago, Chile.{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/144605/rec/11 | title=Page 6 }} Over the next three years, the company took over three more existing hotels – the Hotel del Prado in Barranquilla, Colombia; the Hotel Reforma in Mexico City and The Princess in Hamilton, Bermuda. In 1953, Intercontinental opened three newly constructed properties – the Hotel Victoria Plaza in Montevideo, the Hotel Tamanaco in Caracas and the Hotel del Lago in Maracaibo. That same year, they also opened the Hotel Tequendama in Bogotá, Colombia, the largest hotel in South America and the first hotel to be developed, designed and constructed completely under Intercontinental supervision. All four properties were designed by the Chicago firm of Holabird, Root & Burgee. In 1955, Intercontinental purchased a 47% stake in the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, in Havana. By 1958, the chain had sixteen hotels in operation throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

In 1961, Intercontinental Hotels opened its first property in the Middle East, the Phoenicia Intercontinental Beirut, in Lebanon. In 1962, the chain expanded to three more continents, assuming management of the Ducor Palace Hotel in Monrovia, Liberia in April,{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/144730/rec/165 | title=Page 131 }} opening the Hotel Indonesia in Jakarta, Indonesia, in July,{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/144743/rec/165 | title=Page 144 }} and The Southern Cross in Melbourne, Australia, in August.{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/144752/rec/165 | title=Page 153 }} The first properties in Europe followed in May 1963, with simultaneous openings in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, Ireland.{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/144785/rec/165 | title=Page 186 }} In 1964, Intercontinental became the first American hotel chain to operate in Eastern Europe, when it assumed management of the Hotel Esplanade in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. The chain would continue to be unique among western hospitality companies in operating behind the "Iron Curtain", opening properties in Budapest, Bucharest, Prague and Warsaw between 1968 and 1974.

The company continued constructing new luxury hotels in Pan Am destinations around the world. In its hotel designs, Intercontinental aspired to combine Mid-century modern American luxury with decorative elements drawn from local cultures. Between 1961 and 1985, Intercontinental's head designer, Neal Prince, designed interiors and branding for 135 hotels.{{cite web |url=https://nealprince.omeka.net/nealprince |title=Neal Prince |publisher=New York School of Interior Design Library |website=Designing the Luxury Hotel: Neal Prince and the Inter-Continental Hotel Brand |access-date=December 9, 2021}}

The chain was officially rebranded as Inter•Continental Hotels in 1966, with the name commonly spelled with a hyphen as Inter-Continental when typed.{{Cite web |url=http://img03.mar.cx/_images/US/722/668/72266889_specimen_2_image_5.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2020-05-29 |archive-date=2021-12-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210034401/http://img03.mar.cx/_images/US/722/668/72266889_specimen_2_image_5.jpg |url-status=dead }}

In 1972, Inter-Continental started a line of moderately priced hotels, called Forum Hotels.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/20/business/pan-am-unit-is-profitable-and-for-sale.html|title=Pan Am Unit Is Profitable, and for Sale|last=Pace|first=Eric|date=1981-08-20|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} The first Forum property was the Lee Gardens Hotel in Hong Kong.{{Cite web |title=Page 11 |url=https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/2981/rec/32 |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=digitalcollections.library.miami.edu |language=en}} Inter-Continental opened its first hotel in the United States in 1973, when it assumed management of the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.{{Cite web |title=Page 10 |url=https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/2980/rec/32 |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=digitalcollections.library.miami.edu |language=en}}

On 1 June 1981, Intercontinental opened it's first location in Abu Dhabi making it the first hotel to be available in the United Arab Emirates. {{Cite web|url=https://abudhabi.intercontinental.com/history |title= A place where legendary events took place - Intercontinental Hotel Abu Dhabi |access-date=2025-05-27}}

Facing significant financial losses,{{Cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=1981-08-21 |title=PAN AM IN PACT TO SELL HOTELS |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/21/business/pan-am-in-pact-to-sell-hotels.html |access-date=2023-01-27 |issn=0362-4331}} Pan Am sold their profitable Inter-Continental Hotels division to Grand Metropolitan on 19 August 1981 for $500 million. On 1 April 1982, the new owners merged their existing chain of 17 Grand Metropolitan Hotels into Inter-Continental and its sibling chain Forum Hotels.{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/95772 | title=Page 1 }}

Later in 1982, Inter-Continental formed a joint venture with Scanticon International, a Danish company that had opened a highly successful conference hotel near Princeton, New Jersey in 1981.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/1983/04/16/new-income-sources-developed/20dc0e77-2f09-4d5d-8875-e69c66ce728f/ |date=16 April 1983|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=New Income Sources Developed|access-date=20 February 2023}} Inter-Continental owned 80% of the business, with Scanticon controlling 20%. Additional Scanticon conference hotels were opened in Minneapolis and Denver, before InterContinental exited the joint venture in 1991.

Grand Metropolitan sold Inter-Continental Hotels to the Tokyo-based Seibu Saison Group on 1 October 1988 for $2.27 billion, for a profit of $850 million after taxes.{{Cite news |last=Sanger |first=David E. |date=1988-10-01 |title=COMPANY NEWS; Japanese Purchase Of Inter-Continental Set for $2.27 Billion |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/01/business/company-news-japanese-purchase-of-inter-continental-set-for-2.27-billion.html |access-date=2023-01-27 |issn=0362-4331}} On 20 February 1998, the Saison Group sold the chain to Bass PLC, for $2.9 billion.{{Cite web |title=Bass Acquires Inter-Continental Hotels / Feb 1998 |url=https://www.hotel-online.com/News/PressReleases1998/Bass_InterContinental_Feb1998.html |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=www.hotel-online.com |archive-date=2023-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230126231102/https://www.hotel-online.com/News/PressReleases1998/Bass_InterContinental_Feb1998.html |url-status=dead }}

In 2000, Bass sold its namesake brewing business, along with its name and red triangle trademark, to Interbrew, for £2.3 billion.{{Cite news|last1=Carreyrou|first1=John|last2=BeckStaff|first2=Ernest|date=2000-06-15|title=Interbrew to Buy Bass Operations, Creating the World's No. 2 Brewer|language=en-US|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB960982909300652138|access-date=2020-08-07|issn=0099-9660}} On 27 June 2001, Bass renamed itself Six Continents, focusing on its hotels and its 2000 restaurants and bars. The name Six Continents was chosen from among 10,000 staff submissions, and was already the name of the Inter-Continental Hotels loyalty club.{{Cite web |date=2001-06-27 |title=Bass to become Six Continents |url=http://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jun/27/marketingandpr2 |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} In 2003, Six Continents demerged its bar and pubs business into a separate company, Mitchells & Butlers, and the hospitality company was renamed InterContinental Hotels Group.{{Cite web |date=2003-02-18 |title=Six Continents split-up to cost £100m |url=http://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/feb/18/5 |access-date=2023-01-27 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} At the same time, Inter-Continental Hotels dropped the hyphen in its name and became InterContinental Hotels. The chain is one of numerous brands today within the company.

InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, located within the Wilshire Grand Center in downtown Los Angeles, is the largest InterContinental in the Americas and the tallest building in Los Angeles.{{cite news|author=Vincent, Roger |date=23 September 2014| url=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-re-wilshire-grand-intercontinental-20140923-story.html |title=Hotel under construction in downtown L.A. will be an InterContinental|work=Los Angeles Times}}

InterContinental manages the Willard InterContinental Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., two blocks east of the White House. The {{Years ago|1847}}-year-old hotel has hosted many heads of state.{{cite web|url=https://washington.intercontinental.com/history/ |title=Discover Our History|website=Willard|access-date=21 October 2021}}

InterContinental briefly operated a hotel in Lagos, but withdrew from Nigeria in 2018, after a disagreement with its local partners over the terms of how to get the property out of receivership, just four years after the hotel opened.{{Cite web |title=InterContinental Hotels to Exit Nigeria After Debt Fallout |url=https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4086683.html |access-date=2023-11-13 |website=Hospitality Net |language=en-us}}

The Inter-Continental Kabul opened in 1969, but ceased operation following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The hotel continues to operate independently using the Inter-Continental name, but unaffiliated with the chain.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42761881|title=Gunmen attack major Kabul hotel|date=20 January 2018|publisher=BBC News|access-date=21 January 2018|language=en-GB}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{commons category-inline|InterContinental hotels}}
• {{Official website|https://www.ihg.com/intercontinental/}}

{{InterContinental Hotels Group}}

{{Hotel chains}}

Category:Hotel chains in the United States

Category:Hotels established in 1946

Category:InterContinental Hotels Group brands

Category:Franchises

Category:Pan Am