A nose for good Business

You'll know you've arrived when you are greeted with a 'mélange of ginger, white tea, citrus and musk'. If however, you catch the distict whiff of 'sweet grass and green tea', then you know you've got a little way yet to go!

Yes, this is news that Holiday Inn's 3,300 properties across the globe are getting a $1bn (£600m) facelift, officially launched in New York this week. Battling ruthless mid-market competition, Holiday Inn is sharpening its act with a swish new logo, revamped public spaces, landscaping, better bedding and even a standardised scents (the full scale Holiday Inss will get the 'melange' while the cheaper Hilday Inn Express Sites have to make do with 'sweet grass and green tea')

Holiday Inn was founded with a single hotel in Memphis in 1952, the brainchild of Kemmons Wilson, an American entrepreneur who became frustrated on a family road trip at the gap between shoddy roadside motels and fussy, pricey posher establishments. The chain now has properties in nearly 100 countries, most recently opening in Vietnam and the Maldives.

Holiday Inn outlets will be obliged to spend an average of $100,000 to $200,000 per property on improvements. There will be new lighting, signature plant pots and a choice of soft or hard pillows in every room. Power showers will abound and staff are having friendliness drummed into them.

Properties unable, or unwilling, to smarten up will lose the Holiday Inn brand and older hotels with, for example, motel-style exterior corridors, face the chop.

Of course, many upmarket hotel chains are treading on the toes of Holiday Inn. No-frills offerings such as Marriott Courtyard, Hilton Garden Inn and Hyatt Place have appeared in the US over the past decade and beginning to appear in the Europe.

And the current economic climate has had an effect on occupancy – Holiday Inn's occupancy rate was 54% in the US and 61% in Europe during the first half of the year, with revenue per room down 17% to $51 in the US and by 16% to $66 in Europe.

But Holiday Inn is an iconic brand and it's essential that it 'does what it says on the tin'. Visitors know what to expect and the uniformity and reliability is appealling to routine business travel.

We only have one concern; apparently a global playlist of 1,000 soundtracks will greet guests, ranging from Sting to John Mayer and the Jackson Five!

There are a few local exceptions, in France, for example, Carla Bruni makes an appearance while Kylie Minogue will play in Britain!!