InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced the relaunch of its 2,000th Holiday Inn hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Edinburgh – Waterfront.

Holiday Inn is currently undergoing a $1b relaunch across more than 3,200 hotels and 430,000 bedrooms worldwide.

First announced in October 2007, the project intends to improve the quality of all its hotels around the world, add an additional 900 properties to the portfolio and remove all poorer quality hotels.

The Holiday Inn brand was founded by Kemmons Wilson in 1952 with the first hotel opening in Memphis, Tennessee.  Today, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express look after 100 million guests in 100 countries worldwide.

 “Reaching 2,000 relaunched Holiday Inn hotels is a huge milestone,” said Andy Cosslett, IHG’s chief executive. “We’re two thirds of the way through the biggest relaunch in our industry’s history, and on track to complete the programme by the end of the year.”

“We’ve been asked whether now is the right economic climate to do this relaunch and the answer is definitely yes.  Not only is the relaunch delivering improved guest satisfaction and RevPAR (revenue per available room) outperformance, it’s also resetting the perception of Holiday Inn and will help the brand stay relevant for the next 50 years.”