Growing the Holiday Inn brand in Thailand, independent hotels Surin Phuket Beach Resort and Karon Phuket Beach Resort will undergo renovations and be rebranded into Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Surin Beach and Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Karon Beach in 2023.
Surin site
The 256-room Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Surin Beach is 25 minutes from Phuket International Airport, 20 minutes drive from Patong Centre and 150 metres to Surin beach.
Its key appeal is intended to be its family rooms and suites, and activities for kids including an arcade room, cinema, ice cream shop and toy store. Facilities include three restaurants and bars, swimming pool, fitness centre, spa and kids club, Siam Adventure Club.
Karon conveniences
The 224-room Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Karon Beach is 60 minutes from Phuket International Airport, 20 minutes from Patong Centre and 100 metres to Karon Beach.
Rooms include family suites and plunge pool suites with facilities such as five restaurants and bars, three swimming pools, fitness centre, spa and kids club, Siam Adventure Club.
First time partnership
Saowarin Chanprakaisi, director, development, South East Asia and Korea, IHG said: “The Destination Group is the third largest franchise operator in Asia with an in-house team of highly experienced specialists that acquires, renovates and repositions quality hotel assets. This first-time partnership speaks to the trust that IHG brands and our business model inspire in our franchisees and business partners. I look forward to fostering a wonderful long-term collaboration with the team on these beautiful resort properties.
“The two signings continue the Holiday Inn brand growth in Thailand, and expands our strong presence in Phuket. They are a great complement to the six other opened hotels in Phuket, across the InterContinental, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn Resort, Holiday Inn Express, and Crowne Plaza brands, enabling greater synergies, operational efficiency and talent management across our portfolio.”
Recognised brand
Gary Murray, founder and CEO of Destination Group added: “Surin and Karon are some of the best beach destinations for leisure travellers, and appeal greatly to families. Pre-pandemic, Phuket attracted 10 million visitors annually and we are confident that as travel continues to recover and as flights return, it will continue to be one of the most visited destinations in Thailand.
“We are aligned with IHG in our vision to offer world class products and experiences and want all of our guests to enjoy a memorable holiday together. We believe that Holiday Inn’s proposition as one of the most recognised brands in the world offering a consistent, affordable and approachable service experience is a good fit for these resorts and will benefit from the strength and scale of IHG’s global systems, technology and loyalty programme. We look forward to taking the properties to even greater heights with IHG.”
Thai doubling
The latest deal brings the Holiday Inn portfolio in Thailand to 17 opened and in the pipeline, and the properties join recent 2022 openings Holiday Inn Resort Krabi Ao Nang Beach and Holiday Inn Resort Samui Bophut Beach.
Globally, Holiday Inn has over 1,198 hotels in operation with more than 229 hotels in the pipeline, including Holiday Inn Huangshi in China opening in Q2 2024; Holiday Inn Resort PIK2 White Sand Beach due for Q4 2024 in Indonesian capital Jakarta; and Holiday Inn Resort Yoko Park Onsen coming online in Q1 2026 in Quang Hanh, Vietnam.
IHG continues to grow in Thailand with 33 hotels across 10 brands in the country and 34 in the pipeline as it doubles its estate across all of its brands in the country by 2026.
