IHG receives prestigious baseline ROI leadership award for growth, by Baseline magazine, Ziff Davis Media's acclaimed enterprise technology publication focused on technology implementation.

The Growth Award is presented to the project that delivers the greatest incremental net income over a three-year period, calculated as the greatest percentage addition to the bottom line of the overall company, not just a division or business unit. In 2001, the company partnered with Akamai, Art Technology Group and Day Software to embark upon a complete overhaul of how its E-commerce transactions were processed. IHG was recognized for its work in expanding and re-engineering its direct E-commerce distribution channel systems and architecture.

"We continually strive to improve our guests' online experience while enhancing our ability to drive profits. For Baseline to present us with such a prestigious award is a testament to our team's expertise and reinforces our reputation as a company that understands how innovation can be used to impact the bottom line in a meaningful way," said Del Ross, vice president, Global E-Commerce Services, IHG. "

As the first hotel company to take online reservations, IHG has initiated many other online innovations and industry firsts, setting the bar increasingly higher for quality online reservations delivery.

These innovations include being:

• First hotel company to offer full-functionality Web sites in seven languages
• First hotel company to offer Travel Arranger, allowing Priority Club Rewards members to make hotel reservations on behalf of others
• First hotel company to receive and display the TRUSTe and TRUSTe Children's Privacy Seals certifying online privacy and protection
• First hotel company to offer the best publicly available rates online through its Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee
• First hotel company to provide the ability on its Web sites to review, cancel or modify reservations made via any of its channels

Earlier this year, travel research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates found that 19 percent of guests booking online used holiday-inn.com ranking it No. 1 – above third-party Web sites such as Expedia and Travelocity and all other hotel brands. The study, based on 1,200 hotel guests from DKS&A's January LODGING IMAGE/Monitor, marked the first time a hotel company's Web site ranked first as a source for online reservations. IHG's Web sites also received a Customer Respect Index rating of ‘excellent' (greater than 8.0) in the Customer Respect Group's Third Quarter 2005 Online Customer Respect Study. The Customer Respect Group is an international research and consulting firm that measures corporate performance from an online customer's perspective.

In addition, IHG is frequently recognized for the speed of its Web sites. Keynote Systems, the Internet Performance Authority^®, last year named www.intercontinental.com the fastest site in the hotel industry. It rated the site 60 percent faster than the closest competitor site (Hilton.com) and more than 100 percent faster than the speediest online travel agency Web site (Hotels.com).