InterContinental Hotels Group Launches 'Any Hotel, Anywhere' Card

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World's Largest Hotelier Celebrates Second Anniversary with Another Industry First

Priority Club(R) Rewards Introduces Unique Feature Allowing Free Nights at Virtually Any Hotel in the World

ATLANTA, April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- InterContinental Hotels Group (NYSE:IHG) (ADRs) (IHG), the world's largest and most global hotel company, announced today a new feature to its customer loyalty program, Priority Club Rewards. This feature will allow Priority Club Rewards members who reside in the U.S. to redeem their points toward stays at more than 500,000 lodging establishments worldwide. To further strengthen this offering, these rewards have no blackout dates or capacity restrictions and can be used anytime, at any hotel, anywhere. This unprecedented, industry- leading move marks IHG's second anniversary as an independent hotel company and continues the momentum of meaningful, customer-focused brand innovations.

"Priority Club Rewards already gives members incredible choices to redeem their points at our more than 3,500 properties in nearly 100 countries which include some of the world's most recognized and respected hotel brands from Holiday Inn to InterContinental Hotels and Resorts," said Steve Sickel, senior vice president, Priority Club Rewards, IHG. "Even though we are the largest hotel company in the world, we can't be everywhere. So we want to give our members the flexibility to redeem their points toward stays at any hotel, regardless of brand affiliation. Loyalty is a two-way street. By rewarding our members with this flexibility, we believe we'll gain even greater loyalty and more repeat business from them."

To make this offering possible, Priority Club Rewards is working with American Express Incentive Services. Members can redeem their points for an American Express-branded prepaid lodging card in denominations valued between $100 and $250. This card can be used as payment at any lodging establishment where the American Express Card is welcome.

Free Reward Nights are by far the most popular option chosen by Priority Club Rewards members for redeeming points, with more than 75 percent of all redemptions going toward hotel stays. Now virtually any hotel in the world is available for point redemptions by Priority Club Rewards members who live in the U.S. Members may redeem their points for prepaid lodging cards beginning in July 2005. Additional details and future updates will be posted on http://www.priorityclub.com/anyhotel .

"This is yet another step we've made to strengthen the appeal of our brands and our relationship with our most loyal guests," said Sickel. "No one else is offering anything like this. This is truly a first in our industry."

Priority Club Rewards is the industry's first and largest hotel loyalty program, with more than 24-million members. Members already have a wide range of options for point redemption including: Reward Nights at more than 3,500 InterContinental Hotels Group properties worldwide including InterContinental(R) Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza(R) Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo(TM), Holiday Inn(R) Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express(R), Staybridge Suites(R) and Candlewood Suites(R); free airline miles/tickets on more than one dozen partner carriers; auto rentals; hundreds of products and gift certificates, as well as a unique Personal Shopper program which allows members the flexibility to use their points for items not found in the Rewards Catalog.

As an industry leader, InterContinental Hotels Group has a long track record of firsts and industry innovations including:

- First hotel loyalty program (1983)
- First to offer online travel bookings (1995)
- First to guarantee the best available room rate online with the Lowest
Internet Rate Guarantee (2002)
- First to offer fully functional Web sites in seven native languages
(2004)
- First to certify vendor relationships with online third party travel
sellers and resellers (2004)

Note to Editors:

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC of the United Kingdom (NYSE:IHG) (ADRs) is the world's most global hotel company and the largest by number of rooms. InterContinental Hotels Group owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, more than 3,500 hotels and 534,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognized and respected hotel brands including InterContinental(R) Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza(R) Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn(R) Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express(R), Staybridge Suites(R), Candlewood Suites(R) and Hotel Indigo(TM), and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty program, Priority Club(R) Rewards, with more than 24 million members worldwide. In addition to this, InterContinental Hotels Group has a controlling interest in Britvic, the second largest soft drinks manufacturer in the UK.

InterContinental Hotels Group offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands at http://www.ichotelsgroup.com and information for the Priority Club Rewards program at http://www.priorityclub.com .

For the latest news from InterContinental Hotels Group, visit our online Press Office at http://www.ihgplc.com/media .

American Express Incentive Services provides business-to-business reward solutions including stored-value cards and American Express(R) Gift Cheques. Their products address a broad array of applications such as consumer promotions and rebates, employee reward and recognition, and sales incentives, while helping clients drive consumer and employee behaviors, build loyalty and increase brand awareness. AEIS is headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. For more information, visit http://www.aeis.com .

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