Upgrades Price Out Some Hotel Owners | wsj.com
Holiday Inn's sweeping upgrade includes stripping its brand from 700 franchisees, cutting loose hotels that are part of its storied past. For Doug Schubert, who has operated a Holiday Inn on the banks of the Fox River here for 34 years, the end will come Dec. 31. The next day, his 146-room hotel will begin operating under Choice Hotels International Inc.'s Clarion brand. He would have liked to stay with Holiday Inn, he says, but he couldn't afford the renovations and upgrades that were demanded by the unit of U.K.-based InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, which he estimated would cost $1.6 million.
