CLEVELAND,OHIO—The Holiday Inn brand is currently undergoing a $1 billion global relaunch—the largest in the hospitality industry with more than 3,200 hotels being updated to improve quality and drive consistency at Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels around the world. A redesign of the iconic brand logo required new exterior signage for more than 3,200 locations. The signage incorporates energy-efficient, long-life GE Tetra LED lighting systems, which are GE ecomagination certified solutions from Lumination, GE Consumer & Industrial’s LED business. The new signage will save Holiday Inn an estimated $4.4 million annually over previous neon and fluorescent lighting ($3 million annual maintenance savings and $1.4 million energy savings).
This large signage project involves more than 20 sign manufacturers creating 9,300 channel letter and box signs with high-performance GE Tetra LED lighting inside. There are more than 270 different lighting configurations across five Holiday Inn brands, where the signs range from 11 inches high to as large as 8 feet. In addition to new signage, the Holiday Inn brand relaunch is focusing on the things that matter most to guests. Changes include new outdoor lighting, building exterior updates and new landscaping; a redesigned lobby with a new, de-cluttered reception desk and a signature scent and music program; refreshed guestrooms include new bedding, a selection of firm and soft pillows and redesigned bathroom features; and a new service training program. The global estate of Holiday Inn brand hotels is expected to be relaunched by the end of 2010.
“We are increasing quality and driving consistency across all Holiday Inn properties, and being more contemporary with this major rebranding,” says Angela Brav, chief operating officer, North America, InterContinental Hotels Group. “It only makes sense to use the greenest signage solution possible. We are replacing more than 9,300 signs across several countries, so the energy savings GE’s LED systems are providing is significant. Plus, they offer proven reliability for even greater savings from a maintenance standpoint and improved brand consistency across all properties.”
Significant Energy Savings
Holiday Inn expects to cut energy usage by more than half and achieve an estimated 52 percent reduction in kilowatt hours with signs lit an average of 12 hours per day, 365 days per year. That represents an estimated reduction of 8,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually or the equivalent of planting more than 2,300 acres of trees per year. The GE Tetra LED systems are significantly more energy efficient than commonly used neon or fluorescent, and they overcome performance challenges fluorescent can encounter in cold climates.
“GE has more than 19 million feet of Tetra LED lighting installed with less than a 0.05 percent warranty return rate,” says Eric Stevenson, GE’s global product manager—signage. “Holiday Inn recognized the importance of this long-term, real-world reliability in choosing a signage solution that would deliver years of consistent, virtually maintenance-free operation.”
The Tetra LED lighting systems used in this program include Tetra Power White and Tetra MAX for channel letters, and Tetra PowerGrid for box signs. Tetra Power White is a high-performance LED system that delivers up to 66 lumens of brilliant white light per module. Tetra PowerGrid is a high-brightness, modular system that is easy to install and lasts up to four times longer than T12HO fluorescents. All three lighting systems last up to 50,000 hours and are RoHS compliant, containing no lead, mercury or glass.
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