Anyone who has stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on Park Road lately has noticed the hotel’s new look. Completely redesigned, the entire building is now in line with what owner Charles Harris wanted it to be.
And now he’s got a nice, big trophy to show for it.
On Oct. 27, Harris’ hotel won the InterContinental Hotel Group’s National Renovation Award — given to hotels in the IHG chain that have made the biggest improvements in its scheduled renovation period.
“We’re very excited and pleased with what the renovation has done,” Harris says. “My father and I are very, very pleased with how it’s turned out.”
The IHG is the umbrella under which Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza and more operate under, and the group currently oversees more than 4,700 hotels in 100 countries.
Harris and his father have owned one of the group’s 2,300 Holiday Inn Express locations since 2001. According to Harris, every hotel in the group is scheduled to go through a renovation period every 10 years, and IHG representatives filter through each hotel’s new look to nail down the best of the best.
“When we were under renovation, we were ranked somewhere around No. 600 out of 2,300 Holiday Inn Expresses,” Harris says. “With the renovations, we’ve been brought up to around No. 50 in the nation.”
Competing against only other Holiday Inn Expresses, Harris sought to overhaul the hotel’s look and make it more visitor-friendly — even beyond changing out the old wallpaper and carpets.
Citing an uptick in breakfast’s popularity, Harris had the hotel’s breakfast bar nearly doubled in size — from 13 feet to 25 feet — and also expanded seating from 24 to 34 guests. The fitness room, in addition to getting new equipment, was also outfitted with rubber flooring to improve traction. To provide extra goods to guests, a sundries store with a refrigerator and freezer was added to the hotel.
The lobby and the pool area both got complete overhauls, including the addition of a huge, curved glass desk that Harris says is more accommodating to guests. The rooms got all-new furniture, countertops, sinks and other fixtures. And, of course, the carpets and wallpaper were replaced.
The whole process took almost a year to complete, as the last of the major renovations was finished right before the end of 2013.
Harris’s flight to Las Vegas, where he accepted the award, was paid for out-of-pocket. But, he says that the experience of meeting the who’s who of IHG and seeing what new projects the group has in store made up for it.
“It’s a really, really great honor to be nominated and win the award,” he says.
Of course, before Harris left, he was convinced to bring his now-infamous artichoke pillow with him — the one that became a Plant City meme back in July when a couple of prankster friends commandeered it and brought it around to different business in town.
Thinking that he would need space for the big trophy, Harris brought an oversized suitcase with him and stored the pillow inside. When he arrived at the hotel, he pulled it out and snapped some new pictures for Facebook.
“My housekeeper was like, ‘What’s that green thing in your room?’ I tried to explain the story to her, and she didn’t really understand the meaning of it,” Harris says.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to take the trophy home with him. In Las Vegas, Harris was simply given a medal and told that the trophy would be shipped to him, because, thoughtfully, the IHG anticipated the trophies might have been too big for the winners to bring home in their luggage.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.