Private company

Crowne Plaza

Crowne Plaza by IHG is a multinational chain of full service, upscale hotels headquartered in the United Kingdom.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

1983Founded1

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Crowne Plaza by IHG is a multinational chain of full service, upscale hotels headquartered in the United Kingdom. It caters to the business, leisure and blended travel market usually located in city centers, resorts, coastal towns or near major airports. The brand is part of IHG Hotels & Resorts family of brands, which include InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, and operates in nearly 100 countries with more than 400 hotels and 110,000 bedrooms.2

How it started

History

Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza was established in 1983 as a breakout brand, the upscale sister brand to Holiday Inn. The first Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza hotel opened that year in Rockville, Maryland. In 1988, Bass PLC (today InterContinental Hotels Group) purchased Holiday Corporation and in 1994 the brand was renamed Crowne Plaza Hotels. In 1999, Crowne Plaza opened its first European property, in Madeira, Portugal.

From Wikipedia’s article on Crowne Plaza, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1983Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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