Bass To Unify, Standardize Crowne Plaza, Inter-Continental

<B> Bass To Unify, Standardize Crowne Plaza, Inter-Continental</B>

By Chris Davis

For the new year, Bass Hotels and Resorts will standardize at least parts of the meetings programs of two of its brands, Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resors, and Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts, and move Inter-Continental's headquarters from London to Atlanta, said the man who will head up marketing efforts for both chains.

James Knauff III, currently director of meetings and conferences marketing for Crowne Plaza, isn't yet prepared to reveal which features will be standardized. Both brands' programs will be directed by the same management, however.

"An effort will be made towards standardizing programs that have proven to be effective across both brands," Knauff told Meetings Today. "We will have one team overseeing both brands from Atlanta, and my responsibility will be to market efforts towards meetings and incentives for Inter-Continental and Crowne Plaza globally."

Knauff said the move will give Bass, with 340 hotels carrying the Inter-Continental or Crowne Plaza brands worldwide, a tremendous opportunity to serve the corporate market. "With Inter-Continental clearly in a position in the upper-upscale and Crowne Plaza supplying a niche in the lower-upscale, we have all the amenities of the upscale hotels but with the price positioning of the value-added," he said. "It will provide more opportunities for growth for our employees and staff members, and give meeting planners the same level of outstanding service they've come to expect across the Inter-Continental brand."

Knauff said Bass will "put a huge amount of resources into building Inter-Continentals both in the United States and in other countries, and improving properties in the portfolio. That's been Bass' priority--spending money on Inter-Continental and Crowne Plaza."

Crowne Plaza, meanwhile, will receive a service-oriented facelift of its small meetings program in January. Knauff said employees will be trained on giving superior service to meeting planners and attendees before and during events.

"We will deliver to the industry a small meetings program that will include a number of value-added features, including a cutting-edge means of ensuring instant response from the conference services team," he said. "After an exhaustive research project, we've come up with a piece of technology that will link meeting planners--whether they're professional or what we call ad hoc planners--to a conference concierge who will take personal responsibility for immediately solving challenges or meeting any requests during the meeting."

Knauff said the Crowne Plaza program, which will roll out globally sometime next year after its initial rollout stateside, will be geared towards meetings of 10 to 100 attendees.

"We will roll this out across the brand in a mandatory series of workshops for employees, and everyone will be certified," Knauff said. "Across the meetings industry, you come to a Crowne Plaza hotel and expect to have the same quality and understanding about what first-class service delivery is."

Knauff's new responsibilities are the latest in a series of promotions since he joined Crowne Plaza in 1995 as director of hotel marketing. Before that, he spent nine years with Westin Hotels and Resorts, holding positions as director of convention services and director of sales at Westin properties in Atlanta and Seattle.