MKTG 382: Consumer Behavior: In Depth Research Report

The client for spring 2025 is Holiday Inn, specifically the Holiday Inn at the Bellingham Airport. Holiday Inn is a subsidiary of Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), a British-based company, traded on the US stock exchange. Their investor information is listed on their website. 

Holiday Inn is part of the Hotels (without casinos) and Motels industry, and the NAICS is 721110, but when considering competitors and other industries impacting hotels, you need to look at similar companies like AirBNB and VRBO. When looking at classifications like NAICS, they are all part of the larger Traveller Accommodation industry. 

Articles and Other information

Business Source Complete (BSC): BSC is a business database of journal and magazine articles, company, country, and industry reports. You can find general information about hotels and the hotel industry by searching for "hotels" OR "hotel" OR "hotel industry" OR "hospitality." Try searching for Hotels and another concept can be productive. 

Example searches: 

• Hotels AND College Towns: this will look at hotels and their relationships with college towns, including students, family, and tourists
• Hotels and Consumer behavior OR consumer attitude: this will search for articles relates to consumer behavior or attitudes and hotels. This can provide research on how people choose hotels

Competitors:

• AirBNB OR VRBO AND consumer behavior: Articles looking at short-term rentals and consumers. 

Company reports:

• You can find company repots for IHG by searching their full name: Intercontinental Hotels Group. 

Industry Reports

IBISWorld: An industry report for US Hotels and Motels is available in IBISWorld. This includes products, markets, competitors (including market share), and ratios and statistics. This includes links to Company Benchmark Reports for IHG and it's competitors. These reports will be national, not local. 

American Hotel & Lodging Association: The AHLA provides several reports, including the State of the Industry and Economic Impact for hotels in the US. 

Tip: Mergent provides info on larger private US and international companies, both active and inactive, including general company info in addition to SEC filings, reports, insider trading details, current and historical financial info going back 15 years, and more. This database is useful for locating competitors by industry and creating custom company reports. Info can be downloaded into Excel and other formats.