In 1955, just three years after founding the Holiday Inn brand, Kemmons Wilson created an organization of Holiday Inn franchisees, which were charged with reviewing issues important to the Holiday Inn Hotel system.
They worked closely with representatives from Holiday Inn to tackle the issues associated with a franchised hotel operation – everything from standards to rules of operation and marketing programs.
One year later, the National Association of Holiday Inns was officially born. From then on, all license agreements indicated that every franchisee was eligible to be an active member of the Association.
In 1959, we changed our name to the International Association of Holiday Inns to reflect the geographic expansion of our membership. Today, we are known as IAHI, the Owners’ Association, and we represent many different franchisees under the InterContinental Hotels Group family of brands.