ORLANDO -- Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts teamed up with
Nickelodeon, home of the "Rugrats" and "SpongeBob SquarePants," to
develop a themed hotel based on characters appearing on the
children's cable network.
"Obviously Nickelodeon is the world's premier
family-entertainment enterprise, and with Holiday Inn being the
brand that it is, we think bringing the two of them together really
makes a lot of sense," said Mark Schneider, Holiday Inn's senior
vice president, brand management.
Holiday Inn said it will convert its 800-room Holiday Inn Family
Suites Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., into a themed hotel
complete with kids' suites and cartoon characters from popular
Nickelodeon TV shows.
The property, which sits at the entrance to Walt Disney World,
is slated to debut in the first half of 2005.
In its present state, the hotel already offers a variety of
activities that appeal to children.
For example, Schneider said, "there is Snapshot the Clown, who
takes pictures with the kids, [and parents] can order a big teddy
bear to tuck in their kids with at night.
"The hotel has been very successful," he added. "It is the
perennial winner as [Holiday Inn] Priority Club members' favorite.
So it was on to something big to begin with."
Enter Nickelodeon. Already successful in the cable TV, film and
theme-park fields, the entertainment conglomerate began floating
the idea of launching its own hotel chain. That is, until it became
aware of the Holiday Inn Family Suites.
"We found that the Holiday Inn Family Suites Resort has the
ideal design and management team to communicate Nickelodeon's
sensibility and our connection to kids," said Jeffrey Dunn,
president of Nickelodeon Enterprises.
Soon after, the idea of wrapping the Nickelodeon theme around
the property was born.
"There will be [Nickelodeon] characters walking around,"
Schneider said. "There will be Nickelodeon-themed suites -- a
'SpongeBob' suite, a 'Nick at Night' suite, a 'Rugrats' suite. The
water features at the pool will [include] themed characters, as
well. There will be wake-up calls from Nickelodeon characters and
characters serving you breakfast."
In all, Holiday Inn estimates that it will cost about $20
million to theme the hotel.
Among the additions will be updated children's bedrooms,
complete with bunk- or twin beds and TV and video-console systems;
two pools with waterslides and flumes; poolside game areas and a
game room; a food court; and live entertainment featuring
Nickelodeon characters.
The hotel is expected to remain open during the renovation. A
few rooms at a time will be taken offline for refitting, Schneider
said.
The project probably won't be Nickelodeon's last in the
hospitality field.
Schneider said, "Orlando is the No. 1 market to do something
like this, but there are probably another half-dozen markets in the
U.S. and another half-dozen in Europe, Latin America and Mexico,
where we think this will work, too. So we think the potential is
very good.
"But we want to get this one absolutely right before we do any
others," he added.
To contact reporter Michael Milligan, send e-mail to [email protected].