InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a franchise agreement with Foremost Hospitality to introduce 20 new Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels in Germany by 2016.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a franchise agreement with Foremost Hospitality to introduce 20 new Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels in Germany by 2016.

Of the 20 properties within the agreement, seven hotel contracts are already signed and development underway. These include the November signing of two additional hotel contracts; the 328-room Holiday Inn Berlin City Centre - Potsdamer Platz, expected to open March 2011, and the 150-room Holiday Inn Express Berlin City Centre - Alexander Platz, scheduled to open March 2010.

Karl-Heinz Pawlizki, IHG's director of operations, Germany, said: 'As IHG's sixth biggest market globally by number of rooms and seventh by hotels, Germany remains a priority market for us and Foremost Hospitality an important strategic partner.'

Pawlizki added: 'With 55 hotels currently operating under the Holiday Inn brand family in Germany of which nine are already open with the new Holiday Inn brand flags, this new agreement demonstrates our owner community's support of the worldwide re-launch of the Holiday Inn brand family. Furthermore, we believe this agreement will ensure we are ideally placed to continue our growth within one of Europe's best performing markets.'