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It goes without saying that higher sales and staff motivation have always been good for business. Currently merging the two is InterContinental Hotels Group with its new ‘Friends and Family’ programme, turning 330,000 staff members into customers, advocates and media outlets. It’s essentially a discount scheme for staff and their networks, which employees register for through IHG’s intranet. They then receive a link to their own personalized booking page, which they are encouraged to forward to friends and family and publish on their social network profile. Anyone who makes a booking through the link before 31 May 2009 receives a 20%-50% discount on reservations made up to a year in advance. It’s a global scheme, covering over 4,000 of the Group’s hotels across the world, including the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands. Launched in February 2009, the programme’s success could make it a major sales channel for the group in the future. By being generous to its customers and their friends, the initiative taps into the Generation G trend, while pulling in extra business in times that are undeniably tough for hotels. Spotted by: airlinetrends.com