The study and who paid for it
Holiday Inn by IHG published a survey of 750 parents of children aged 0 to 12 in Germany on 8 October 2026, datelined Frankfurt. The brand commissioned the work, and the release describes the sample as nationally representative.
The release carries no fieldwork agency, no field dates and no margin of error. The percentages below are the brand’s own survey output, and no second measurement of the same parents exists to check them against.
What the parents report
86 percent of the parents surveyed say they feel responsible for making family holidays feel special for their children.
Nearly seven in ten of them believe their children value small, carefree moments over major attractions and expensive experiences. Asked what children value most, the parents pointed to fun, freedom, time together and simple moments.
The decisions children already make
40 percent of parents say they actively seek their children’s opinions. They ask most often about activities and excursions, at 70 percent, and about food and drink, at 58 percent.
Parents keep the final decision in the release’s account. Parents who involve their children report more anticipation and a planning process they describe as shared.
What parents think children want
One allocation in the release resolves to a single answer per parent. More time to play takes 30 percent, more adventure takes 30 percent, more spontaneity takes 22 percent and more meaningful family time takes 18 percent. The four land on 100 percent.
Three further findings carry numbers. 58 percent of the parents surveyed say their children already hold significant influence over food and drink decisions on holiday. A third of them say their children value freedom, shared experiences and unstructured time over packed itineraries and strict schedules. A third also say familiar food and the freedom to choose what they eat matter especially to their children.
Where the demand sits for a property
The parents’ answers put weight on time, choice and unstructured space. For a property selling to a family, that weight sits on the parts of the stay a child controls: food, play and unplanned time.
The release attaches no spend figure to any of it. It measures where a child’s preferences sit inside the trip.
The brand’s own answer in Germany
Holiday Inn is running a Chief Holiday Officer initiative at Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn - the niu hotels across Germany during the autumn school holidays. Children staying at those hotels are welcomed as Chief Holiday Officers and receive a symbolic iron-on badge and a holiday wish list.
The wish list guides a child through the day’s plan and its activities. The release ties it to the brand’s near 75 years of bringing people together.
The spaces and programmes behind it
The Open Lobby is the social space the brand names beside the initiative, with room for games, shared meals and downtime together.
Kids Stay & Eat Free is the programme the release names alongside it. The release places the food and drink finding beside that programme.
The executive line
Mario Maxeiner, IHG Hotels & Resorts managing director for Northern Europe, said the research reinforces what the brand has long believed: “great family holidays are often built around simple moments spent together.”. He named welcoming communal spaces, flexible experiences and family-friendly amenities, and tied the initiative to the brand’s long-standing commitment to family travel.
IHG’s published scale on two pages
The release’s About block gives IHG a family of 21 hotel brands, more than one million rooms across 7,100 hotels in over 100 countries, a development pipeline of a further 2,400 properties and more than 160 million IHG One Rewards members. Its own enumeration reaches 21 by counting Iberostar Beachfront Resorts under Exclusive Partners, beside six Luxury & Lifestyle brands, six Premium brands, four Essentials brands and four Suites brands.
The group’s strategy page carries different numbers. It states 20 global brands for every stay occasion, and a scale of 6,900-plus hotels and 1 million guest rooms. The release’s 21 counts the partner brand that page leaves out.
What the release leaves out
The release carries no question wording, no response rate and no split of the sample by region, income or family size. It names no research firm and no field dates, and it publishes no margin of error for the 750-parent base.
The day-use lines the release does not carry
The release states no day-use line. It carries no hourly rate, no daytime window and no part-day revenue figure. Its family findings run on the overnight stay, priced by the night.
The parts of the stay the parents name are the parts a day-use property sells in a daytime window: food, play and unstructured time. The initiative runs through the autumn school holidays, which is a daytime market as much as an overnight one.
Germany’s day-use shelf
Dayuse’s German page listed 495 available day hotels on 16 October 2026. The 50 cards on its first page carry day-room prices from 50 euros to 133 euros, across Neuss, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Hamburg.
The brand runs its Chief Holiday Officer initiative at German hotels through the autumn school holidays.