Hotel chain started as a brewery?

Who knew? I sure didn't: InterContinental Hotels once was Bass Brewery (which BTW makes some fabulous ale, if you like that sort of thing). From Mental Floss (which is full of fun and crazy tidbits like this):

in 1989, the British government put the kibosh on breweries owning too many of their own pubs in the U.K. In response, the brewers of Bass started to grow their hotel business. In 1988, Bass started acquiring Holiday Inn’s international operations, then bought up the domestic hotels in 1990. The move did so well that Bass actually got out of the beer business by divesting itself of its brewing operation and trademarks in 2000 and switched its name to Six Continents PLC, which later morphed into InterContinental Hotels Group, which currently owns all Holiday Inns.