While InterContinental Hotels Group revenue grew a solid 12
percent to $1.93 billion in 2018 and net rooms increased 4.8 percent, revenue
per available room grew a more modest 2.5 percent, according to the company's
2018 earnings report.
IHG added 56,000 rooms and removed 18,000, bringing the total
at the end of the year to 837,000. Another 271,000 are in the pipeline and
would bring the company's portfolio to over 1.1 million rooms.
The company signed 99,000 rooms in 2018, an 18 percent
increase over 2017. Almost half those signed in 2018 are for the Holiday Inn
brand family, which includes Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn
Resort and Holiday Inn Club Vacation. IHG also has signed more than 170 Avid
hotels since the midscale brand launched
in September 2017, while the upscale Voco has signed 16 properties since its
June launch. Additionally, IHG last week acquired
the luxury hotel brand Six Senses, which IHG hopes to grow over the next decade
from 16 resorts to more than 60.
And the hotel company is arming itself with one more
opportunity to add rooms to its portfolio. CEO Keith Barr said it will launch
an all-suites brand to target the upper-midscale market. IHG said that's an $18
billion segment in which demand from both guests and owners has driven a
roughly 70 percent increase in room supply over the past four years.
IHG's average daily rate increased 1.8 percent last year,
and RevPAR increased 2.5 percent, aided by 6.9 percent RevPAR growth in Greater
China. In the U.S., RevPAR grew 1.3 percent. In the fourth quarter, global ADR
increased 1.3 percent year over year, and RevPAR grew 1.9 percent. U.S. RevPAR
grew a modest 0.6 percent year over year in the fourth quarter.
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