In its first quarter that takes the coronavirus pandemic into account, InterContinental Hotels Group reported a group comparable revenue per available room year-over-year decline of 24.9 percent to $53.91. Average daily rate declined 3 percent, and occupancy slid 14.4 percent to 49.4 percent. For March, it declined 55 percent.
Regionally, first-quarter RevPAR compared with the prior year declined 19.3 percent for the Americas, 25.7 percent for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa, and 65.3 percent for Greater China, where the virus outbreak first was reported. In the U.S., quarterly RevPAR declined 19.6 percent, with higher-end brands more greatly affected. InterContinental and Kimpton RevPAR dropped 24.7 percent and 25.6 percent, respectively, compared with declines of 12.3 percent for Candlewood Suites and 16.4 percent for Staybridge Suites.
"By late March, demand for hotels had fallen to the lowest levels ever seen as more governments around the world began to impose social distancing measures and travel restrictions," IHG CEO Keith Barr said Thursday during an earnings call. "These restrictions remain in place in most of our key markets, and we estimate our April RevPAR decline at around 80 percent."
As of March 31, IHG had 881,562 rooms across 5,895 properties, up 4.6 percent compared with March 31, 2019. Its total pipeline comprised 288,321 rooms across 1,954 properties, with 41 percent anticipated for the Americas. As of the end of April, approximately 1,000 hotels were closed, and occupancy percentages in open hotels were in the low-to-mid 20s.
"Given the level of cancellation activity we have seen for the second quarter, we expect that these challenging conditions will persist for some time," Barr noted.
The company is seeing some signs of improvement in Greater China, where only 10 hotels were closed at the end of April compared with 178 at the peak of the outbreak in the region. Occupancy levels are running in the mid-20 percent range, up from a trough of approximately 5 percent in mid-February. "Domestic travel is picking up, people have returned to work, and construction crews are back on site, with work resuming on around 95 percent of hotels that were under construction prior to the outbreak of Covid-19," Barr said.
He added that IHG is extending its Way of Clean program to become a global brand standard, and will continue to follow advice from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
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