Holiday Inn owner will open luxury hotel chain

THE owner of Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn is launching a new luxury chain as it seeks to cater to pent-up demand amid looser travel restrictions.

Intercontinental Hotels said it wants to attract independent hotels looking to join a bigger brand after the pandemic, with plans to convert more than 100 hotels within 10 years.

The name of the new brand is expected to be released in three weeks.

IHG’S portfolio of highend brands, which include Six Senses and Kimpton, contribute almost a third of the group’s annual revenue.

Keith Barr, chief executive of IHG, told the FT: “It’s going to be targeted at hotels that already have a unique personality and identity … it could be a 55-room hotel in the hills of Tuscany or an independent hotel in the centre of London.”

There are currently around 1.5m independently run rooms in the market segments that IHG is targeting, the company said.

The group’s latest half year results to June 30 showed some signs of a recovery in the travel industry, as the firm swung to a $67m (£48m) profit from a $275m pre-tax loss during the same period a year earlier.

The company occupancy rates had grown so high in July that revenue per available room – a key industry measure – had exceeded the levels of 2019 in nearly half of its hotels.

IHG said that its recovery was “most advanced” in China and that there was “continued improvement” in the Americas.

However, the company said it remained most chal- lenged in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, with revenue per available room still 65pc lower than in 2019.

The group said the differences in regional performance reflected variations in both the progress of countries’ vaccine rollout and local travel restrictions.

IHG operates 5,994 hotels in total, 84 of which remained closed at the end of June owing to restrictions compared with nearly 300 at the beginning of the year.

The group also confirmed that it would not be paying an interim dividend to shareholders in 2021, but said it was confident that it would resume dividend payments to investors “in due course”.

Mr Barr said: “Trading improved significantly during the first half of 2021, with travel demand returning strongly as vaccines roll out, restrictions ease and eco- nomic activity rebuilds.

“While there is a risk of trading volatility in the bal- ance of the year, and discre- tionary business trips, group bookings and international travel will take time to fully recover, we are confident in the strength of IHG’S future prospects.”