InterContinental Hotels Group has been gearing up for the mid-October opening of its new Perth location following the hotel's $70-million renovation. The InterContinental Perth City Centre, which has 240 guestrooms, is the city's first new five-star CBD hotel in decades.
The hotel, which is on the corner of Hay and King Streets in Perth's shopping district, was originally the Rydges Perth for 18 years until September 2015. In December 2014, the property's owner, UNIR Australia—a subsidiary of Hong Kong's UNIR Group—set plans to redevelop the 16-floor Rydges Perth hotel.
InterContinental Perth City Centre's GM Adam McDonald has predicted that the new hotel will assist in increasing Perth's hotel rate, which has been dropping. Other hotel brands are working to assist the city by opening even more five-star CBD hotels soon, including the 368-guestroom Westin Perth, the 184-guestroom QT Hotel and the 204-guestroom Ritz-Carlton at Elizabeth Quay. According to data from Ray White Commercial, Perth hotel occupancy rates were the city’s lowest at 67.6 percent. Perth’s ADR has also fallen from $208.19 in 2014 to $160.52 in June 2017. McDonald told The West Australian that occupancy rates might be down, but “we think Perth is performing really well. And in any case, in hotels 80 percent occupancy is 20 percent opportunity."
According to CBRE hotels director Ryan McGinnity, the increased hotel guestroom stock and direct flights from Europe is substantial for Perth. “We believe hotel operators and managers will hold firm on five-star rates in the InterContinental and The Westin. It has been such a long time since Perth’s CBD had a new five-star product that we suspect corporate and inbound tourists from Asia, Europe and the Middle East will happily pay for quality accommodation,” he told The West Australian.