InterContinental Hotels Group released its 2024 Q3 trading update on Oct. 22. Highlights include:
- Q3 global RevPAR +1.5 percent, with Americas +1.7 percent, EMEAA +4.9 percent and Greater China -10.3 percent
- Q3 global rooms revenue on a comparable hotels basis saw Groups demand +6 percent, Business +2 percent and Leisure broadly flat on same quarter last year
- YTD global RevPAR +2.4 percent, with Americas +1.8 percent, EMEAA +6.4 percent and Greater China -5.6 percent
- Average daily rate +1.7 percent and occupancy -0.1 percent pts in Q3, +1.9% and +0.4 percent pts respectively YTD
- Gross system size growth +5.9 percent YOY, +3.7 percent YTD; opened 17.5k rooms (98 hotels) in Q3, representing another quarter of sequential improvement and very significantly ahead of the 7.7k in the same period last year
- Net system size growth +4.1 percent YOY, +2.3 percent YTD; global system of 968k rooms (6,505 hotels)
- Signed 19.2k rooms (129 hotels) in Q3, +14 percent YOY; global pipeline of 327k rooms (2,218 hotels), +12 percent YOY
- $614 million of 2024’s $800 million share buyback program completed to date, reducing the share count by 3.7 percent
- On track to return over $1 billion to shareholders in 2024 through dividend payments and share buybacks
- Expect to finish 2024 in line with market expectations and our growth algorithm.
“We are pleased with the latest trading performance and another strong period of development activity, and we are on track to finish 2024 in line with market expectations," IHG Hotels & Resorts Chief Executive Officer Elie Maalouf said in a statement. "RevPAR grew +1.5 percent in the third quarter of 2024, reflecting the strength of our globally diverse footprint, healthy business demand and a record period for Groups bookings. Our EMEAA region again performed strongly, up +4.9 percent, and the Americas increased by +1.7 percent, driven by continued growth in the U.S. In Greater China, RevPAR was down -10.3 percent as we came up against strong comparatives of resurgent domestic travel this time last year, and the quarter was still broadly in line with 2019 levels.
"Our development performance was particularly notable. We opened 17.5k rooms across 98 hotels, well over double the same period last year, which was in part due to the next 6.2k rooms of the NOVUM Hospitality agreement joining IHG’s system. A strong signings performance of 19.2k rooms across 129 properties was +14 percent more than 2023 and led to a +12 percent year-on-year increase in our pipeline. ‘Quicker to market’ conversions represented over 50 percent of openings and 40 percent of Q3 signings, a clear reflection of the strength and appeal of our brands and wider enterprise to owners, and we’ve also seen the advance in new-build signings over the course of the year as developer confidence continued to improve. In fact, in Greater China, reflecting the attractive long term demand drivers, our excellent development momentum should lead to 2024 being one of the biggest ever years for both hotel openings and signings in this region.
"We have made great progress this year to further strengthen IHG’s enterprise platform, grow our brands and deliver on our growth algorithm. The power of this algorithm comes from the compounding nature of growing fee revenues through the combination of RevPAR, system expansion and ancillary fee streams, which in turn helps to increase margins and, with our strong cash generation, allows us to reinvest in our business and return surplus capital to shareholders. We remain confident in our abilities to capitalise further on our scale, leading positions and the attractive, long-term demand drivers for our markets.”