With travel demand remaining healthy and returning to pre-COVID levels throughout the third quarter of 2023, IHG Hotels and Resorts anticipates ending the year with a “very strong” performance.
"Q3 [revenue per available room] increased 10 percent versus 2022 and 13 percent versus 2019, representing the fifth quarter of sequential improvement exceeding pre-pandemic highs," IHG CEO Elie Maalouf said in a statement. "Greater China continued its excellent rebound with RevPAR now above 2019, which the Americas achieved in the second quarter of last year and EMEAA in the fourth quarter. Groupwide occupancy was 72 percent, just one percentage point behind 2019 which further confirms the near-complete return to pre-Covid levels of demand. Pricing remained very robust. As well as year on year RevPAR growth in each of our three regions, it was also pleasing to see rooms revenue growth for each of leisure, business and group travel."
One of the first hotel groups to announce its third-quarter results, IHG reports group RevPAR improved by 10.5 percent over 2022 and 12.8 percent compared to 2019. Average daily rate was 4.1 percent higher than 2022 and 14.8 percent higher than 2019. Occupancy increased 4.1 percent points versus 2022 and decreased 1.3 percent points versus 2019.
The company opened nearly 8,000 rooms across 50 hotels during the quarter and added 17,000 rooms to the pipeline across 123 properties. Year to date, signings are up by 16 percent.
"Reflecting the breadth and attractiveness of our portfolio, ‘quicker to market’ conversions have increased this year to be over one-third of openings and signings," Maalouf said. "This will soon be further boosted by our new midscale conversion brand, Garner, which became franchise ready in September. There was good development progress across all our categories, and our six Luxury & Lifestyle brands continue to represent a growing proportion of IHG with over 800 open and pipeline hotels in that category."
The IHG net system grew by 4.7 percent year-over-year—excluding the Iberostar alliance, it get 2.9 percent year-over-year.
"As IHG powers forward to provide industry-leading advantages for our guests and hotels owners across our brand portfolio, loyalty program and entire enterprise platform, we expect to close-out 2023 with very strong financial performance," Maalouf said. "Looking further ahead, whilst there are macro-economic uncertainties and some short-term financing challenges holding back new hotel development, I am excited about the future for IHG and the attractive, long-term demand drivers for our markets. As such, we’re confident in the strengths of IHG’s business model, scale and in our strategic priorities to capture sustainable, profitable growth.”