Dive Brief:
- In results for the first half of 2024 shared Tuesday, IHG Hotels & Resorts posted year-over-year growth in “key metrics” for performance, signings, profit and earnings, CEO Elie Maalouf shared during a Tuesday earnings call.
- RevPAR “accelerated” in the second quarter of the year, up 3.2% year over year globally and up 2.5% in the U.S., “reflecting a strong U.S. rebound” following a slump in Q1, Maalouf said. The CEO attributed the improvement to the shift in the timing of Easter this year.
- Meanwhile, the company signed a record 57,000 rooms in the first half of 2024. During the earnings call, CFO Michael Glover said strength in conversions, specifically, contributed meaningfully to the company’s system growth.
Dive Insight:
Globally, IHG’s openings were up 65%, and system growth was up 2.5% year over year in the first half of 2024. Signings were up 23% globally over the first half of 2023, Glover said on the call.
New brands accounted for over a quarter of IHG’s 384 hotel signings in the first half of this year. The midscale brand Garner contributed to that, Maalouf said, noting that the conversion-focused hotel chain has signed more than 80 properties since being made available to franchisees last year.
“Conversions continue to rise in importance globally and present an increasing share of system growth,” said Maalouf on the call, noting that conversion signings made up only 17% of hotels signed in 2017, but accounted for 36% in 2023.
IHG’s Garner has already expanded globally, despite only opening its first hotel in December.
IHG’s vice president for Garner, Karen Gilbride, previously told Hotel Dive that the company plans to open 500 Garner hotels in the next 10 years in the U.S. alone.
In the first half of 2024, the company also signed 30 agreements for luxury and lifestyle hotels. The growing segment drove portfolio growth for the company in 2023, IHG said in full-year results posted in February.
Meanwhile, group travel was up globally (7%) in the first half, Glover shared on the call. In the Americas, specifically, group travel was up 8% year on year in H1.
Leisure travel is still normalizing following a post-pandemic surge, experts have told Hotel Dive.
