Dive Brief:
- IHG Hotels & Resorts posted U.S. RevPAR growth of 1.2% year on year for the first half of 2025 on the back of 3.5% growth in the first quarter, followed by a 0.9% decline in Q2, according to an earnings report.
- IHG pointed to adverse impacts from the shift in the timing of Easter and macroeconomic developments on U.S. Q2 performance. Business travel was strongest in the region, up 3% year on year, with group up 1% and leisure flat in the first half.
- Meanwhile, IHG touted its rooms growth, opening a record 31,400 rooms in the half, up 75% year on year. The company did not adjust its full-year earnings expectations. In a statement, Maalouf noted that “while some shorter term macroeconomic uncertainties remain, many are subsiding.”
Dive Insight:
IHG posted year-on-year global RevPAR growth of 1.8% in the first half of 2025, including growth of 0.3% in the second quarter.
Maalouf said the company’s “pipeline of more than 2,200 hotels is equivalent to further system size growth of +34%.”
In the U.S., IHG grew its net system size 1.5% year on year in the half, with its U.S. estate reaching 4,035 hotels.
Additionally, the company is “on track” to have its Ruby brand available for development in the U.S. this year, according to the earnings report. IHG acquired the European lifestyle brand in February for approximately $116 million.
At the time, Maalouf said IHG was planning to “rapidly take this exciting brand to the Americas and across Asia.”
Meanwhile, IHG is “accelerating conversions” to fuel system growth, according to the report, which noted that conversions represented 57% of all the company’s room openings in H1.
Midscale conversion brand Garner, in particular, has reached 138 open and pipeline hotels in less than two years since its launch, per the report. IHG is also leaning on conversions for luxury and lifestyle growth, with the 2021-launched Vignette Collection “ahead of its goal to reach 100 hotels in a decade,” per IHG.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Choice Hotels International also made note of a “softer” U.S. RevPAR environment amid economic uncertainty in recent Q2 earnings reports. Earlier this week, Marriott International posted flat year-on-year performance in the U.S.
