Dive Brief:
- IHG Hotels & Resorts’ Americas RevPAR rose 6.8% year over year during the third quarter of 2026, according to a Thursday earnings report. Despite conflict in parts of the world, including in the Middle East, global RevPAR grew 5.3% YOY.
- In the U.S., RevPAR increased 6.9% YOY, with occupancy hitting 73.9%, its highest level since 2017, IHG CFO Michael Glover said on an earnings call. Strong U.S. performance “reflects the ongoing strength and breadth of the U.S. economy,” Glover added.
- Glover expressed optimism for the remainder of the year, anticipating “consensus to increase modestly further given the successful Q3 we are reporting today.” In a statement, IHG CEO Elie Maalouf added he expects “another year of record development activity,” with 2026 poised to be the fifth consecutive year of accelerating net system growth.
Dive Insight:
According to Maalouf, U.S. hotel performance “was very strong, with growth across every brand, every demand driver in every location type.”
Q3 performance was also driven by “growth in all three demand drivers,” across the Americas, with group room revenue up by 12% YOY, leisure up 7% and business up 6%.
The “tail end of the World Cup” added 40 basis points to IHG’s U.S. RevPAR growth in Q3, according to Glover. Additionally, the third quarter marginally benefited from the timing of public holidays and events, further supporting an uptick in travel, he said.
On the development front, IHG opened 12,900 rooms across 92 hotels, expanding its global system to 7,186 hotels. Currently, development is evenly split between new builds and conversions, with the latter “moving more quickly through the pipeline,” Maalouf said.
During a panel at this year’s Lodging Conference in Phoenix, Mark Sergot, IHG’s chief development officer for the Americas, described conversions as a “longer-term phenomenon” due to their ability to deliver on commercial performance.
The company’s collection and conversion-focused brands, including voco, Vignette and Garner, are also gaining traction, Maalouf said on the call. In an interview with Hotel Dive earlier this month, Sergot called Garner the “fastest-scaling” brand in IHG’s history, with 100 properties now open under the brand.
In terms of Americas signings for the quarter, IHG added 5,700 hotel rooms, or 65 hotels, to the pipeline, which included Holiday Inn properties and those under extended stay and conversion-friendly brands. So far in 2026, conversions now represent 50% of openings and 60% of signings.
Also in the Americas, gross system growth was up 3.6% YOY, with 4,000 rooms, or 39 hotels, opened in Q3 — 1,300 rooms more than the same period last year, per Glover. Meanwhile, net system growth grew 2.1% YOY.
A notable opening during the quarter included the recently renovated Crowne Plaza Manhattan Times Square, which marks the luxury brand’s new flagship property.
In Europe, IHG hit 1,000 open hotels, while globally, it reached 200 openings for its Hotel Indigo brand and 150 for voco.
Looking ahead, Maalouf believes IHG will “finish the year with good momentum,” with signings in the Americas continuing to power the business. The company now anticipates 4.8% net unit growth for full-year 2026, up from 4.2% earlier this year.
Maalouf also said that Q4 is “always our biggest openings quarter proportionately,” noting he expects this year to be “another typical strong quarter of openings.”
