Dive Brief:
- IHG Hotels & Resorts posted global and Americas region year-on-year RevPAR growth of 3.3% and 3.5%, respectively, in the first quarter of 2025, bolstered by the hotel company’s continued growth in the U.S., CEO Elie Maalouf shared in an earnings report Thursday.
- The company also signed 14,600 rooms in the quarter, “well over double” the prior-year quarter. Conversions fueled rooms growth, accounting for 60% of openings and 40% of organic signings in the quarter.
- Though forward-looking economic indicators have softened, “attractive long-term structural growth drivers for both demand and supply remain unaltered for the travel industry and for IHG in particular,” Maalouf said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
U.S. RevPAR was up 3.5% year on year in the quarter, ahead of its 1.7% full-year 2024 growth, per the report.
In the Americas region, demand drivers from 2024 continued in the first quarter of 2025, with group travel up 6%, business up 4% and leisure up 2% year over year.
The first two months of the quarter, however, were the strongest for IHG, per the report — echoing a trend other hotel company CEOs have noted in Q1 earnings calls. Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta said that intensifying economic pressures impacted travel demand in March, while IHG’s earnings report pointed to the shift in the timing of Easter as a factor that impacted March performance.
IHG added 42 hotels, or 4,500 rooms, to its Americas pipeline in the quarter, including 18 extended stay properties. The company’s growing midscale conversion brand, Garner, now has 59 open and pipeline hotels in the region.
As tariffs and uncertainty threaten to impact travel demand in the coming months, Maalouf said IHG’s portfolio “being heavily weighted to domestic stay occasions” remains a business strength. IHG’s portfolio includes “road-trip brands” such as Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.
Unlike other hotel companies — including Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels, Choice Hotels International and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts — that reduced their RevPAR growth outlooks for the full-year 2025, IHG remains on track to meet its profit expectations, Maalouf said.
