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IHG Will Focus on Non-Luxury Brands as It Pulls Back on Wild Portfolio Growth

Cameron Sperance

Photo Credit: IHG leaders Tuesday renewed their emphasis on non-luxury brands in recovering from the pandemic. IHG Hotels & Resorts

Skift Take

IHG leaders still think their portfolio, heavily focused on mid-priced brands like Holiday Inn Express and the newer Avid Hotels, is more resilient than the competition. The financial figures back their claims.

IHG Hotels & Resorts launched a growth initiative in 2017 aimed at adding as many hotel rooms as possible to its portfolio. The global pandemic significantly curtailed the expansion streak, with 2020 seeing barely any room growth. But company leaders maintain their brands of hotels like Holiday Inn that typically lack full-service amenities like a sit-down restaurant will reignite the expansion trajectory. Hotel owners will prefer to run lower-cost, high-margin properties during the recovery, the thinking goes. “That mainstream, select-service space is incredibly popular with owners because of high returns,” IHG CEO Keith Barr said Tuesday on an investor call. “Midscale, the growth engine of the company, will continue to accelerate going forward.”

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Barr acknowledged the company’s growth trajectory since 2017 slowed due to the pandemic. The company’s room count had been increasing by at least 4 percent for three years, with peak growth arri

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