ATLANTA — IHG Hotels & Resorts' growth strategy is bearing fruit, said Julian Smith, IHG's chief development officer for the Americas.
In a recent video interview with Hotel News Now Hunter Hotel Investment ConferenceSmith said the UK-based company recently signed twice as many deals in luxury and lifestyle as it did five years ago.
Six of IHG's 19 brands are in the luxury and lifestyle space. These include Six Senses, Regent Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, and the Vignette Collection.
“If you look at our pipeline last year and what we signed, about 15% of our pipeline is luxury and lifestyle, which is also double what we did previously. 85% are still mainstream or mid-range and above products”…long-term stay brands. That's what feeds us as a company, and these additional brands that we've added have given us scale and given us importance to key accounts and users who want a stay experience. across a wide range of our portfolio,” she said.
Currently, approximately two-thirds of IHG's contracts across its brands are new construction, Smith added, even though the economic environment is encouraging the conversion of existing hotels and hotels.
About a third are conversions, which is far more than IHG has ever signed.
“Some of that is some of the brands we've launched, like Garner, which is a conversion brand. [and] Voco primarily does conversion. Most of our brands are conversion-friendly,” she said. “Lenders like hotels that have cash flow. They like to see what the history is to predict what a new brand can do, so that gives them a little bit of an advantage in this kind of environment. A third of our pipeline is conversions, which is about the right place for the environment we're in.”
Watch the video above to learn more about development trends with Julienne Smith.
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