Skift Backstage Podcast: InterContinental CEO on Guests Who Want It All

With 5,200 hotels around the globe, InterContinental Hotels Group works with a lot of customers. And the UK-based hotel company is fixated on what those guests want. But there’s one problem, the CEO told us: They want everything.

Figuring out how to deliver on a customer wish list that includes just about everything is a priority for IHG, one of the largest hotel companies in the world. One thing that isn’t as important? Growing just for the sake of getting bigger.

Richard Solomons, the CEO of IHG, was a speaker recently at the inaugural Skift Forum Europe in London. He also spoke to News Editor and podcast host Hannah Sampson behind the scenes in the Skift Take Studio.

He told us how IHG is trying to cater to both millennials and baby boomers, the way the company is keeping well-known brands relevant but comfortably familiar, the reason he isn’t really worried about Airbnb, and the company’s plans to expand the boutique Kimpton brand.

Though we didn’t know it at the time of the conversation in April, Solomons won’t be doing many more interviews as CEO. In early May, he announced that he is stepping down from the role on June 30.

This mini-episode is one of several conversations we’re bringing you from backstage at Skift Forum Europe 2017.

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