IHG Still Signed One New Hotel Deal a Day in the First Half of 2020
Skift Take
If you’re looking for signs of the pandemic’s negative impact on the hotel industry, IHG’s ongoing pace of hotel deals and openings isn’t it.
Coronavirus travel restrictions and economic shutdowns around the world haven’t distracted IHG from building out plans for a post-pandemic global portfolio.
IHG opened 90 new hotels over the first half of 2020 and signed deals for 181 more, including nearly 100 Holiday Inns, company leaders reported Tuesday. The UK-based hotel company wasn’t immune to the catastrophic coronavirus impact on travel: IHG reported a $275 million pre-tax loss for the first half of the year and laid off about 10 percent of its corporate staff in a move to cut costs into 2021.
But the company feels its focus on midscale brands appealing to domestic travelers like Holiday Inn as well as a growing luxury portfolio with brands like Regent Hotels and Kimpton position it well to capture growth opportunities during the economic recovery.
“As you can see, while we’ve been dealing with our response to Covid-19, we remain focused on our future growth as travel returns,” IHG CEO Keith Barr said during an earnings call. “We continue to open and sign hotels on a weekly basis, and, in some markets, we’re discussing deals more than ever be
