IHG CEO Bullish on New Hotel Construction Despite Tight Lending Market
Skift Take
Construction cranes for hotels haven’t been called off to the level as some hotel industry analysts would have you believe. It can take years to build a new hotel, and those breaking ground now will open just in time for the pandemic to be in the rearview mirror.
Don’t rule out brand new hotels getting built just because of the worst downturn in the history of the industry.
IHG Hotels & Resorts CEO Keith Barr sees plenty of interest in moving ahead with new-build construction for hotels despite the tight lending market. Financing for new hotels dried up in the worst months of the pandemic, leading many hotel executives — Barr included — to promote the idea of signing new brand deals with the owners of existing hotels, also known as a conversion.
But while fellow executives see conversions as top of mind for the industry, Barr says new-build construction is a dominant force at the luxury and lifestyle end of the hotel spectrum as well as in the more “mainstream” end for IHG brands like Avid and Holiday Inn.
“It's almost a barbell right now, which I fin
