IHG Hotels & Resorts reported its first-quarter 2025 trading update.
Highlights include:
- Q1 global RevPAR was up 3.3 percent, with Americas up 3.5 percent, EMEAA up 5.0 percent, and Greater China down 3.5 percent.
- Q1 global rooms revenue on a comparable basis saw Business up 3 percent, Leisure up 2 percent, and Groups up 5 percent.
- Average daily rate was up 2.2 percent and occupancy up 0.6 percentage points
- Gross system size growth accelerated to up 7.1 percent YOY, up 1.5 percent YTD; opened 14,600 rooms (86 hotels) in Q1, more than double the same period last year
- Net system size growth was up 4.3 percent YOY, 0.0 percent YTD (or up 5.0 percent YOY and up 0.7 percent YTD excluding the impact of removing rooms previously affiliated with The Venetian Resort Las Vegas); global system of 987,000 rooms (6,668 hotels)
- Signed 25,800 rooms (158 hotels) in Q1, or 20,200 excluding the Ruby brand acquisition, compared to 17,700 in the same quarter last year; global pipeline of 334,000 rooms (2,265 hotels), up 9.4 percent YOY
- $324m of 2025’s $900m share buyback program completed to date, reducing the share count by 1.9 percent.
Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said, “We had strong trading performance and development activity for our world-class brands in Q1, despite increased volatility in the macro environment. Global RevPAR grew 3.3 percent, reflecting the strength of our globally diverse footprint and increases across each of our three demand drivers of Business, Leisure, and Groups. Americas RevPAR increased by 3.5 percent, led by continued growth in the US, and our EMEAA region also had a strong performance, up 5.0 percent. In Greater China, a 3.5 percent RevPAR reduction was similar to the previous quarter, as we came up against strong comparatives and further increases in outbound leisure travel.
“We celebrated the opening of 14,600 rooms across 86 hotels in the quarter, well over double the same period last year. A strong signings performance of 25,800 rooms across 158 properties was also well ahead of 2024, leading to a 9.4 percent year-on-year increase in our pipeline. This included 5,700 rooms across 30 hotels from our acquisition in February of the premium urban lifestyle brand, Ruby. Since acquiring the brand, a further two Ruby signings have already been added. Demand for quick-to-market conversions to IHG’s brands and enterprise platform continues to be high, representing around 60 percent of openings and 40 percent of organic signings in the quarter.
“Looking ahead, while noting that some forward economic indicators have softened, our comparable on-the-books global revenue for Q2 continues to show growth in the same position a year ago. Our ability to capture demand across geographies and chain scales, as well as being heavily weighted to domestic stay occasions, are resilient strengths of our business. As a result, while still early, we remain on track to meet full-year consensus profit expectations.
“The outlook of attractive long-term structural growth drivers for both demand and supply remains unaltered for the travel industry and for IHG in particular. The power of our growth algorithm comes from the compounding nature of increasing fee revenues through the combination of RevPAR, system expansion, and ancillary fee streams, which in turn helps to grow margins and, with our strong cash generation, allows us to reinvest in our business and return surplus capital to shareholders. Notwithstanding shorter-term macro-economic uncertainties, we remain confident in the strength and resilience of IHG’s enterprise platform and our ability to capitalise further on our scale, leading positions and the fundamental growth drivers for our markets.”
