Earnings at the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) grew 22% in 2010, after what the CEO termed the “sharpest recovery in history”.
The hotel group ended the year with an operating profit of $444 million, up from $363 million in 2009.
Andrew Cosslett, IHG’s CEO, said that despite a “slow start” to 2010, the recovery in the hotel industry ended up “exceeding all expectations”.
IHG’s focused in 2010 on its brands, with a $1 billion relaunch of the Holiday Inn marque.
The revamping of some 3,200 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels is nearly complete, although a number of hotels that failed to reach the new brand standards were removed from the portfolio.
With 259 hotels added across IHG during 2010, and 260 hotels removed, growth stayed relatively static.
Next year is also expected to be “modest”, according to the hotel group, as “remaining Holiday Inn relaunch exits are completed”.
From 2012, the hotel group expects to grow its network of hotels by up to 5% a year. IHG currently has 1,275 hotels in its development pipeline, half of which are in the Americas.
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