InterContinental Hotels Group has been boosted by the return of business and group travel as its revpar (revenue per available room) approached pre-Covid levels in the second quarter.
IHG, which owns brands such as Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, saw a “significant improvement” in trading during the second quarter of the year, with revpar in the Americas up by 3.5 per cent on 2019 and only 10.3 per cent lower in the EMEAA (Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa) region. Global revpar for Q2 was 4.5 per cent lower than in 2019.
The UK-based company added that global average daily rate (ADR) during the first half of 2022 was up by 4 per cent on 2019, although occupancy remained 10 percentage points below pre-Covid levels.
Keith Barr, IHG’s CEO, said: “We saw continued strong trading in the first half of 2022 with increased demand for travel in most of our markets. This brought group revpar very close to pre-pandemic levels in the second quarter.
“Alongside leisure stays, the return of business and group travel demand continued to build over the period, and our hotels are seeing increased pricing power due to the strength of IHG's brands, loyalty programme and technology platform.
“The recovery in demand and pricing led to group profit more than doubling versus 2021, with profitability in the Americas now ahead of 2019. The EMEAA region also saw excellent improvement in performance.”
The group reported a 52 per cent increase in revenue to $1.8 billion for the first half of this year, while operating profit increased by 162 per cent from $138 million in 2021 to $361 million year-on-year.
IHG attributed the variation in performance across the EMEAA region to the timing of the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions with the UK market benefiting from an earlier easing of its rules.
Revpar at the company’s UK properties was only down by 2 per cent on 2019 levels in the second quarter of 2022, with “strong improvements in London trading”, which saw the city “rapidly closing the performance gap” with the UK regions. By comparison, revpar in continental Europe was down by 8 per cent in Q2 compared with the same quarter in 2019.