Hotel demand is strong in the US, UK and Asia but still weak in certain Continental markets, David Webster chairman and acting ceo of the InterContinental Hotels (IHG) group, said.
Mr Webster cited Cannes, Frankfurt and Paris as locations where weak demand had hit its large properties.
It helped cut the group's operating profit in the EMEA region by 6% from £36m to £34m for the third quarter to September 2004. This compared with a 12% rise in operating profits for the same period in the Americas and an 80% leap in the Asia Pacific region.
In all IHG reported an operating profit in its hotels division of £76m for the third quarter, the same figure for the same period in 2003. But its operating profit for the nine months to September 2004 showed a 25.2% rise on 2003 from £151m to £189m.
Commenting on the figures, Mr Webster said: “Trading in October was strong and the outlook for the full year remains positive and in line with our expectations.”
IHG which owns the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and InterContinental brands, said it was “well advanced” in the sale of 20 of its properties in the US and was making “encouraging progress”
on the sale of other hotels, including the 75 it owns in the UK.
The aim is to sell most of the group's hotels but retain management contracts on them.
Cendant looks East
Cendant, the US conglomerate which owns hotels, Galileo, Orbitz and Avis cars, has signed a deal to franchise 45 of its Days Inn hotels in 15 countries in Eastern Europe and Asia.
Among the countries are Russia and the Baltic States of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia as well as 12 other CIS countries Asia.
The agreement with Hermitage Hospitality commits Cendant to develop the hotels in the next five years. Cendant said it expected the properties would generate more than $195 in that period.
Michael Schiff, vice president of international strategy and development for Cendant's Hotel Group, said the lack of quality economy and midscale hotels in the former Soviet Union presents a “substantial opportunity” for franchising Days Inn hotels there.
He said the hotels would be aimed at “the emerging middle class of the former Soviet Union as well as to the growing number of business and leisure travelers from both the West and the East.” The Days Inn chain has nearly 1,900 hotels in 14 countries across the globe which generated more than $1.3 billion in gross room revenue in 2003.