InterContinental Hotels Group plc (IHG) has posted its First Quarter trading update to 31 March 2019 showing group RevPAR was up 0.3%, with rate up 0.6% and occupancy down 0.2%.
The company saw UK RevPAR increase by 2%, with London up 4% and the Provinces flat. Continental Europe was up 1%. In France, RevPAR was down 3%, with performance impacted by social unrest in Paris. RevPAR in Germany was up 2%.
Following the opening of the UK flagship, the Kimpton Fitzroy London, the group expanded its presence across the UK with the opening of its first Kimpton Hotel in Scotland.
Holiday Inn continued the roll out of new 'Open Lobby' public space in Europe with its 100th Holiday Inn Open Lobby hotel opening recently in Belfast
Keith Barr, Chief Executive of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, said, 'Our strategic focus on driving industry leading net rooms growth is delivering strong results, with our net system size increasing 5.4% in the first quarter and our highest number of signings in 12 years.
'Global RevPAR increased 0.3% against strong prior year results, with good growth in the US where we outperformed the industry segments where we compete, and continued market share gains in China.'
Barr continued, 'Our highest first quarter hotel openings in a decade included our 400th hotel in Greater China. More than 60% of openings globally were in the Holiday Inn Brand Family, driven by our focus on innovative design and service enhancements which is leading to improved guest satisfaction across our highly preferred portfolio of global brands.
'We have continued to expand our brand portfolio into high-opportunity segments and markets. In mainstream, we now have over 180 avid hotels signed and will launch our all-suites upper midscale brand in the US later this month.
'Our upscale conversion brand voco, is seeing strong owner interest with 5 hotels now open and a further 12 signed since launch last year. Our recent acquisition of Six Senses rounds out our offer in the top tier of luxury.'
Barr concluded, 'The investments we are making to enable this acceleration in growth are funded through our efficiency programme, which is on track to deliver $125m of annual savings by 2020. While macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainties remain in some markets, the strong fundamentals of our business give us confidence for the balance of the year.'