DENHAM, ENGLAND RevPAR is up across all regions in the first quarter, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC reports, with particularly strong success in China and promising results in North America.
The world’s largest hotelier by number of guestrooms warns, however, that it expects recent world events to negatively impact full-year profits by US$15 million to US$20 million.
Overall, IHG reports a 23% increase in operating profit for the quarter, driven by surging RevPAR of 6.9%. Net profit is up 28% to US$69 million thanks to a 9% rise in revenue to US$396 million.
In Asia Pacific, RevPAR is up 9.9% year over year, with 18.8% growth in China alone. Excluding IHG’s 33 properties in disaster-stricken Japan, RevPAR grew 13.6% for the region. RevPAR is up 8.4% in the United States, marking the biggest quarterly increase for the market since the second quarter of 2006.
“We remain confident about the outlook for the rest of the year,” says CEO Andrew Cosslett. “Demand for our brands continues to strengthen with both guests and hotel owners. This is driving our performance and reinforcing our industry leading pipeline. We are well positioned to take advantage of the gathering rate momentum we now see around the world.”
IHG has the biggest share of the global hotel pipeline, at 18%. The company signed 63 hotels in the first quarter, compared to 55 signings a year ago. Its portfolio increased by a net of 5,295 guestrooms during the period, with the addition of 53 properties and the removal of 68.