IHG is decreasing its Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts brand portfolio by 41 hotels, about 10% of the brand’s total number of hotels, as part of a larger effort to refresh the brand globally.
Seeking to close a performance gap between the Americas and the rest of the world, where Crowne Plazas are faring better, IHG initiated quality improvement for the brand this year and 16 of the total 41 substandard hotels have already been exited from the brand. All 16 of those hotels were located in the Americas.
As part of the brand refresh, IHG, Denham, England, is also planning to invest capital where necessary to develop halo locations for the brand and then in 2013 to begin rolling out differentiated brand hallmarks.
“Crowne Plaza today is our highest priority, especially in the Americas,” said Richard Solomons, IHG CEO in a conference call with investors on Tuesday. “There remains a significant opportunity to close the performance gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world.”
The upscale Crowne Plaza brand represents 19% of IHG’s gross revenues.
H1 profit up
IHG saw its operating profit increase 6% year-on-year to US$286 million in the first half of 2012. IHG announced on Tuesday it will return US$1 billion to shareholders through a US$500 million special dividend and US$500 million of share repurchases. IHG said the shareholder return takes into account expected proceeds from the sale of the 685-room InterContinental New York Barclay.