Holiday Inn owner reports trade improvement as travel returns
Crowne Plaza owner InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has said it has achieved an average daily rate in line with pre-pandemic levels.
In a third quarter trading update, it said it had achieved occupancy of around 60 per cent.
It reported revenue per available room (RevPAR) was down 21 per cent on 2019. It was up by more than two thirds on 2020.
The UK performance was similar to the global figure, with RevPAR down 22 per cent compared to 2019.
Across the group, there was gross system growth of 5.2 per cent year-on-year, with 73 hotels opening in the third quarter.
A review of some 200 Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels in underway, with 90 sites exited or with an exit confirmed.
Keith Barr, IHG chief executive officer, said trading continued to improve significantly in the third quarter.
He added: “Domestic leisure demand was particularly strong in a number of markets over the summer, where occupancy and rate climbed back to 2019 levels. Discretionary business travel, group bookings and international trips have also shown increasingly encouraging signs, on top of continuing good levels of essential business demand.
“While we remain vigilant to fluctuating Covid restrictions in different markets, the pace of returning demand is very encouraging as travel increasingly re-opens in every region.”