Tourism & Hospitality | Sunday 17 January, 2016 4:01 am |

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®), one of the world’s leading hotel companies, has today unveiled the Hotel Indigo® Lower East Side New York as its 5,000th hotel globally.

The opening of this landmark property takes IHG’s global system size to 5,000 hotels, in nearly 100 countries. This includes 75 hotels (20,300 rooms) across nine countries in the Middle East region. This outstanding achievement illustrates the strength of IHG’s leading portfolio of brands, which are loved by millions of guests around the world. 

Richard Solomons, Chief Executive Officer, IHG, commented: “Reaching 5,000 open hotels is an incredible milestone for IHG. It is testament to our well-established, long-term strategy for high-quality growth, and the strength of our brands, which focus on distinct segments to cater to a broad range of guest needs and occasions. Over time we have built a leading portfolio of hotel brands and scale where it matters most. Alongside our network of owner relationships and powerful digital platforms, these remain the key drivers behind our consistently strong performance. The recent landmark openings that make up our ‘5,000 Club’ also demonstrate the momentum behind our brand portfolio and our ability to increase our presence in the world’s most important growth markets.”

 

As IHG celebrates the opening of its 5000th hotel globally, the company is predicting an increased focus on environmental, social and commercial sustainability standards in the Gulf’s hospitality sector in particular over the course of 2016.  

 

According to Pascal Gauvin, COO for India, Middle East and Africa at IHG: “In the Middle East, strategic growth has been significant in recent months, with openings including the new InterContinental Dubai Marina, Crowne Plaza Kuwait and Hotel Indigo signings. The boutique brand is set to make its debut with the openings of Hotel Indigo® Dubai The Sustainable City in 2017 and Hotel Indigo® Dubai Business Bay in 2018.”

 

In December 2003, the number of IHG properties globally totalled just over 3,500. Since then, a net 1,500 hotels have been added to the portfolio, with IHG’s emphasis on quality driving guest satisfaction levels to an all-time high. This includes the hospitality industry’s largest ever brand refresh for the Holiday Inn® brand family, during which IHG removed more than 1,000 properties across the brand’s estate and re-launched a further 3,300. 

To mark the occasion, IHG has released details of several other recent landmark hotel openings around the world. Each opening contributed to IHG breaking through the 5,000-hotel milestone and forms part of IHG’s ‘5,000 Club’. 

IHG has also achieved a series of significant milestones across its portfolio of brands, since becoming a standalone company. Each has made a significant contribution to IHG reaching 5,000 open hotels. Key milestones include:

 

2003:    IHG becomes a standalone company and acquires Candlewood Suites®; more than triples the presence of the brand following acquisition. 

2004:    IHG launches the Hotel Indigo® brand. Hotel Indigo has more than 60 properties open globally and this number is expected to double in size within the next three to five years.

2007:    IHG embarks on the hospitality industry’s largest ever brand refresh for its Holiday Inn® brand family. Holiday Inn now has more than four times the number of rooms outside of the US than its nearest competitor, whilst Holiday Inn Express® has doubled its presence outside the US since 2007. This makes the Holiday Inn brand family the largest global hotel brand in the world, with the largest global pipeline.

2012:    IHG launches HUALUXE® Hotels and Resorts, the first hotel brand specifically designed for Chinese travellers. IHG opened its first HUALUXE® properties in 2015.

2012:    IHG launches the EVEN™ Hotels brand for wellness-minded travellers; an industry first. IHG opened its first two EVEN properties in the US, in 2014.

2013:    IHG celebrates opening of 200th hotel in Greater China.

2014:     IHG opens its 400th Crowne Plaza® property and 200th Staybridge Suites® hotel. 

2015:     IHG acquires the world's largest independent boutique hotel operator, Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants, creating a leading boutique business together with the Hotel Indigo brand.