IHG is an international hotel company whose goal is to create Great Hotels Guests Love.
We have more guest rooms than any other hotel company in the world – that's rooms in nearly 4,400 hotels across nearly 100 countries. Our guests make over 180 million stays in IHG hotels every year.
We operate seven hotel brands – InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.
For an overview please Download the IHG at a Glance factsheet (PDF 0.32Mb).
Our goal
We want to grow by making our brands the first choice for guests and hotel owners.
Our target
In 2005 we committed to increase the number of rooms we have by 50,000 to 60,000 on a net and organic basis. The top end of this target was exceeded in June 2008 – 6 months ahead of schedule. By the end of 2008, we had reached 82,000 net rooms.
This was achieved through organic growth – meaning through new rooms under our existing brands and not through acquisition. Most of the rooms that leave our system do so at our instigation as we raise the quality of our hotels across all of our brands.
Our strategy
Our strategy is to build the hotel industry’s strongest operating system focused on the biggest markets and segments where scale really counts.
Our operating system
IHG’s operating system is made up of all the things we do to drive demand for our brands. This includes our advertising and marketing campaigns, our 12 global call centres, 13 local language websites, an 8,000-strong sales force, Priority Club Rewards – the world’s largest hotel loyalty scheme which has 47 million members – and all the advantages that IHG’s global hotel distribution and scale brings to brand awareness.
Our focus on the biggest markets where our scale really counts ensures that we concentrate our resources on the opportunities that will provide the greatest return.
Find out more about how we drive demand
Our strategic priorities
Improving the performance of our brands
- Using our insight to make our brands the first choice for guests
- Delivering consistent customer experiences
Generating excellent returns from our hotels
- Improving hotel revenue by encouraging guest visits
- Improving the efficiency of our hotels and operating processes
Putting our market scale and knowledge to good use
- Using our worldwide scale and experience to convert more hotels to our brands
- Making the most of our global presence – guests choose brands they know when they travel
Strengthening our organisation
- Investing in our people and our ability to do business
- Building strong partnerships within our own company and with our owners across the world
Our business model
We operate hotels in three different ways – as a franchisor, a manager and on an owned and leased basis.
Our business model focuses on managing and franchising hotels, whilst our business partners own the bricks and mortar.
Franchising
This is the largest part of our business: over 3,700 hotels operate under franchise agreements.
Managing
We manage 614 hotels worldwide.
Owning
We own 17 hotels worldwide (less than 1% of our portfolio).
| Brand | Marketing and distribution | Staff | Ownership | Capital | IHG income | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owned | IHG | IHG | IHG | IHG | High | All revenue |
| Managed | IHG | IHG | IHG supply general managers as a minimum | Third party | Low / none | Fee % of total revenue plus % of profit |
| Franchised | IHG | IHG | Third party | Third party | None | Fee % of rooms revenue |
Our hotel development pipeline
IHG’s strategy is focused on increasing the number of franchised and managed hotels we have. Our hotel development pipeline is the industry’s largest, and is at over 1,500 hotels (nearly 220,000 rooms).
Last updated 10 November 2009
