Americas Region Leads InterContinental Hotels’ Pipeline Growth

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) increased its global pipeline by more than 29,000 rooms, expanding the total number of rooms to over 187,000 in the first half of 2007.

The Americas region led the pipeline growth with the signing of over 32,000 rooms in this same time period. As of June 30, the region’s pipeline had 1,129 hotels (119,370 rooms) representing room growth of 13 percent for the first half of the year.

“Our tremendous growth is being led by our Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands with more than 550 license agreements signed over the past 18 months,” said Kirk Kinsell, Chief Development Officer, the Americas, IHG and recently named President of the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.

The Holiday Inn brand continued its growth momentum with 238 hotels (nearly 30,000 rooms) in the Americas pipeline of which 231 are new build construction. The brand signed 51 license agreements in the first six months of 2007.

Currently, there are 965 Holiday Inn hotels (more than 181,000 rooms) open in the Americas region, of which 21 are the new Holiday Inn prototype that was launched two years ago.

The growth of Holiday Inn Express, the fastest-growing hotel brand in the limited-service category, continues as it leads all IHG brands with 530 properties (46,216 rooms) in the Americas development pipeline, including 121 new signed license agreements in the first half of the year.