InterContinental Hotels Group Plc Stock Price, News & Analysis
Company Description
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (traded as IHG on the NYSE via American Depositary Receipts and on the London Stock Exchange as ordinary shares) is a global hospitality company in the accommodation and food services sector. According to company disclosures, IHG operates a large international hotel business under the umbrella name IHG Hotels & Resorts, with a stated purpose to provide "True Hospitality for Good." The group oversees a family of hotel brands that span luxury & lifestyle, premium, essentials and suites categories, and it supports its properties with the IHG One Rewards loyalty programme, which the company describes as one of the world’s largest hotel loyalty programmes with over 145 million members.
IHG’s business is built around hotel franchising and management rather than property ownership. The Polygon description notes that InterContinental Hotels Group operates 987,000 rooms across 20 brands from midscale through luxury segments as of 31 December 2024, and that managed and franchised hotels represent 99% of total rooms. The company’s own trading update dated 23 October 2025 states that IHG has a global system of 1,011,000 rooms across 6,845 hotels, with a development pipeline of more than 2,300 properties and more than one million rooms across over 6,800 open hotels in over 100 countries. These disclosures highlight the scale and asset-light nature of IHG’s model.
Brand portfolio and market positioning
IHG groups its brands into several collections. In multiple news releases and its 2025 third quarter trading update, it lists its Luxury & Lifestyle brands as Six Senses, Regent Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Vignette Collection, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, and Hotel Indigo. The Premium category includes voco hotels, Ruby, HUALUXE Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, and EVEN Hotels. The Essentials segment comprises Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, Garner hotels and avid hotels, while the Suites category includes Atwell Suites, Staybridge Suites, Holiday Inn Club Vacations and Candlewood Suites. IHG also identifies Iberostar Beachfront Resorts as an exclusive partner brand.
The Polygon description further notes that as of 31 December 2024, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express constituted the largest brand grouping by rooms, while Hotel Indigo, EVEN, Hualuxe, Kimpton and Voco are described as newer lifestyle brands experiencing strong demand. It also records that IHG launched the midscale brand Avid in 2017, acquired a 51% stake in Regent Hotels in 2018, acquired Six Senses in 2019, and launched another midscale brand, Garner, in 2023. In a 2025 news release, IHG states that Ruby became its 20th global brand and that the company is targeting growth for Ruby in the urban micro segment, particularly in major city centres.
Geographic footprint and system growth
IHG’s disclosures emphasise its global reach. Company news releases and the 2025 third quarter trading update state that IHG has open hotels in over 100 countries, with more than one million rooms and thousands of properties either operating or in the development pipeline. The Polygon description provides additional detail on room distribution as of 31 December 2024, noting that the Americas represented 53% of total rooms, Greater China accounted for 20%, and Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa made up 27%. This mix illustrates the group’s exposure to both mature and faster-growing travel markets.
In its 2025 third quarter trading update, IHG reports that gross system growth was 7.2% year-on-year and net system growth 5.2% after adjusting for the impact of removing rooms previously affiliated with The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. It also states that the global pipeline comprised 342,000 rooms across 2,316 hotels, and that 2025 was on track to be one of its biggest years for both openings and signings. The same update highlights strong development activity in all three of the company’s reporting regions: the Americas, EMEAA (Europe, Middle East, Asia & Africa) and Greater China.
Business model and revenue drivers
While specific revenue line items are not detailed in the provided materials, the Polygon description explicitly states that managed and franchised hotels represent 99% of IHG’s total rooms. This indicates that the group’s business model is primarily based on management and franchise fees derived from hotels that carry its brands, rather than owning the underlying real estate. The 2025 third quarter trading update describes IHG’s "growth algorithm" as increasing fee revenues through a combination of revenue per available room (RevPAR), system expansion and ancillary fee streams, supported by a cost base that the company characterises as efficient.
The same trading update notes that IHG measures performance using metrics such as RevPAR, occupancy and average daily rate across its regions. For the year-to-date period referenced in that document, IHG reports global RevPAR growth and provides regional breakdowns for the Americas, EMEAA and Greater China. It also discusses demand by guest stay occasion—Business, Leisure and Groups—on a comparable hotels basis. These disclosures show how the company links operating performance at the hotel level to its fee-based income.
Loyalty programme and guest engagement
Across multiple news releases, IHG highlights IHG One Rewards as a central component of its platform. The company describes IHG One Rewards as one of the world’s largest hotel loyalty programmes with over 145 million members. It states that members can earn and redeem points for free nights, access exclusive experiences and events, and benefit from milestone rewards such as bonus points, food and beverage rewards and confirmable suite upgrades. The programme is also positioned as a way to connect guests with brand-specific experiences, such as exclusive US Open tennis activations or cultural event packages offered by InterContinental Hotels & Resorts.
Brand-level communications, such as those for Kimpton, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express and EVEN Hotels, emphasise differentiated guest experiences within the broader IHG framework. For example, Kimpton is described as a San Francisco–born luxury lifestyle brand that pioneered boutique hotels in the United States, with more than 75–83 properties and over 100 restaurants, bars and lounges in urban, resort and emerging markets. InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is described as the world’s first and largest luxury hotel brand, founded in 1946 and operating over 230 hotels in more than 70 countries. Crowne Plaza is presented as a premium brand focused on blended travel, while Holiday Inn Express and EVEN Hotels communications focus on breakfast, coffee partnerships and wellness-oriented stays, respectively.
Capital allocation and share structure
IHG’s recent SEC filings provide insight into its capital allocation and share structure. A series of Form 6-K filings from late 2025 and early 2026 detail ongoing share repurchase activity conducted under shareholder authority granted at the company’s Annual General Meeting on 8 May 2025. These filings list daily purchases of ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange and other venues, the intention to cancel the purchased shares, and the resulting number of ordinary shares in issue and voting rights outstanding.
For example, a 6-K dated 1 December 2025 reports that as at 30 November 2025, IHG’s issued share capital consisted of 157,598,385 ordinary shares, of which 6,206,782 were held in treasury, resulting in 151,391,603 voting rights. A subsequent 6-K dated 9 January 2026 states that as at 31 December 2025, the company’s issued share capital comprised 157,126,590 ordinary shares, of which 5,481,782 were held in treasury, giving 151,644,808 voting rights. The 2025 third quarter trading update also notes that a $900 million share buyback programme was underway in 2025, following similar programmes in prior years, and that these programmes had reduced the total number of voting rights over time.
In the same trading update, IHG announces its intention to change the currency in which its ordinary shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange from British pounds to US dollars, while keeping the nominal currency of the shares in pounds and maintaining its London listing and New York ADR listing. The company explains that it has reported financial results in US dollars for many years and that aligning the trading currency with its reporting currency is intended to reduce the translational impact of exchange rate fluctuations on the share price.
Ownership disclosures and regulatory reporting
IHG’s Form 6-K filings also include regulatory disclosures such as notifications of major holdings and director or person discharging managerial responsibilities (PDMR) share dealings. A 6-K dated 12 November 2025, for example, contains a TR-1 notification indicating that The Capital Group Companies, Inc. crossed a 5% voting rights threshold in IHG on 10 November 2025, with details of voting rights attached to shares and depository receipts. Another filing dated 14 November 2025 reports a one-off share award grant under the InterContinental Hotels Group PLC Deferred Award Plan to a PDMR, with the number of conditional rights and the reference share price used for the calculation.
These filings demonstrate IHG’s status as a UK issuer subject to the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules, as well as its obligations as a foreign private issuer under US securities law. Each filing specifies that InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is incorporated and registered in England and Wales and provides the total number of voting rights that shareholders may use as a denominator for threshold calculations.
Workforce and corporate structure
Several company news releases state that InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the holding company for the group and is incorporated and registered in England and Wales. The same releases note that approximately 375,000–385,000 people work across IHG’s hotels and corporate offices globally. This figure reflects the scale of the workforce involved in operating and supporting the group’s branded hotels, although the materials do not break down how many of these individuals are directly employed by IHG versus working at franchised or managed properties.
Within the group, brand-level entities such as Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express and EVEN Hotels are described as being part of IHG’s luxury & lifestyle, premium, essentials or suites portfolios. The company’s communications also highlight partnerships, such as the exclusive partnership with Iberostar Beachfront Resorts and collaborations with other consumer brands or event organisers, but the provided materials do not specify the contractual structures of these arrangements.
Investor considerations
For investors researching IHG stock, the materials provided emphasise several structural characteristics of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC: a predominantly managed and franchised, fee-based business model; a diversified global footprint across more than 100 countries; a multi-brand portfolio spanning luxury to midscale and extended-stay segments; and an ongoing capital return programme that has included substantial share repurchases and dividends. The company’s trading updates and SEC filings provide detail on RevPAR trends, system growth, pipeline size, share count and bond financing, which are key inputs for analysing the group’s financial profile and exposure to global travel demand.
According to the 2025 third quarter trading update, IHG stated that it expected to finish 2025 in line with consensus profit and earnings expectations and described long-term structural drivers of travel demand and hotel supply as compelling. However, the materials also acknowledge near-term macroeconomic challenges in some markets and variations in performance across regions and guest segments. Investors typically use the company’s periodic trading updates, annual reports and regulatory filings to assess these dynamics in more detail.