IHG is expanding its footprint, again.
Building on the company's success opening new properties around the globe both this quarter and in 2025 as a whole, IHG will launch "a new collection brand within the large, fast-growing premium segment in the coming months," Elie Maalouf, CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts, said in the company's third-quarter financial disclosure this week.
As TPG previously reported, a collection brand usually refers to a relatively small group of independent hotels with a local focus, or often a boutique vibe. These conversion properties help companies like IHG (for example, through Vignette, alongside sibling portfolios like Voco and Garner) beef up their room count while helping owners avoid the expensive new builds or significant and costly changes that come with brand standards.
Instead, they raise the flag of popular brands we're all familiar with over properties that tell a similar story despite geographic differences. We've seen similar examples from Marriott (Series), Hilton (Outset) and Hyatt (Unscripted) recently, too.
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Although we don't yet know the name of the new IHG brand, here's what we do know so far.
The new IHG collection brand will initially focus on Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, "where there is a significant proportion of high-quality hotels with their own unique identity, and where a collection brand will expand our offer for guests and allow more owners to benefit from our enterprise platform," according to Maalouf. This means that the U.S. will not be the first stop for this new brand.
Additionally, IHG said that "the brand will complement our versatile premium conversion brand, voco, which has already reached 225 open and pipeline hotels across more than 30 countries since its launch in 2018" and also that "it will also look to replicate the success of Vignette Collection, launched in 2021, which is positioned higher in the Luxury & Lifestyle category and already tracking ahead of its goal to reach 100 hotels in a decade, currently with 27 open and a further 41 pipeline properties."
So far, we know the brand will be part of the Premium Collection (similar to Voco, Even, Ruby and Crown Plaza). We also know that it's set to launch in the coming months, so the wait for the brand reveal shouldn't be too long.
Bottom line
IHG is ready to open another collection brand, a growing trend across the hotel industry. When the brand launches in a few months, it will be part of IHG's Premium Collection and debut in the EMEAA region. Stay tuned for more details.
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