IHG sees drop in Middle East room revenue

IHG Hotels, which operates several brands including Holiday Inn, reported a drop in room revenues in its Middle East hotels over the third quarter. (Reuters)

LONDON: IHG’s strong global performance for the third quarter dipped in the Middle East.
The hotel operator said revenue per available room, a measure known in the industry as RevPAR, fell 6 percent in the region compared to a year earlier.
In its latest trading update, the company, whose holdings include the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotel brands, cited the ongoing impact of low oil prices, high supply growth and government austerity measures as well as the timing of Ramadan as reasons for the decline.
Globally, the group recorded a 2.3 percent rise in RevPAR over the period with a net rooms growth of 4.1 percent, its strongest since 2010.
This takes the group total to 786,000 rooms with a further 235,000 in the pipeline.
China and Europe recorded the strongest growth in room revenues.
In the Middle East, IHG said it maintained momentum this year with the opening of six new hotels by the end of 2017.
This includes a Holiday Inn in Doha and two new properties in Saudi Arabia – Staybridge Suites Jeddah Alandalus Mall and a Crowne Plaza in Riyadh.
Discussing the group’s expanding footprint across the region at Arabian Travel Market earlier this year, Rajit Sukumaran, the regional chief development officer at IHG said: “While we have great demand for our mid-scale offering in the current economic environment, we are also seeing interest in our extended-stay brand, Staybridge Suites, in response to the evolution of the region’s major cities into budding business hubs.”
IHG was the first international hotel company to enter the Middle East with the launch of the InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut in Lebanon in 1961.