IHG revpar up 2.7%, helped by late Easter

Comparable revpar was up 2.7%, rate 0.8% and occupancy 1.2% for InterContinental Hotels Group, according to the group's first quarter trading update this morning.

The group said the shift in timing of Easter had a positive impact, especially in the Americas and Europe, which is expected to reverse in Q2.

Revpar in the UK "outperformed the industry" with growth of almost 8%, rate up 5% and occupancy up 1.8%. London saw revpar growth of 12%, benefitting from increased international inbound travel, and the provinces continued to grow mid-single digits, while revpar for Europe was up 6.9%.

Richard Solomons, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group, said: "We have made a good start to 2017, with 3.4% net system size growth year-on-year and 2.7% revpar growth driven by increases in both rate and occupancy, and benefitting from the later timing of Easter.

"We continued our focus on building and leveraging scale in our priority markets, opening 49 hotels in the quarter, including our 300th for Greater China, and signing hotels into our pipeline at the fastest rate for the first quarter since 2008. Despite the uncertain economic and political environment in some markets, we remain confident in the outlook for 2017 and our ability to deliver sustainable growth into the future."

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