London drives global revpar growth for IHG

London led the way in revpar growth for IHG after the business reported that the capital was up 4% in first-quarter trading.

Total UK revpar was up 2%, while the provinces were flat in the three months to March 2019. Global revpar for the hotel group stood at 0.3%.

In the period IHG signed 24,000 rooms globally, which it said was its strongest Q1 pace for 12 years. It now operates some 843,000 rooms globally.

InterContinental Hotels Group chief executive Keith Barr said: "Our strategic focus on driving industry leading net rooms growth is delivering strong results, with our net system size increasing 5.4% in the first quarter and our highest number of signings in 12 years. Global revpar increased 0.3% against strong prior year results, with good growth in the US where we outperformed the industry segments where we compete, and continued market share gains in China.

"Our highest first quarter hotel openings in a decade included our 400th hotel in Greater China. More than 60% of openings globally were in the Holiday Inn Brand Family, driven by our focus on innovative design and service enhancements which is leading to improved guest satisfaction across our highly preferred portfolio of global brands."