IAHI / IHG Mid-Year Meetings Help
Owners & Operators Stay Focused on Strong Revenues

Representatives from nearly 1,000 hotels attended the IAHI/IHG Mid-Year Meetings held in Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco, and heard from IAHI and IHG executives about industry issues, brand performance, and a number of initiatives designed to help owners and operators maximize the return on their investment.

“The IAHI has been working diligently on the key areas we identified as the priorities for our Association – assisting in creating long-term brand and hotel asset value; reviewing IHG hotel brand standards and hallmarks and the optimum use of marketing funds; and representing members’ interest as part of the broader hotel industry on legislative issues that impact our business,” said IAHI Chairman David Hart. “As a result of these efforts, we expect hotel-operating profits that meet or exceed industry averages, while generating fair returns on our investment.”

IHG President, the Americas, Steve Porter, gave a performance update, saying that business continues to strengthen.

“The industry’s RevPAR gain of almost 10 percent in the first quarter is the highest ever recorded by Smith Travel Research,” Porter said. “In addition, rate growth is among the highest ever – up an estimated 6.7 percent. And occupancy should also be the highest ever recorded in the first quarter, at just over 60 percent, industry wide. What makes this all the more impressive is that the last time the industry posted 60 percent occupancy in the first quarter was 1996. And since that time, the industry has added nearly 900,000 more rooms.”

Speaking of adding rooms, Porter also outlined IHG’s plans to add 60,000 net new rooms to its system globally over the next three years – about half of which are in the Americas.

“This is important for a number of reasons,” he said. “It will refresh our core product, add new rooms in emerging brands and new markets, and serve as a key measure of the overall health of the system.” he said.

Other IHG executives provided updates on their brands and key initiatives.

Attendees also heard a rousing and entertaining discussion on leadership from keynote speaker, Steve Farber, President of Extreme Leadership. Each of the meetings concluded with a Q&A session, where owners had the opportunity to ask questions of IHG and IAHI executives.