NASHVILLE, Tennessee — IHG Hotels & Resorts' premium brands play a significant role in the global hospitality company's segment mix and should continue to perform well among group and leisure travelers, according to the executive who oversees the category.
Cesar Wurm, vice president of premium and commercial brands at IHG, said the category remains healthy and is poised for growth into 2025. IHG's premium brand lineup of Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Even Hotels and Voco enables the company to offer a segmentation mix.
IHG's premium hotels mean "we can serve very well from a leisure perspective, group perspective and corporate perspective," Wurm said in an interview at the 2024 Hotel Data Conference. "So we're able to flex as needed."
The presence of premium brands is growing at IHG. When the company announced its second-quarter earnings, CEO Elie Maalouf said it "celebrated 126 hotel openings in the half and the signing of a record-breaking 384 properties." In the conference call to discuss earnings, Maalouf said IHG's premium and luxury brands are important.
"One, we are signing and opening more premium and luxury and lifestyle hotels, in both categories. Premium and luxury and lifestyle usually require a level of key money," he said, according to a transcript of the call. "However, within that, our key money per hotel and key money per room is roughly the same as it’s been over time. So it’s not becoming more intensive per hotel, per room, we’re just doing more of it. So it’s a mixed thing."
One premium-brand hotel that opened this year is the Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman along the Caribbean nation's famous Seven Mile Beach. IHG developed the 282-key property with Dart, the largest private landowner in Cayman. IHG and Dart also teamed to develop the nearby Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa, also on Seven Mile Beach.
Wurm, who attended the Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman's opening in May, said the property is off to a great start.
"There's a wonderful rooftop bar that serves amazing tapas, and you have the entire island view," Wurm said. "So it's supposed to do extremely well. The response from customers has been amazing and a lot of demand at this time."
Looking ahead, Wurm said his outlook for the hospitality industry over the next year is bullish.
"We're seeing pretty robust projections that we're seeing aligned with [hotel construction] starts, a little bit of tick for 2024," he said. "And also the momentum. This year, we continue to see momentum continue to grow as we look into the forward pace."