IHG Hotels & Resorts has delivered one of its strongest opening quarters in its largest region for some years, with the FTSE 100 hotel group reporting 24 new hotel openings and 65 signings across the Americas in the first three months of 2026, a development haul that lifted pipeline additions by more than 30 per cent year-on-year.
The London-listed operator, parent of the InterContinental, Kimpton, voco, Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites brands, added almost 6,000 rooms to its Americas pipeline between January and March, a performance that will reassure investors after a period in which the wider US lodging market has flirted with softness. Owners, IHG said, continue to vote with their cheque books across all of its chain scales.
RevPAR, the industry’s revenue per available room benchmark, grew across every chain scale and every IHG brand in the region during the quarter, propelled by business and group travel demand and underpinned by what the company described as “robust” leisure performance. The United States did the heavy lifting, with Central America, the Caribbean and Canada all contributing to the headline numbers.
Mark Sergot, who took up the post of Chief Development Officer for the Americas last year, said the figures reflected “the strength across our entire brand portfolio and the confidence owners have in IHG”. Pipeline additions, he added, were “driven by continued demand for conversion opportunities and growth across key segments including Suites and the Holiday Inn brand family”.
The numbers chime with the wider trajectory set out in the group’s Q1 trading update, in which global RevPAR rose 4.4 per cent and management flagged the Americas as a particular bright spot, according to coverage in Lodging Magazine.
Essentials & Suites: still the engine room
The mainstream and extended-stay segments remain IHG’s development workhorse on the western side of the Atlantic. The Holiday Inn brand family alone accounted for 23 signings in the quarter, while the three suites brands, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites and the newer Atwell Suites, combined for a further 22 signings. Atwell Suites also made its Puerto Rico debut.
Conversion brand Garner, which was created to let independent owners flip mid-market properties into a soft-branded IHG flag, continues to gather pace, posting 14 signings and 8 openings in the quarter, including a Mexico debut. The brand now boasts close to 200 open and pipeline hotels worldwide. Extended-stay sibling avid hotels is following a similar curve, with a pipeline of nearly 120 properties set to more than double its current footprint.
Conversions, long the preferred route for cost-conscious owners working in a higher-interest-rate environment, were the running thread through Sergot’s commentary. The picture echoes the conversion-heavy approach IHG has rolled out elsewhere, including its franchise deal for 11 PentaHotels conversions across Germany, Belgium and France, and the eight-hotel package adding more than 900 rooms across the UK and Ireland.
Premium: Voco plants flags in Manhattan, Florida and Hawaii
Voco – IHG’s fastest-growing premium brand globally – had a particularly eye-catching quarter. The brand opened voco Times Square – Broadway in the heart of Manhattan and unveiled its first all-inclusive property at voco Sandpiper in Port St Lucie, Florida. The signing of voco Honolulu, meanwhile, takes the brand into Hawaii for the first time.
IHG also confirmed Ruby’s US debut in Chicago, an arrival the group said reflected appetite for premium brands “that combine distinctive experiences with attractive returns”.
Luxury & lifestyle: high-net-worth markets in focus
Four luxury and lifestyle openings landed in the quarter, extending a six-brand collection that now spans almost 300 open and pipeline hotels across the Americas. Kimpton — the San Francisco-born boutique brand IHG acquired in 2015 — led the charge with openings in New York (Kimpton Era Midtown), Scottsdale (Kimpton Miralina Resort & Villas) and Pacific Grove, California (Kimpton Mirador Pacific Grove Monterrey). Kimpton’s broader US push has been a recurring theme, including its Scottsdale Paradise Valley desert resort signing announced earlier in the cycle.
Hotel Indigo Turks & Caicos Grace Bay opened as the first IHG-branded property on the sought-after Caribbean island, with InterContinental and Kimpton flags scheduled to follow. The group also signed a Six Senses resort and residences in the Utah desert (Six Senses Camp Korongo), bolstering an upper-luxury pipeline that is increasingly weighted to North America.
Why it matters for business travellers
Taken together, IHG’s first-quarter Americas numbers — more than 4,600 open hotels and a pipeline of nearly 1,100 properties — point to a corporate buyer’s market that is widening rather than shrinking. Conversion brands such as Garner and voco are landing in city-centre business locations, while suites brands are filling the longer-stay gap for project workers, consultants and relocators. As Hotel Dive noted in its analysis of IHG’s Q1 trading update, the operator is leaning into “robust demand fundamentals” rather than chasing a softer leisure tail.
For travel managers running North American programmes, the practical takeaway is more rate leverage in secondary cities, more loyalty-eligible inventory in resort markets such as Florida and Hawaii, and a steadily growing premium tier sitting between Holiday Inn Express and InterContinental.