Keith Barr travel tips

A pent-up surge in consumer demand for travel gave many hotel companies pricing power in 2022. But hoteliers charged the highest rates the market could support for more than just one-off circumstantial reasons. A critical ingredient in the formula was that hoteliers developed a newfound pricing discipline during the pandemic recovery — even when business travel was historically weak and international tourism was slow to recover in many markets.

IHG Hotels & Resorts ended 2023 with plenty to brag about — roaringly successful openings for its Regent brand in the south of France and Hong Kong, a planned refresh of the storied InterContinental brand, and a hefty pipeline of new hotels to add to its ultraluxury Six Senses brand.

Consider it the year of Italy for IHG Hotels & Resorts.

“I’m really excited about the quality of the brand portfolio,” IHG CEO Keith Barr said at Skift Global Forum. Barr goes on to describe the current realities of the hotel business: it’s a real estate business at the end of the day, after all. But IHG has been hyper-focused on its brands and its franchise partners. “It’s been great because there’re such clearly defined brands that enable us to work with a number of opportunities,” he told Skift’s Sean O’Neill.

For InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), soaring hotel rates owing to a post-pandemic surge in pent-up demand for travel have been a boon after the pandemic bludgeoned the travel sector. But IHG Hotels & Resorts said its pricing power would last beyond the present moment thanks partly to its investments in digital technology. The company also anticipated future growth as China, the world’s second-largest economy, reopens.

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Environmental issues seem increasingly at the forefront of many consumers’ minds. A majority of travelers worldwide recently said sustainability was important to them.

InterContinental Hotels Group CEO Keith Barr announced he would be leaving his role at the UK-based company at his company’s first-quarter earnings call on May 5.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG Hotels & Resorts) CEO Keith Barr told the Financial Times this week that “several shareholders” had asked his team at an investor roadshow last month if it would consider a switch away from listing on the London stock market to New York’s exchanges.

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Keith Barr said Friday he would step down as CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts. Elie Maalouf, who’s headed the American operations, will become the new chief of the UK-based group on July 1.

InterContinental Hotels Group accompanied its first-quarter earnings with the news that group CEO Keith Barr will be replaced by IHG‘s Americas CEO Elie Maalouf on June 30. Barr has led IHG for six years, and Maalouf has been in his role since 2015.

Hotel bookings will continue to boom despite inflation. A lack of hotel construction is giving pricing power to existing hotels. At the same time, rising demand from corporate group events and international travelers from China and India are tailwinds supporting the sector.

India is a big potential market for aviation, but not a cheap one due to the high taxes, said International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh.