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Every One of IHG’s 17 Hotel Brands, Explained
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has always been a forerunner of hospitality trends, given how its brands span from just-the-basics road warriors to experience-seeking luxury travelers. Several of its brands anticipated shifts in guest tastes ahead of the pack. Before Instagram and hybrid working, the group created and acquired lifestyle brands with photogenic lobbies for guests who blend business and leisure travel. IHG also invented the concept of a hotel loyalty program. Today, with nearly 6,000 properties in more than 100 countries and with more than $2.9 billion in annual revenues, U.K.-based IHG curates 17 brands serving guests and owners with truly varied needs.
The competition is fierce, a fact of life that the hotel giant’s leadership confronts daily.
“We always have to up our game, so we have to continue to invest more and more in technology, reduce friction in the digital experience, and find better ways of reducing costs for owners and our technology platforms,” CEO Keith Barr told Skift in January. “We can’t sit still, but it’s pretty darn hard to replace [the traditional hotel experience], which is the advantage we have.”
Read on for insight from IHG on each of its 17 brands, followed by our own takes.
Note: Global footprint numbers and quoted takes from IHG are from each brand’s home page, with property and room number data from March 31, 2022.
IHG’s Categories & Brands
Lifestyle & Luxury: Six Senses, Regent, Intercontinental, Vignette, Kimpton, Hotel Indigo
Premium Collection: Voco, Hualuxe, EvenHotels, Crowne Plaza
Essentials Collection: Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn, Avid
Suites Collection: Atwell Suites, Staybridge Suites, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Candlewood Suites
Lifestyle & Luxury
Six Senses
Skift Take: Since its acquisition in 2012, Six Senses has been a balancing act of luxury and sustainability. Its well-developed missions to create zero waste, such as by striving to be plastic-free and by growing fruits and vegetables on-site, suggest that this brand is well-positioned for an expected rising demand for greener travel. Many brands struggle to get owners to spend on sustainability, but Six Senses commits them by management contract, said Raini Hamdi in IHG’s Six Senses Goes a Step Further on Being Green Among Hotel Chains. Therefore, Six Senses successfully shifts the luxurious hotel narrative into something healthier for the environment. It’s all in the name. This brand appeals to the six senses while also making strides to achieve what one can’t sense, but is becoming more critical by the day.
A Regent guest room / IHG
Regent
Skift Take: Even though businesses struggled during the pandemic, Regent has not given up on its high-lux initiatives. Those who are financially capable are ready to treat themselves, and this brand’s upscale rooms and suites, wellness facilities, and dining options — which are available in 8 locations across the globe — are up for the challenge.
InterContinental Kuala Lumpur / IHG
InterContinental
Skift Take: Due to InterContinental’s focus on international travel and cultural experiences, this brand is struggling, like any other, to get back on its feet since the pandemic. However, it is IHG’s most well-known brand and dates back to 1946, so it’s not going anywhere. Its competitors are Grand Hyatt, W Hotels, JW Marriott, and Ritz-Carlton, but the large number of hotels and simultaneous lavishness seem to keep the brand afloat.
Hotel X in Brisbane, one of the first Vignette Collection hotels / IHG
Vignette
Skift Take: The Vignette Collection is currently open in Brisbane and Bangkok, but other locations in Asia and Europe are coming soon. It’s a soft brand, which enables IHG to compete with similar branches of Hilton and Accor, which have both pointed to luxury and lifestyle hotels as leading sources of growth.This brand seems like it might be one of the final touches for IHG’s ultra-luxe hotels and thanks to its personalized yet high-end approach, it is only helping raise rates and reviews. Though each location has differing styles, there are a handful of quality offers — from cocktail trolleys to morning yoga on the beach —that make guests feel cared for every time.
Kimpton Hotel Van Zandt in Austin / IHG
Kimpton
Skift Take: Kimpton’s boutique experience with fashionable urban locations and creative, personalized decor is essential to this brand’s mission. Straying from the traditional amenities of larger hotels, Kimpton hopes to attract younger crowds who are looking for unique and new travel experiences. Kimpton had a mighty history of financial success prior to IHG’s acquisition of it for $430 million back in 2015. It was also one of the first brands to offer a hosted happy hour for guests, and was early to proclaiming inclusion for LGBTQIA guests. IHG’s partners have invested in fresh rethinkings of some properties, such as Kimpton Saint George (Toronto) and Kimpton Banneker (D.C.), but we worry that IHG hasn’t been giving enough support to help this gem of a brand fulfill its full market potential.
Hotel Indigo The Hague / IHG
Hotel Indigo
Skift Take: Hotel Indigo is also a boutique hotel, but with more of an emphasis on cultural immersion and style. It fixates on localness and creating a sense of place. It achieves this through the addition of local art, specialized food, and various experiences based on location. This way, it might feel like you are staying at a close friend’s place in a new city with lots to look at, as opposed to finding a hotel to crash at each night. This brand changes each property’s design every five years to maintain its fresh feel, suggesting that it will be “hip” for a long time.
Premium Collection
The Voco hotel in Dubai Exterior / IHG
Voco
Skift Take: Part of Voco’s magic has to do with the opportunity for owners to truly make it their own. While its soft-brand approach is a smart business model it may not comfort returning clientele. With that being said, it was IHG’s fastest brand to launch, and is continuing to change and grow by the minute.
Hualuxe Hotel Yangjiang City Center / IHG
Hualuxe
Skift Take: Hualuxe is the “first upscale international hotel brand designed specifically for Chinese guests,” as stated in its mission statement. As of right now, this brand only has locations in Greater China, but there are plans to expand worldwide. IHG had already been established in China for over 35 years with other hotel brands before taking Hualuxe under its wing, so it was well equipped to create a Chinese culture-inspired stay.
Every One of IHG’s 17 Hotel Brands, Explained
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has always been a forerunner of hospitality trends, given how its brands span from just-the-basics road warriors to experience-seeking luxury travelers. Several of its brands anticipated shifts in guest tastes ahead of the pack. Before Instagram and hybrid working, the group created and acquired lifestyle brands with photogenic lobbies for guests who blend business and leisure travel. IHG also invented the concept of a hotel loyalty program. Today, with nearly 6,000 properties in more than 100 countries and with more than $2.9 billion in annual revenues, U.K.-based IHG curates 17 brands serving guests and owners with truly varied needs.
The competition is fierce, a fact of life that the hotel giant’s leadership confronts daily.
“We always have to up our game, so we have to continue to invest more and more in technology, reduce friction in the digital experience, and find better ways of reducing costs for owners and our technology platforms,” CEO Keith Barr told Skift in January. “We can’t sit still, but it’s pretty darn hard to replace [the traditional hotel experience], which is the advantage we have.”
Read on for insight from IHG on each of its 17 brands, followed by our own takes.
Note: Global footprint numbers and quoted takes from IHG are from each brand’s home page, with property and room number data from March 31, 2022.
IHG’s Categories & Brands
Lifestyle & Luxury: Six Senses, Regent, Intercontinental, Vignette, Kimpton, Hotel Indigo
Premium Collection: Voco, Hualuxe, EvenHotels, Crowne Plaza
Essentials Collection: Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn, Avid
Suites Collection: Atwell Suites, Staybridge Suites, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Candlewood Suites
Lifestyle & Luxury
Six Senses
- 21 open hotels
- 1,412 open rooms
- 33 hotels in the pipeline
Skift Take: Since its acquisition in 2012, Six Senses has been a balancing act of luxury and sustainability. Its well-developed missions to create zero waste, such as by striving to be plastic-free and by growing fruits and vegetables on-site, suggest that this brand is well-positioned for an expected rising demand for greener travel. Many brands struggle to get owners to spend on sustainability, but Six Senses commits them by management contract, said Raini Hamdi in IHG’s Six Senses Goes a Step Further on Being Green Among Hotel Chains. Therefore, Six Senses successfully shifts the luxurious hotel narrative into something healthier for the environment. It’s all in the name. This brand appeals to the six senses while also making strides to achieve what one can’t sense, but is becoming more critical by the day.
A Regent guest room / IHG
Regent
- 7 open hotels
- 2,190 open rooms
- 8 hotels in the pipeline
Skift Take: Even though businesses struggled during the pandemic, Regent has not given up on its high-lux initiatives. Those who are financially capable are ready to treat themselves, and this brand’s upscale rooms and suites, wellness facilities, and dining options — which are available in 8 locations across the globe — are up for the challenge.
InterContinental Kuala Lumpur / IHG
InterContinental
- 207 open hotels
- 69,917 open rooms
- 79 hotels in the pipeline
Skift Take: Due to InterContinental’s focus on international travel and cultural experiences, this brand is struggling, like any other, to get back on its feet since the pandemic. However, it is IHG’s most well-known brand and dates back to 1946, so it’s not going anywhere. Its competitors are Grand Hyatt, W Hotels, JW Marriott, and Ritz-Carlton, but the large number of hotels and simultaneous lavishness seem to keep the brand afloat.
Hotel X in Brisbane, one of the first Vignette Collection hotels / IHG
Vignette
- 2 open hotels
- 539 open rooms
- 6 hotels in the pipeline
Skift Take: The Vignette Collection is currently open in Brisbane and Bangkok, but other locations in Asia and Europe are coming soon. It’s a soft brand, which enables IHG to compete with similar branches of Hilton and Accor, which have both pointed to luxury and lifestyle hotels as leading sources of growth.This brand seems like it might be one of the final touches for IHG’s ultra-luxe hotels and thanks to its personalized yet high-end approach, it is only helping raise rates and reviews. Though each location has differing styles, there are a handful of quality offers — from cocktail trolleys to morning yoga on the beach —that make guests feel cared for every time.
Kimpton Hotel Van Zandt in Austin / IHG
Kimpton
- 75 open hotels
- 13,297 open rooms
- 38 hotels in the pipeline
Skift Take: Kimpton’s boutique experience with fashionable urban locations and creative, personalized decor is essential to this brand’s mission. Straying from the traditional amenities of larger hotels, Kimpton hopes to attract younger crowds who are looking for unique and new travel experiences. Kimpton had a mighty history of financial success prior to IHG’s acquisition of it for $430 million back in 2015. It was also one of the first brands to offer a hosted happy hour for guests, and was early to proclaiming inclusion for LGBTQIA guests. IHG’s partners have invested in fresh rethinkings of some properties, such as Kimpton Saint George (Toronto) and Kimpton Banneker (D.C.), but we worry that IHG hasn’t been giving enough support to help this gem of a brand fulfill its full market potential.
Hotel Indigo The Hague / IHG
Hotel Indigo
- 133 open hotels
- 16,717 open rooms
- 119 hotels in the pipeline
Skift Take: Hotel Indigo is also a boutique hotel, but with more of an emphasis on cultural immersion and style. It fixates on localness and creating a sense of place. It achieves this through the addition of local art, specialized food, and various experiences based on location. This way, it might feel like you are staying at a close friend’s place in a new city with lots to look at, as opposed to finding a hotel to crash at each night. This brand changes each property’s design every five years to maintain its fresh feel, suggesting that it will be “hip” for a long time.
Premium Collection
The Voco hotel in Dubai Exterior / IHG
Voco
- 35 open hotels
- 8,523 open rooms
- 36 hotels in the pipeline
Skift Take: Part of Voco’s magic has to do with the opportunity for owners to truly make it their own. While its soft-brand approach is a smart business model it may not comfort returning clientele. With that being said, it was IHG’s fastest brand to launch, and is continuing to change and grow by the minute.
Hualuxe Hotel Yangjiang City Center / IHG
Hualuxe
- 17 open hotels
- 4,893 open rooms
- 22 hotels in the pipeline
Skift Take: Hualuxe is the “first upscale international hotel brand designed specifically for Chinese guests,” as stated in its mission statement. As of right now, this brand only has locations in Greater China, but there are plans to expand worldwide. IHG had already been established in China for over 35 years with other hotel brands before taking Hualuxe under its wing, so it was well equipped to create a Chinese culture-inspired stay.
