IHG expansion plans new upscale and luxury brands

InterContinental Hotels Group plans to grow with a new brand, as yet to be named, focused on the conversion of upscale hotels into IHG’s family of hotel brands. The chain is also shopping for a luxury brand in similar fashion to the way they acquired Kimpton Hotels a few years ago. 

Mandarin Oriental and Shangri La are the kinds of chains hotel industry analysts have floated as potential acquisitions to give IHG a rival to brands like Ritz Carlton, St. Regis and Park Hyatt.

IHG already launched a new midscale brand recently called Avid with the initial groundbreaking of the first hotel in Oklahoma City December 2017 and scheduled to open in late summer 2018.

News Source: Hotel Management – Launching new Avid brand just the start for IHG (Feb 20, 2018).