Le IHG Group is part of a favourable dynamic for the UK hotel industry. On the one hand, hotel investment has reached its highest level for five years; on the other, the brake on new construction since the covid is favourable to brands focusing on the conversion of existing hotels. All these factors are contributing to growth the British group, which has just announced the signing of eight new hotels, including two in London.
IHG already has 362 hotels in the UK and Ireland, including almost 150 Holiday Inn Express hotels, 25 other establishments are planned for the coming months and years. Focused on converting upmarket hotels, the Voco brand made its London debut last year with a 93-room hotel in the Marylebone district, and will open a hotel in Northamptonshire at the end of 2025, in Corby, close to Rockingham Castle, which dates back over a thousand years. Once its transformation is complete, Voco Rockingham Forest Corby will offer 104 rooms, but above all the largest event space in the region.
While the brand's strength lies in conversions, it is also adapted to new constructions, as demonstrated by the recent opening of voco Zeal Exeter Science Park, the first hotel in zero carbon emissions in the country. With 142 bedrooms, versatile meeting space and, in keeping with the tone of the venue, organic catering and electric vehicle charging points, the hotel is helping to accommodate business travellers visiting the Exeter Science Park, which has been bringing together a host of businesses since its inception in 2015.
Another opening in March is the Garner Hotel Preston Samlesbury. the UK launch of this new mid-range brand launched 18 months ago, and which plays like voco on conversion opportunities. Offering 80 rooms, this contemporary hotel won't remain the only Garner-branded hotel in the UK for long, as a 53-room hotel is expected to open soon in Reading city centre. The brand is also set to make its debut in the heart of Nottingham in the final quarter.
This drive towards conversion is also benefiting the lifestyle brand Hotel Indigo, which in the second quarter will be moving into the oldest hotel in Leeds, which is currently being refurbished to give it a new, contemporary look. Conversion too, but in a more distant future and of a different kind: the Holiday Inn Expresse brand is going to equip itself witha new 265-room flagship in Londonthrough the conversion of an office building. Holiday Inn Express London - Woolwich, close to Greenwich, is not expected to open until 2029. Well before then, IHG will also have opened a new Crowne Plaza hotel near East Midlands airport, with 114 rooms and 17 meeting rooms, in the second quarter of this year.
