InterContinental Hotels
4.3% LFL rise in room numbers
Businesses such as InterContinental Hotels should be good indicators of economic activity because they rely heavily on the business traveller and more activity means more business trips. The third-quarter figures suggest some slackening of growth in the Americas and a slowdown in China, but the company is not convinced that either reflects those macro-economic trends.
Revenue per available room, the main metric, was up 4.3 per cent in the Americas, below the increase in both the previous quarters. IHG’s hotels there are as full as they reasonably can be, helped by a shortage of rooms coming on to the market.
In China, demand in the big cities remains strong, but in secondary and tertiary locations too much