notion of the modern luxury expectation . “ Today ’ s luxury traveler requires different things : contemporary , thoughtful design ; immersive and clinically honest wellness ; authentic and curated food and beverage ; discerning and subtle service ,” he said , calling it not necessarily traditional . “ It ’ s knowing what you need without being in your face with it . Not the ladies and gentlemen of the past , but high-touch subtlety and modernity in our brands .”
For years , IHG hung its singular luxury reputation on the eponymous InterContinental brand , which stretches
Elie Maalouf , CEO of the Americas , IHG Hotels & Resorts
WE RESUSCITATED , WE RENOVATED , WE REBIRTHED THAT BRAND
– ELIE MAALOUF , ON REGENT .
back to 1946 and Pan Am founder Juan Trippe and has been part of IHG since 1998 . It currently numbers 208 properties globally , a pipeline of 84 and , as Maalouf said exuberantly , “ We are going to 300 .” In January , IHG commemorated its next InterContinental opening with a topping-off ceremony of the 208-room InterContinental Hotel – Bellevue at the Avenue , in the fast-growing Seattle suburb . The hotel , the first of the brand in the Pacific Northwest , is projected to open in the fourth quarter 2023 .
Recent bolt-on additions to the IHG luxury quiver include Regent Hotels & Resorts and Six Senses . IHG acquired the former in 2018 for a rather minuscule $ 39 million and quickly added Six Senses a year later for $ 300 million . Both are brands with a heritage outside the U . S .; Six Senses , known for its sustainable , wellness ethos , currently has 20 operating hotels with a pipeline of 34 that includes a resort in Napa Valley opening in 2026 , while Regent is just at eight hotels globally with an eight-count pipeline that included the reintroduction of the Carlton Cannes , a Regent Hotel in the spring of 2023 .
“ We resuscitated , we renovated , we rebirthed that brand ,” Maalouf said of Regent . “ People , developers still have a very warm and reminiscent feeling for that brand — they remember it from when it was in Miami or Beverly Hills .”
In InterContinental , Six Senses and Regent , IHG has three brands now covering the luxury segment , which Maalouf remains bullish on , even in the eye of a potential recession . “ The rich , as F . Scott Fitzgerald said , are different ,” he paraphrased . “ The market can go up or down , but they still spend and will spend . The new generation of luxury travelers never felt need . This newer generation doesn ’ t have prudence in they ’ re spending — the Chanel bag or those things . They don ’ t know what it is not to have it and they are not limited by what they will spend for the right experience if delivered properly .”
LUXE TO LIFESTYLE IHG kicked off its exploration into the lifestyle space in 2004 when it launched Hotel Indigo . Maalouf ’ s predecessor , Steven Porter , said Indigo “ filled a critical void by addressing middle market consumers who are trading up to higher levels of quality and taste ,” adding the brand was an answer to travelers who desire an experience as much as a destination . The brand currently numbers 135 hotels globally with a pipeline of 124 .
It wasn ’ t until 10 years later that IHG made a further concerted effort to bulk up in the lifestyle space — this time via acquisition of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants . New brands , like Indigo , take time to scale up , but in Kimpton , IHG had a well-known and established brand , created by the “ godfather ” of lifestyle hotels , Bill Kimpton . When IHG acquired Kimpton , there were 62 hotels operating — none outside the U . S . “ It reflected a sort of irreverent luxury when we acquired it ,” Maalouf said . In the span of eight-plus years , IHG has opened 14 more Kimpton hotels and taken the brand global , with hotels in cities such as Paris , Amsterdam , Edinburgh , London , Tokyo and Sydney . In fact , growth concentration has been outside the U . S ., where there has been an attrition in the number of hotels , including the imminent loss of the Kimpton Hotel Born in Denver , which is converting to another brand .
“ We ’ ve got this luxury and lifestyle portfolio and they ’ re all sort of in the modern contemporary , wellness , sustainability space . IHG ’ s entire orbit of luxury and lifestyle products , which also includes the soft brand Vignette Collection , total 440 properties , but Maalouf is quick to point out that some 300 are under development .
Its most recent splash was an agreement with Iberostar , the Spanish operator of all-inclusive resorts , which was signed last November and added some 70 hotels to IHG ’ s system as the company ’ s 18th brand . For IHG , it was all about being where its customers are and wanted them to be . “ Culturally , we ’ re very similar , like-minded organizations ; so , we decided this was a perfect way to have our 18th brand and be in a segment we ’ ve been looking at for some time ,” Maalouf said .
May 2023 hotelsmag . com 19