US business travellers lift Intercontinental

25th Oct 2010 07:25

Hotel giant Intercontinental Hotels' US revenues have picked up strongly in the past three months, driven by a revamping of its Holiday Inn chain and more business travellers.Revenue per room (or revpar) in its Americas division sped up through the third quarter to 6.7%. Occupancy growth rose by 3.8 percentage points and rate growth by 0.8% as business travellers returned in greater numbers. Rate growth improved through the quarter. Americas' revpar was up by 2.2% in the first half of the year and for the nine months this year so far is up 3.9%. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express's revpar grew fastest in the three months to September with revamped hotels' up by 7.9% at Holiday Inn and 6.8% at Holiday Inn Express. In the US, these hotels now sit at a 36% and 20% revpar premium to their respective industry segments, Intercontinental said. This is the second bullish regional update from Intercontinental this month. Earlier it said revenue from China would exceed $1bn for the first time this year and that it plans to double the number of hotels in the country.InterContinental is the world's top hotelier in terms of number of rooms through its Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn chains.