InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) reported an acceleration in revenue per available room to 5.3% in the third quarter, up from 4.6% year-to-date, and said it was confident of meeting full-year consensus expectations.
The Americas led the way, with RevPAR up 6.8% in the quarter, driven by the breadth of the US economy and strong group bookings.
EMEAA posted 5.0% growth, a significant improvement on the prior quarter, with Continental Europe and East Asia & Pacific performing particularly well.
Greater China was the exception, with RevPAR down 3.3% as adverse weather disrupted travel in July and August, and a shift in public holiday timing encouraged more outbound leisure trips in late September.
IHG opened 92 hotels in the quarter, taking its year-to-date total to 289, while signings of 164 hotels in the period brought the pipeline to 2,426 properties, up 3.2% year-on-year.
The global system now stands at 7,186 hotels with more than 1 million rooms, with net system growth of 4.9% year-on-year.
Chief executive Elie Maalouf said 2026 was on course to be the fifth consecutive year of accelerating net system growth.
IHG has completed $707 million of its $950 million share buyback programme for 2026, reducing the voting share count by 3.1%.
Combined with around $285 million of ordinary dividend payments, total shareholder returns for 2026 are expected to exceed $1.2 billion.
The company said full-year adjusted earnings per share growth was tracking around the top end of its medium-term target range of 12% to 15% annually, which would make 2026 the third consecutive year of achieving that outcome.
