Revenues halve at Holiday Inn owner after hotel closures

Holiday Inn owner Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) said it expects revenue to have more than halved over the past six months after being hammered by coronavirus.

The hotel giant said it also expects to report a 75% fall in revenue per available room for the quarter to the end of June after sites were forced to close in the face of the virus.

Decline has marginally slowed down, with the group predicting 70% decline for June, following slumps of around 76% in May and 82% in April compared to the comparable months last year.

IHG said the pace of hotel reopenings has recently accelerated, although about 10% of its global hotel estate remains closed.

Around 5% of its hotels in the Americas region are still closed to holidaymakers while about 30% of hotels in Europe are shut in the face of Government-mandated lockdowns. Almost all of its hotels in China have reopened.

Hotels in England have been given the green light to reopen on Saturday July 4 after shutting their doors in March.

The group, which qualified for £600 million from the Government’s Covid corporate financing facility (CCFF), said it has around two billion US dollars (£1.63 billion) in available liquidity and has already made progress in reducing costs and capital expenditure.

IHG said it remains on track to reduce business costs by around 150 million dollars (£122 million) for the year, with more than two-thirds of these savings set to be delivered in the second half of 2020.

Shares in the company slipped by 0.8% to 3,618p in early trading.