Shares in Intercontinental Hotels Group dropped more than 2% today after it reported a sharper-than-expected fall in revenue growth in the US in September.
The major culprit was Holiday Inn, which was partly hit by the US government shutdown and also by the fact that some public holidays fell earlier this year than last. Holiday Inn actually saw a fall of 0.9% in revenues per available room in September.
More upmarket brands such as Staybridge and Hotel Indigo posted positive growth of 6.9% and 7.6% respectively. Across IHG’s US hotels, September’s growth was 1.6% against 3.5% for the third quarter and 4.5% for the year so far.
IHG said: “Current trading trends give us confidence for the rest of the year, and our strategy for high-quality growth positions us well for continuing success into the future.”
But analysts said that slower growth in the US and possibly China meant that profit forecasts for this year could be trimmed back. The shares dropped back 42.5p to 1822.5p.
