Ruby is a premium urban lifestyle brand for modern travelers in must-visit city destinations and provides hotel owners with space-efficient designs and an attractive, flexible concept, according to the company. IHG expects to expand the brand globally, including the Americas.
“We are delighted to announce the acquisition of the Ruby brand, which further enriches our portfolio with an exciting, distinct and high-quality offer for both guests and owners in popular city destinations,” said Maalouf. “This acquisition demonstrates our focus on building our presence in large, attractive industry segments and using our experience of integrating and growing brands and hotel portfolios. The urban micro space is a franchise-friendly model with attractive owner economics, and we see excellent opportunities to not only expand Ruby’s strong European base but also rapidly take this exciting brand to the Americas and across Asia, as we have successfully done with previous brand acquisitions.”
Established in 2013, the Ruby brand currently operates 20 hotels (3,483 rooms) in major cities across Europe and has another 10 pipeline hotels (2,235 rooms). There are nine hotels open in Germany (across Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart), three in the U.K. in London, three in Austria (Vienna), two in Switzerland (Geneva and Zurich) and one each in Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands. The pipeline hotels are set to open over the next three years across more European cities including Edinburgh, Marseille, Rome and Stockholm.
Full-year results
“Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our teams around the world, 2024 was an excellent year of financial performance, strong growth and important progress against a clear strategy that is unlocking the full potential of our business for all stakeholders,” said Elie Maalouf, CEO, IHG Hotels & Resorts. “RevPAR growth accelerated in Q4, reflecting the breadth of our global footprint and improvements in all three regions. Together with strong system growth, notable margin expansion and the benefit of returning surplus capital through buybacks, we’re pleased to report adjusted EPS growth for the year of 15%.”
He continued, “Strong demand globally from hotel owners and developers for our brands drove the opening of 371 hotels and an impressive 714 properties signed into our pipeline, equivalent to almost two a day. The 106,000 rooms signed were 34% more than the previous year. Our global estate now stands at more than 6,600 hotels, and momentum continued into 2025 with the recent celebration of our 800th opening in Greater China. Our global pipeline increased 10% to more than 2,200 hotels, representing future system size growth of 33%.”
Trading and revenue
- RevPAR for the Americas was up 2.5% for the year (up 4.6% in Q4), with U.S. RevPAR up 1.7% for the year, accelerating from 0.6% in the first half to 2.6% in the second half.
- EMEAA RevPAR increased 6.6% for FY2024 (Q4 up 6.9%) and Greater China declined 4.8% (Q4 down 2.8%)
- ADR increased 2.1% year-over-year (YOY) for FY2024, occupancy up 0.6 percentage points
- Total gross revenue of $33.4 billion for FY2024, up 6% YOY
System size and pipeline
- Gross system growth of 6.2% for FY2024; net system growth of 4.3%
- Opened 59,100 rooms (371 hotels), up 23% YOY; global estate of 987,000 rooms (6,629 hotels)
- Signed 106,200 rooms (714 hotels), up 34% YOY; new-build signings up 3% YOY, conversions up 88% YOY; global pipeline of 325,000 rooms (2,210 hotels), up 10% YOY
- Opened 23,600 rooms (147 hotels) in Q4, up 23% YOY and the second-largest ever quarter of openings
- Signed 30,000 rooms (201 hotels) in Q4, up 6% YOY and also one of the largest quarters of signings
Margin and profit
- FY2024 fee margin of 61.2%, up 1.9 percentage points, driven by strong trading together with new and growing ancillary fee streams
- Operating profit from reportable segments of $1,124 million, up 10.3%, includes a $16 million adverse currency impact
- IFRS operating profit of $1.041 billion includes System Fund and reimbursables loss of $83 million (2023: $19 million profit) driven by the planned reduction of prior System Fund surplus noted in the first half of the year, and net zero exceptional items (2023: $28 million exceptional profit)
Maalouf added, “We continue to strengthen our enterprise to position IHG as the first choice for guests and owners, further improving and growing our brands, driving loyalty contribution, rolling out new hotel technology and increasing our ancillary fee streams. Our cash generation and strong balance sheet supports further investment in growth, and we also continue to sustainably increase our ordinary dividend and the regular return of surplus capital through share buybacks. The board is pleased to propose another 10% increase in the dividend, and the launch today of a new $900 million share buyback program. We enter 2025 with confidence in further capitalizing on our scale, leading positions and the attractive long-term demand drivers for our markets, all of which support the ongoing successful delivery of our growth algorithm.”
