IHG, the owner of Holiday inn, created a new midscale brand last month and plans another two, including a luxury range, to speed up its rate of hotel openings Chris Ison / PAThe hotel company behind the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands is seeking to add two new brands, including a super-luxury range to complement its core Intercontinental business. Intercontinental Hotels Group, which launched a new midscale range called Avid Hotels last month, confirmed that it was looking at expanding its collection of brands further to accelerate the rate of new hotel openings and boost earnings. Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson, chief financial officer, said a new “collection brand” to attract individual hotels and an additional brand “in the luxury space a little ahead of Intercontinental” were the company’s two logical next steps. He refused to comment on whether it had considered acquiring the 50 per cent stake in the Orient-Express brand that was recently bought by Accor Hotels…

Source: The Times October 20, 2017 15:56 UTC