IHG UK MD: AI won’t replace the power of being face-to-face

IHG Hotels has kicked off 2024 with a bang.

The British multinational hotel group, which includes brands like Hotel Indigo, Kimpton, voco, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Six Senses, and employs over 350,000 people worldwide, is continuing to grow across all market segments: luxury and lifestyle, premium, essentials and suites.

In the UK and Ireland (UK&I) alone – IHG’s biggest market in EMEA – IHG has added nine singings to its 350 open hotels for 2024 and 2025 – this includes Hotel Indigo in Gloucester, its first voco hotel in Northern Ireland, and Holiday Inn Wrexham to service those joining Ryan Reynolds to cheer on the Hollywood’s star football (or soccer) team.

UNLEASH was invited to an exclusive media breakfast at IHG’s flagship hotel, the Kimpton Fitzroy in central London, to discuss the specifics of the hotel giant’s growth plans for 2024 (and beyond).

During the breakfast, Matt Walton, senior director of development for UK&I at IHG, noted that “it’s not about having a one off great year”, but about consistency, longevity of growth over time. All of the excitement for 2024 really builds on a highly successful 2023 for the hotel chain.

Here are our main takeaways from the event – stories and community, as well as data and tech, are all playing a crucial role in IHG’s success to date, and the brand’s future plans.

‘Bringing stories to life’ with IHG

Joanna Kurowska, VP and managing director for UK&I, started the breakfast by talking about how acquisitions have been a huge part of IHG’s history over the last decade or so – the company was founded in 2003, and remains headquartered in Windsor.

“We are here in the Fitzroy – we love this hotel. It came from a brand that we acquired in 2016,” notes Kurowska.

IHG takes acquisitions seriously – “we invest in acquiring the brands, and then we invest in bringing those stories to life”.

UNLEASH was keen to find out more about how precisely IHG tells the stories of its hotels.

Walton told us that ahead of opening a new hotel in a new area, the hotel giant works closely with local authorities – this is part of its Journey to Tomorrow 2030 responsible business plan.

The idea is for IHG to be a good neighbor, and that the hotel creates job and employment opportunities for local people, as well as acts as a local hub for meetings and events.

Walton shares: “We want to work [in] that local environment”, and make sure everything IHG is doing is “complementary to what they’re trying to achieve” locally.

Kurowska added the focus is how IHG can “make the hotel a bigger project for the town”, and really ensure that the hotel is not just “where you do your student job” but where people start their career and learn skills.

Plus, IHG always ensures its hotels celebrate the uniqueness of local neighborhoods, sharing the stories and traditions of local people.

A great example is the new Hotel Indigo in Gloucester, which is actually being developed in partnership with Gloucester City Council and the Reef Group as a part of a wider £200 million regeneration of the Kings Quarter of the city.

Current rending of Hotel Indigo Gloucester. Credit: IHG.

“Having a hotel tends to be an anchor point or hub within a particular area,” notes Walton.

It creates increased footfall in the local area, which is a boom for local shops and restaurants (and therefore the wider local economy).

Tech, data and people at IHG

Technology and data also help IHG to figure out where (and when) to open new hotels (and what type (luxury, premium, or essentials?) is most suitable for a specific area).

Alongside this data-driven approach, which really focuses on gaps in the market and customer behavior, Walton is clear that we are a “brand-led business”, and that the company’s success is due to its people.

Growth doesn’t just come from the development team: “It is about every single team in IHG creating that value, and that best-in-class ecosystem,” Walton added.

While the hotel brand is interested in AI (and is already deploying it in some areas of the business) – Kurowska shared that ChatGPT and generative AI is “one of those technologies that needs to be watched” – for IHG, it won’t replace the power of meeting, and being, face-to-face.

Since 2022, the hotel giant has been working on its HR tech stack, and making sure it has the right processes in place from hire to retire.

“We pride ourselves on being a good employer,” notes Kurowska.

The hotel giant doesn’t get too wrapped up in the talent shortage media hype, and instead focuses on “what we can control and influence” and being “noticed, recognized and appreciated as being an employer that provides opportunities for those who choose to work here,” Kurowska tells UNLEASH.

This is easier for the hotels that IHG owns out right, but where there are franchise arrangements in place IHG works with the owner and shows them how to do people management well by prioritizing a culture of ‘True Hospitality for Good’.

To support this purpose statement, IHG is really leaning into putting data into the hands of managers and empowering them to be proactive with their decision-making.

All of this is under-pinned by IHG’s annual engagement survey, Colleague Heartbeat, as well as wider diversity, equity, inclusion data (UNLEASH previously spoke to IHG’s MD for Europe Karin Sheppard all about diversity at the hotel giant – check out that interview here).

The ultimate aim is really connecting people to business performance. Remember, you need happy employees to have customers (and a healthy bottom line).