Intercontinental’s new hotel brand

British multinational hotels company Intercontinental Hotels Group is making a bold push into the global market, launching its new upscale brand “voco”.

The brand taps the conversion opportunities available in the global hospitality market.

The group had flagged it was working on this initiative back in April 2016.

The idea behind this conversion friendly brand, IHG executives said, was to speed up the expansion of its hotels portfolio in India and globally. 

IHG chief executive Keith Barr said there were significant growth opportunities going upscale. The voco brand he said would help move this forward.

“We’ll work with owners of attractive properties, who appreciate the power and expertise that a global business can bring to the table,” Mr Barr said in his media statement. “Guests will be able to appreciate the appeal of a more individual hotel, alongside the reassurance of a name above the door that they trust. The versatility of the brand means a voco hotel can retain and celebrate all of the elements that make that existing hotel successful.”

Homegrown and international hotels in the Indian hospitality market have been aggressively pursuing the rebranding strategy.

Some companies, like IHG, Marriott and SAMHI, have had enormous success.

The word voco is inspired by the Latin words for coming together. The strategy focuses primarily on conversion opportunities.

It. Is expected to boost the IHG brand in the upscale segment. This segment is worth $40 billion and it’s expected to grow by another $20 billion by 2025. 

The strategy aims to work with high-quality individual hotels and help owners generate better returns by delivering a powerful guest experience.

“The new brand will drive significant incremental growth for IHG, with an expectation to open miss than 200 voco hotels in attractive urban and leisure locations over the next 10 years,” IHG said in its statement. 

IHG said the voco rollout will start in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The plan then is to expand it in the Americas and Greater China over time. 

IHG has signed its first property for Australia.

It is the Watermark Hotel & Spa on the Gold Coast.

IHG’s long-standing partner SB&G, which already owns five IHG hotels in Australia, is in the process of acquiring the 388-room hotel.

Leon Getler 14th June 2018.