Accor vs IHG Hotels & Resorts

Paul Dubrule and Gérard Pélisson were French businessmen without hotel backgrounds when they decided to apply American budget motel concepts to France in 1967. They opened the first Novotel in Lille — a standardised, roadside mid-scale hotel designed for business travellers and families — at a price point that simply did not exist in France at the time. The concept worked: predictable quality, accessible pricing, convenient locations near transport infrastructure. The two founders grew Novotel through the 1970s, adding Ibis (budget) and Sofitel (luxury) to create a segmented portfolio across price points.

In 1983, Novotel and Jacques Borel International — a French catering and hotel company — merged to form Accor. The name Accor reflected the company's ambition to create an "accord" between different hotel categories. Jacques Borel's portfolio added the Sofitel brand and various food service operations. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Accor aggressively expanded internationally, particularly in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America — markets where European luxury brands had not penetrated and where Accor's mid-scale and budget categories created new demand from emerging business travel.

Accor expanded into the ultra-budget segment with the Formula 1 concept — rooms for around €19 per night with shared bathrooms, designed to compete with B&Bs and hostels. The company acquired Motel 6 — the iconic American budget chain ("We'll leave the light on for ya") — in 1990 for $1.3 billion, giving it a major US presence in economy lodging. The combination of Formula 1, Ibis, and Motel 6 made Accor the dominant economy and budget hotel operator in Europe and a significant one in the Americas. The Ibis brand alone would eventually operate thousands of hotels globally.

Accor acquired FRHI Hotels & Resorts — the owner of the Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissôtel brands — for $2.7 billion in 2016, transforming itself from a primarily mid-scale and budget operator into a genuinely full-spectrum hospitality company. Raffles (Singapore, 1887) was one of the most storied hotel brands in the world; Fairmont included iconic properties such as The Savoy in London and Château Frontenac in Quebec City. Accor subsequently invested in Orient Express, developing a portfolio of ultra-luxury train and boat experiences. The budget hotel company from Lille had become a curator of the world's most legendary hospitality assets.

Accor operated approximately 5,700 hotels with over 820,000 rooms across 45+ brands in 110 countries as of 2024. The ALL (Accor Live Limitless) loyalty programme had approximately 100 million members. Revenue reached approximately €5.7 billion for 2024. The brand portfolio ranged from economy (ibis budget, hotelF1) through midscale (ibis, Novotel, Mercure) to upscale (Pullman, MGallery) and luxury (Fairmont, Raffles, Orient Express). Accor was the largest hotel company in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific by number of properties. The two French businessmen who had opened France's first budget hotel with no hotel experience had built one of the world's most geographically diverse hospitality empires.

InterContinental Hotels was founded in 1946 by Juan Trippe, the founder of Pan American World Airways, who recognised that his airline's international passengers needed high-quality hotels in cities where they had no adequate options. The first InterContinental Hotel opened in Belém, Brazil in 1949. The concept was to create consistent luxury standards in international cities that would reassure American business travellers abroad. Pan Am operated InterContinental as a separate entity for decades, until financial difficulties forced the airline's decline and eventual bankruptcy in 1991.

IHG's other major lineage comes from Holiday Inn, founded by Kemmons Wilson in 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee — the chain that created the concept of consistent, reliable, affordable motor lodging across America. Holiday Inn was so transformative that it effectively invented the modern mid-scale hotel category. Bass PLC — a British brewing company that had diversified into hotels and leisure — acquired Holiday Inn International in 1988 and InterContinental in 1998, assembling a portfolio that combined American mid-scale with international luxury. Bass renamed its hotel business Six Continents Hotels, then spun it off in 2003 as InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).

InterContinental Hotels Group was listed independently in 2003 following Bass PLC's decision to separate its brewing and hotel businesses. The new company retained the InterContinental brand for luxury properties, Holiday Inn for mid-scale, Crowne Plaza for upper-upscale business hotels, and a growing portfolio of other brands. IHG adopted an asset-light model — franchising and managing rather than owning properties — which became the dominant model for large hotel companies. The IHG Rewards loyalty programme (now IHG One Rewards) became one of the world's largest hotel loyalty programmes.

IHG expanded significantly into luxury and lifestyle categories through acquisitions and brand development: voco (a "soft brand" allowing individual hotels to maintain their identity while joining the IHG system), HUALUXE (designed specifically for Chinese guests), Regent Hotels & Resorts (ultra-luxury, acquired 2018 for $39 million for a majority stake), and Six Senses (wellness and eco-luxury, acquired 2019 for $300 million). The additions gave IHG credibility in segments where Holiday Inn's mid-scale positioning had not played.

IHG Hotels & Resorts operated over 6,100 hotels with approximately 912,000 rooms across 19 brands in 100+ countries as of 2024. IHG One Rewards had approximately 130 million members, with the programme growing particularly fast in Asia. The company reported revenue of approximately $2.3 billion for 2024 — a relatively small number reflecting the asset-light model where most revenue flows to franchisees rather than IHG directly; system-wide revenues (the total spending in IHG-branded hotels) were orders of magnitude larger. Holiday Inn remained the world's most recognised mid-scale hotel brand, representing a founding insight from 1952 that families and business travellers needed consistent, reliable, affordable lodging.