IHG acquires Ruby Hotels
IHG has announced its acquisition of the Ruby Hotels brand and all its related intellectual property.
An urban lifestyle brand, Ruby provides hotel owners with space-efficient designs and a flexible concept that IHG expects to rapidly expand globally.
Established in 2013, the Ruby brand currently operates 20 hotels (3,483 rooms) in major cities across Europe and has another 10 hotels (2,235 rooms) in the pipeline in cities such as Edinburgh, Marseille, Rome and Stockholm.
As its 20th brand, Ruby will extend IHG’s appeal to modern, lifestyle-focused travellers, whilst offering hotel owners a cost-efficient and highly adaptable premium hotel concept, in an industry segment characterised by high barriers to entry and space constraints, often referred to as ‘urban micro’. Efficiencies for owners are delivered through space-saving designs and a high degree of operational standardisation and automation, including self-service kiosks for efficient check-in.
Joining forces with IHG allows Ruby to draw on a powerful enterprise platform of distribution and technology systems, as well as one of the world’s biggest hotel loyalty programmes, IHG One Rewards.
With the brand well-established in Europe, IHG expects to have the Ruby brand ready for development in the US by the end of 2025, with a target to grow to more than 120 hotels over the next 10 years and accelerate to more than 250 over 20 years across owners globally.
“We are delighted with the acquisition of Ruby, which further enriches our portfolio with an exciting, distinct and high-quality offer for both guests and owners in popular city destinations,” says Elie Maalouf, CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts. “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.”
Michael Struck, founder and CEO of The Ruby Group, adds: “We have carefully selected IHG as the right partner to take the Ruby brand and our international expansion to the next level. IHG’s distribution powerhouse, the fact that Ruby perfectly complements IHG’s portfolio, and its proven track record of successfully preserving identity and culture when integrating brands gives us great confidence as we embark on this next chapter together. Combining the global reach and resources of IHG with the efficiency advantages of our operational and construction model will drive superior returns for our investors and real-estate partners, alike. Also, the timing could not be better. Our unique solutions for efficient adaptive re-use of office space are in high demand, positioning us for strong growth.”
