Commenting on the results and trading, Andrew Cosslett, Chief Executive of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC said: "IHG delivered a good performance in the first quarter of 2008. Growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR) of 3.5% was solid given the adverse impact of the timing of Easter. We increased the number of rooms in our system by over 5,200, more than twice the increase in the first quarter of 2007. We signed over 150 hotels into our development pipeline which now stands at over 1,700 hotels, giving good visibility on future openings.

"We continue to focus on strengthening our brands. The response from our owner community to the Holiday Inn relaunch has been very encouraging and we now have 21 hotels operating with some or all of the elements of the new brand standards and identity ahead of our full roll out which begins in the summer.

"Even in a less certain economic environment our broad market coverage, record pipeline, strong brands and resilient fee based business model position us well for continued growth."

http://www.ihgplc.com/files/results/results08Q1/downloads/results08Q1.pdf