InterContinental Hotels Group, owner of the Holiday Inn brand has posted a first-half profit after a loss a year earlier as business travel improved.
Net income for the six months ended June 30 was $141 million compared with a loss of $29 million in the same period a year earlier.
InterContinental, the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, said revenue per available room, or revpar, rose by 3.9%.
The hotel industry is recovering after struggling to attract business over the past two years as the recession deterred holidaymakers and forced companies to cut budgets.
Hotel occupancy and revpar rose in all regions in the first half of 2010 led by Asia, according to researcher STR Global.
Intercontinental, which also owns the boutique Hotel Indigo brand, has fewer than 20 of its own properties and mostly franchises and manages hotels under its brands.
The group had a total of 4,503 hotels and 656,661 rooms at the end of the second quarter, and said it had a pipeline of 197,431 rooms.
