Intercontinental Hotels Group IHG

Competitive advantage analysis · consumer-cyclical

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
70/100
Moderate

About Intercontinental Hotels Group

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC owns, manages, franchises, and leases hotels in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates hotels under the Six Senses, Regent, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Vignette Collection, Kimpton Hotel, Hotel Indigo, voco, Ruby, HUALUXE, Crowne Plaza, Iberostar Beachfront Resorts, EVEN Hotels, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn, Garner, avid hotels, Atwell Suites, Staybridge Suites, IHG, … Full IHG analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • ROIC Sustainably Above Peers ROIC at 100.0th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
  • Margins Stable Across Cycles Operating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.77), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Moderate
68

Where IHG ranks in Lodging

Intercontinental Hotels Group ranks #2 of 14 scored companies in Lodging by moat score — the top 14%. The widest moat in the group is Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (WH) at 71/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near IHG in Lodging
# Company Moat score Rating
1 Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. WH 71/100 Moderate
2 Intercontinental Hotels Group IHG 70/100 Moderate
3 H World Group Limited HTHT 67/100 Moderate
4 Atour Lifestyle Holdings Limite ATAT 64/100 Moderate
5 Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. HLT 58/100 Moderate
6 Choice Hotels International, In CHH 53/100 Moderate
7 The Intergroup Corporation INTG 53/100 Moderate
8 Marriott International MAR 50/100 Moderate
9 Civeo Corporation (Canada) CVEO 47/100 Developing

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How IHG scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 68 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 75 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 77 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 84 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 69 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 49 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding IHG's moat

What is Intercontinental Hotels Group's moat score?

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) scores 70 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #2 of 14 scored companies in Lodging, the top 14%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 13 companies in Lodging. Its strongest defense is Capital Efficiency (84/100) and its weakest is Scale & Market Position (49/100).

How does Intercontinental Hotels Group compare with other Lodging companies?

Intercontinental Hotels Group ranks #2 of 14 scored companies in Lodging by moat score. The widest moat in Lodging is Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (WH) at 71/100. The companies ranked closest are Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (WH) at 71 just above it and H World Group Limited (HTHT) at 67 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 13 companies in Lodging. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Intercontinental Hotels Group scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Intercontinental Hotels Group?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and IHG scores: Pricing Power (68), Cost Advantage (75), Customer Stickiness (77), Capital Efficiency (84), Resilience (69), Scale & Market Position (49). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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