IHG Hotels & Resorts announced Monday morning plans to acquire the “premium urban lifestyle” brand Ruby, a 20-hotel collection of hotels in Europe, for roughly $116 million. The brand will be IHG’s 20th brand overall and comes as a bit of a surprise to a hotel earnings season that has largely lumbered on with no major breaking news. Hyatt’s Playa Hotels & Resorts acquisition announced last week had first been teased weeks prior.
While Ruby is centered on Europe, IHG plans to take the brand global — hot on the heels of a strong earnings report Monday that showed the company post a $1.1 billion operating profit for 2024 and more than 4 percent increase in rooms growth.
“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,” said IHG CEO Elie Maalouf in a statement.
Ruby’s current portfolio includes hotels in major German cities like Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. Additional properties are found in London, Vienna, Geneva and Zurich as well as in Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands. An additional 10 hotels are in various stages of development and expected to open by the end of 2027. All the currently open Ruby hotels are expected to join the IHG network by the end of March 2026.
Ruby’s lifestyle hotel roots mean the hotels are in desirable neighborhoods and focus on design and public spaces like cocktail lounges. While lifestyle hotels are an increasing buzz word in the hospitality sector, Ruby appears ready to lean into another with its “lean luxury” approach that IHG describes as including a great bed and shower in guest rooms that focus on restoration and relaxation — “all coming together to connect guests with sought-after cities at the right price,” per the company memo.
For those curious about what the right price might be, rates tonight at the Ruby Lucy Hotel & Bar in London start at around $150.
IHG notes the hotel will appeal to lifestyle travelers on the customer front while developers of these projects can expect a cost-efficient and adaptable concept to build out in the “urban micro” space. Automation around things like self-service check-in kiosks can keep operational costs low, and the brand is conducive to both new-build and conversions with things like the revamping of an office building.
It will be interesting to see where Ruby evolves as it expands globally.
On the one hand, “lean luxury” could feed into famed hotelier Ian Schrager’s plan for Public, a brand he’s described as “luxury for all” that pares back some of the pomp and circumstance associated with traditional luxury brands. But “urban micro” also plays into the idea of brands like CitizenM and Moxy, which are in some of the best-known cities in the world and feature smaller, well-appointed accommodations and focus on offering enhanced public amenities.
Price points for the brands are very different, as Public’s New York City hotel can often command rates well over $600 per night while CitizenM and Moxy can go for under $200.
IHG plans to grow Ruby to more than 120 hotels in the next decade and to more than 250 hotels over the next 20 years. The brand will fit well into the expanding IHG portfolio of luxury and lifestyle brands, which currently includes Regent and Six Senses at the ultra-luxury end of the food chain while Kimpton, the Vignette Collection and Hotel Indigo are the more lifestyle-forward siblings.
“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,” Michael Struck, Founder and CEO of The Ruby Group, said in a prepared statement. “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.”