A Q&A with IHG's Karin Sheppard

We caught a moment with IHG's Karin Sheppard after her session on stage at The Annual Hotel Conference. Karin is responsible for driving the performance, sustainable growth and reputation of IHG’s European business.

What was it like being back on stage?
It was fantastic to be back on stage and actually talking about our business talking about what unites us all. This topic was about people, planet, and profits. So it was wide ranging. But it was really nice to get amongst it again and share thoughts and perspectives with industry peers.

It's been fantastic just to walk the aisles, bump into people I haven't seen face-to-face for a while, have some good meeting. So it's been a really productive day and very exciting actually. 

Where are you seeing opportunities coming out of the crisis?
So we actually announced a new brand vignette collection only a couple of months ago. So for us, that is really our opportunity to get into the Luxury Collection space, and to invite those fabulous individually branded hotels that are out there, into our portfolio. So that's a real focus for us. Only a couple of years ago, we rolled out VOCO and it's taken the world by storm, we've got over 60 now opening the pipeline, and plenty more to do there. So for now, we really focused on, you know, extending our existing portfolio of brands and I see plenty of opportunities across Europe. 
We're certainly seeing a lot of interest in luxury across different aspects. I talked about collection brands and and of course, we've got Kimpton, Intercontinental, Six Senses and Regent. So there's a wide range of luxury offerings out there. And I think even from a customer perspective, there is interest in being able to continue the journey we had before the pandemic of going to exciting places. We also see opportunities in resorts across Southern Europe. So definitely, the luxury space for us is of increasing importance and one we we hold high hopes for.

Is there anything causing you concern?

I tend to be a glass half full individual, so I look at the the optimistic future we have ahead of us. But of course, there are some short short term bumps at the moment. It is hard to attract enough talent for the roles we have at the moment, and supply chain has got its difficulties. We're very much hoping that that will even out and then of course, we keep looking at borders and travel flows and making sure that we can continue to invite people into this country and keep borders open across Europe.