These are exciting news for all friends and regular customers of the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG): The company announced a comprehensive partnership with German hotel group Novum Hospitality.
With this new partnership, more than 100 hotels belonging to brands like The Niu, Novum Hotel, Select Hotel and Yggotel will become available in IHG’s booking system. With this move, IHG will almost double their number of houses in Germany. Novum Hospitality mainly runs hotels with their own brands, but also acts as franchisee for Accor, IHG and Hilton.
The Niu Becomes Holiday Inn
Novum Hospitality currently runs 45 hotels under the The Niu brand in Germany. These are famous for their hip and colorful design, meant to set them apart from the competition. These hotels (and seven more that are currently planned) will become available as The Niu – Holiday Inn.
The remaining Novum brands will receive either Garner (a rather unknown IHG brand) or Candlewood Suites branding. Here is a list of the impending changes:
- The Niu → Holiday Inn – The Niu
- Novum Hotel → Garner
- Select Hotel → Garner
- Yggotel → Garner
- Acora Living The City → Candlewood Suites
IHG One Rewards members will be able to collect nights and points in these hotels. Of course, they will be also be entitled to possible status benefits, like complimentary welcome drinks or free breakfast. IHG’s aim is to complete integrating the new hotels by July 2026.
Bottom Line
Especially to our native German hotel market, this is a very interesting development. Within the next two years, IHG is set to become the second-largest hotel operator in the country (they’re currently fifth).
While this sounds exciting, there are valid reasons for skepticism: Most Novum hotels simply don’t live up to the quite decent standards of IHG. It will be interesting to see if the new branding goes along with refurbishments on a larger scale. Or whether these properties or stay with the more budget centered approach of most Novum brands: Rooms of approx. €50 are quite common for Novum hotels.
Source: IHG Press Release
Cover Picture: Peer Linder