I think IHG has done a lot of work to define their brands more succinctly, especially as they expand their portfolio... but there is still work for them to do yet. Some thoughts by collection:

Luxury & Lifestyle brands

• Most of IHG's brands sit in this bucket, and incidentally, it's the one that needs the most attention and resources paid to it.
• I think Six Senses is good to go - IHG has allowed it to remain largely autonomous so the aesthetic and direction they've had from before seems to be intact.
• Regent needed a lot of help since it was historically all over the place, with a significantly larger portfolio of departed hotels than the six they had in operation when IHG took them over. I think they're doing a great job regenerating the luxury gravitas the brand once had, but their rollout of it is way too slow and too Asia-centric - at this point, I would have loved to see a flagship Regent in Europe and North America announced. Also, they're being promoted as a modern luxury brand that bucks the trend set by classic competitors like Peninsula and Ritz-Carlton... but when I see properties like Berlin and its ancient aesthetic, the outdated Beijing hotel, Taipei with its metal keys and beige rooms and Singapore with its 1980s feel, that's half the existing portfolio that stands at odds with what corporate is saying the brand is. Those hotel still all carry and use the old Regent logo, despite a new one being loudly unrolled more than three years ago!
• InterContinental needs help. I personally never saw it as a legitimate luxury brand as its portfolio is too inconsistent: you've either got beautiful modern properties like Shanghai Wonderland, Rome Ambasciatori Palace and Ljubljana, lackluster renovated properties like Appi Kogen, Sydney and Barclay New York, or dumps like Chicago, Abu Dhabi and both properties in Cairo. IHG may be celebrating the brand's rich heritage, but it needs to push its owners into falling in line with a strong brand that unifies the global portfolio so that the gorgeous Asian hotels and the generally meh Western ones look more like a family. In my experience with IC properties in Dubai, Cairo, Muscat and some of the departed ones in India, I generally found the service to be standoffish and not at all what I'd expect from a luxury brand. They are firmly below what I'd expect from a Ritz-Carlton [I know RCs are not in ICs comp set, despite the idiots at Skift juxtaposing it with RC], no way design-forward as W and not necessarily on par with Fairmont and JW Marriott. As the company's namesake, IHG needs to tighten the screws on this one.
• What the Hell is going on with Vignette? For a flexible luxury brand, adopting an aborted Indigo in Brisbane and an incredibly mediocre-looking hotel in Thailand doesn't set the right tone. I'm not expecting total brand unity as this is a collection brand of independent properties, but two hotels that look barely upper-upscale shouldn't be branded as luxury, especially when you've got respected forthcoming entrants like Grand Hotel Wien and the two properties in the Algarve.
• I've always liked Kimpton, and like that, similarly to Six Senses, they've been left alone to their own devices; I love the mid-century brand aesthetic, the abundant artwork and the consistent programming like the F&B and social hours you see at all their hotels from Los Angeles to Koh Samui. I just wish we'd see a stronger rollout beyond the US, especially in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
• I'm very pleased with how Hotel Indigo is shaping up - it went from being a chintzy, cutesy flowery brand to something that is far more artful, intricate and localized. The new properties in Madison, Dubai, Belgrade, Vienna and Japan are all shining examples of this, and I look forward to seeing more Indigos sprout up.

Premium Collection

• voco is shaping up nicely into a bright brand, but some of the properties in their portfolio look like Holiday Inns with yellow details. I also don't get what exactly voco represents - it's a conversion brand to bring new hotels quickly into its fold, but it has a strict identity so... what is it trying to say and do, exactly?
• Hualuxe is China-based for now, at least until their planned Times Square hotel opens, but I think it seems fine as an upper-upscale/lower-luxury brand of decent hotels that appeal to Chinese customers. No issues here.
• Crowne Plaza is a hot mess suffering from a lot of the glaring inconsistencies across the IC brand, but at least they've published clear brand guidelines and new concepts for how they want to redesign the brand identity - something IC has not done. They've actively weeded out many properties and even though there is work to be done, I look forward to seeing CP come back as a stronger brand and shed its dreary image.
• I don't know much about EVEN other than its fitness emphasis, but as a strictly-formulaic and US-based brand, this one strikes me as a been-to-one-been-to-all brand that shouldn't be too hard to mess up.

Essentials Collection

• Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are IHG's bread and butter brands, and they've done good work modernizing them and having them conform to strict standards... even though both of their large portfolios are loaded with crappy properties, most of which are in the US. Similarly to CP, I see a lot of properties getting the boot for failing to perform, so that's always a good sign.
• For Avid, see comments re EVEN above.

Suites Collection

• These brands are highly formulaic, so I don't expect too much innovation here.
• Staybridge Suites has a new look that was unveiled in 2019, and although it's a bit too beige and brown for me, it looks clean and homey. Their newer properties look good.
• Atwell looks promising as an artsy middle ground between the more classic Staybridge and milquetoast Candlewood; it's still too new to make a proper impression, but so far, it looks like it has a strong identity and programming to stand on its own.
• Candlewood has a reputation for being dumpy, but at least IHG has put in the resources to generate a new logo and design template, creating something that looks far less depressing and more inviting.
• I completely don't get why Holiday Inn Club Vacations is advertised as its own brand, so I'll leave this one alone.

The theme I get is that IHG is strong at formulas and popping out template properties [the Essentials and Suites brands demonstrate this], but they have lots to do yet when it comes to their more independent properties. IHG has always been weak at understanding luxury and I'm sure they're learning plenty from their acquisitions of Kimpton, Regent and Six Senses, but they really have to demonstrate more that they know what they're doing if they want to attract high-spending customers looking for distinctive design and experiences.

khabah