IHG's biggest Japan conversion deal yet turns 14 Kyoto hotels into Garner and Holiday Inn Express

IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed its largest hotel-conversion deal in Japan to date, agreeing to rebrand 14 hotels across Kyoto — 1,063 rooms between them — in partnership with GCP Hospitality, the hospitality arm of Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital, the company said in a statement on 24 August.

Twelve of the fourteen hotels will convert to Garner, IHG's midscale conversion brand, while one becomes a Holiday Inn Express — only the group's third in Japan. The fourteenth property remains unbranded for now, with its eventual conversion still to be decided, according to IHG.

The portfolio spans three of Kyoto's busiest overnight districts — Kyoto Station, Shijo and Gojo — and openings will be phased over the next 12 months as each hotel is renovated and rebranded, IHG said. No investment figure or portfolio value was disclosed.

This is a true milestone signing for IHG in Japan with one of our long-term partners.

The deal is a conversion, not a construction project, and that is the point. Kyoto's hotel pipeline has struggled to keep pace with the city's inbound rebound, and rebranding existing buildings lets a chain add branded rooms fast, without the land search or build time a new hotel requires. For Gaw Capital, it is also a way to put an operating brand and IHG's distribution — Garner in particular — onto assets it already owns or manages, rather than running them independently.

Garner, which IHG launched in August 2023, has now passed 100 open hotels worldwide; the 12 Kyoto conversions alone will add a meaningful share of that once complete. GCP Hospitality's chief executive, Erwann Mahé, framed the agreement as an expansion of an existing relationship rather than a new one — a reminder that in Japan, the growth global chains report increasingly comes through partnerships with regional real-estate capital, not ownership of the buildings themselves.