InterContinental Carlton Cannes to become a Regent hotel

The InterContinental Carlton hotel in Cannes – currently undergoing a much needed and much delayed refurbishment – will not reopen under the InterContinental brand.

It was announced yesterday that the hotel will become a Regent when it reopens in ‘Spring’ 2023. The official name will be ‘Carlton Cannes, A Regent Hotel’.

IHG says that it will be ‘a flagship property within the new generation of Regent Hotels & Resorts’, for what that is worth.

InterContinental Hong Kong will also reopen as a Regent in 2023 although this was long planned and – for those with long memories – the hotel was originally built for the Regent chain long before IHG came to manage it.

It remains unclear how IHG intends to treat the Regent and InterContinental brands. It seems, at present, that ‘better’ IHG properties are being transitioned to Regent. However, if InterContinental loses its flagship hotels in key business cities then the image of the whole brand will fall.

My thought was that the ‘resort’ properties should transition to Regent, leaving InterContinental as the home of city centre business hotels. It always seemed a little odd to see InterContinental beach resorts.

This doesn’t seem to be the strategy, however. The press release says that the Regent brand will be used for “the most refined experiences for modern luxury trendsetters”.

In practical terms, the key difference for HfP readers is that Cannes will no longer be somewhere where you can burn an InterContinental Ambassador ‘free weekend night’ voucher or enjoy Ambassador or Royal Ambassador benefits.

EDIT: We reviewed Carlton Cannes, A Regent Hotel after it opened – our review is here

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