An artist's rendering of the planned Holiday Inn Express hotel at Hangzhou Airport | Photo credit: IHG Hotels

Luckin Coffee has signed a strategic partnership with IHG Hotels which will see participating Holiday Inn Express hotels across China offer guests a complimentary Luckin Coffee takeaway coffee. 
 

UK-based IHG Hotels, which operates 278 Holiday Inn Express hotels across China, said the collaboration showcases its ‘simple and smart’ travel experience ethos alongside Luckin Coffee’s focus on affordability and convenience. 

The partnership will enable members of IHG Hotel’s IHG One Rewards programme staying at participating Holiday Inn Express hotels across China to receive a takeaway Luckin Coffee breakfast coffee. Diamond Elite members will also receive a Luckin Coffee and IHG One Rewards co-branded coffee gift box. 

“With this new partnership, Luckin Coffee has customised high-quality coffee beans to make a blend just for IHG Hotels. Luckin Coffee has a vision of creating a world-class coffee brand and making Luckin a part of everyday life, with our focus on the core values of quality and innovation. We want our signature products and services to inspire expectations for a better life,” said Wu Gang, Senior Vice President, Luckin Coffee. 

IHG Hotels suggested the partnership could be rolled-out across its wider hotel estate, which counts Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo, Hualuze and Voco among its 17 hotel brands globally. 

“In today’s world, where coffee culture is part and parcel of the domestic consumer market, IHG is leveraging its own strong market penetration to partner with Luckin Coffee to enhance the breakfast experience that Holiday Inn Express is already proud of,” said Jerome Qiu, Chief Operating Officer, IHG Greater China. 

IHG Hotels, which promotes its Holiday Inn Express brand as a leader in the upper-midscale hotel market, is seeking to open more than 150 Holiday Inn Express hotels in 2023, focusing on high footfall transport hubs such as Shanghai Pudong Airport and Hangzhou Airport, alongside third- and fourth-tier cities such as Zhenjiang, Jiangmen, and Weifang. 

The expansion to third- and fourth-tier cities, where approximately 70% of China’s 1.4 billion population live, chimes with Luckin Coffee’s current growth plans. 

In January 2023 the Xiamen-based coffee chain, which operates more than 8,400 outlets across China, said it was seeking to expand its franchise operations to 41 third and fourth-tier cities this year. 

In March 2023 Luckin Coffee reported its first full-year profit since its founding in 2017, achieving 67% sales growth to reach RMB 13.3bn ($1.9bn) for the 12 months ended 31 December 2022.