IHG vs LUV Comparison

InterContinental Hotels Group operates 1 million rooms across 20 brands addressing the midscale through luxury segments, as of Dec. 31, 2025. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express constitute the largest brand, while Hotel Indigo, Even, Hualuxe, Kimpton, and Voco are newer lifestyle brands experiencing strong demand. The company launched a midscale brand, Avid, in 2017 and closed on a 51% stake in Regent Hotels in 2018. It acquired Six Senses in 2019 and launched another midscale brand, Garner, in 2023, followed by a premium conversion brand, Noted Collections, in 2026. Managed and franchised represent 99% of total rooms. As of Dec. 31, 2025, the Americas represented 52% of total rooms, with Greater China accounting for 20% and Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa making up 28%.

Southwest Airlines is the largest domestic air carrier in the United States by passengers boarded. Southwest operates nearly 800 aircraft in an all-Boeing 737 fleet. Despite offering some longer routes and a few perks for business travelers, the airline predominantly specializes in short-haul, leisure flights operated with a simple cabin configuration in a point-to-point network. In early 2026, Southwest modified its cabins to offer some rows with extra legroom, its ticketing process and merchandising to offer assigned seats, and more fare categories to include a basic economy class that appears for the first time in travel aggregators' search results and more directly competes with other airlines' offerings.