IHG hands one developer the Australian Staybridge build
IHG Hotels & Resorts signed a Master Development Agreement with Australian property developer ALAND on 10 September 2026. The agreement gives ALAND exclusive development rights for Staybridge Suites in Australia and commits a portfolio of at least 15 hotels and a minimum of 2,000 rooms.
Both companies signed the first two franchise agreements alongside the master agreement: the 130-room Staybridge Suites Sydney Parramatta and the 112-room Staybridge Suites Sydney Leppington, both in Greater Western Sydney. Signature Hotel Management Group will manage both hotels.
The three roles in the deal
IHG owns the brand and the distribution system. ALAND holds the development rights and carries the site pipeline and the construction. Signature Hotel Management Group runs the first two hotels under franchise. The two franchised hotels form the first phase of the national portfolio.
Matt Tripolone, IHG’s managing director for Australasia and the Pacific, said the deal brings IHG’s brands, distribution and enterprise together with ALAND’s development capability. Andrew Hrsto, ALAND’s founder and chief executive, called it an evolution of the existing partnership.
The channels the keys enter
IHG One Rewards carries more than 160 million members, per the release. IHG runs 21 hotel brands with more than one million rooms across 7,000 hotels in over 100 countries and a development pipeline of a further 2,400 properties.
Staybridge Suites counted 355 open hotels and a further 152 in the pipeline as at June 2026.
The booking horizon the format sets
Staybridge Suites is IHG’s upscale extended-stay brand, built for guests travelling for days, weeks or longer. IHG names four demand sources behind the Australian commitment: corporate travellers, project-based work, relocations, and guests seeking flexibility on longer stays.
The release carries no rate, no minimum-stay term, no allotment and no opening rate for either franchised hotel.
The pace at which the rooms arrive
Travel Daily reported on 17 September 2026 that the first two properties are set to open in 2030 and put the 2,000 keys across the next 15 years. On that horizon the commitment averages about 133 keys a year.
The two signed agreements carry 242 rooms today. IHG has not identified the remaining sites. Tripolone told the Australian Financial Review that Sydney’s occupancy rate and tighter supply drove the starting market, and he named Brisbane and Melbourne as the markets to follow as the portfolio builds.
The partner’s build record
ALAND describes itself as an Australian-owned family business and one of the country’s largest private development and construction groups, with a pipeline exceeding 6,500 apartments and a Gold Star iCIRT rating. IHG and ALAND opened the 130-room voco Gosford inside ALAND’s Archibald precinct before this agreement.
What the record leaves open
IHG published no opening date, no cost figure, no room rate and no site beyond Parramatta, Leppington and Gosford. Two outside figures carry their own publishers: Travel Daily headlined the rollout at $1 billion on 17 September 2026, and the same report printed the Leppington hotel at 122 keys against IHG’s published 112.