Stay Unique
A personalised stay is also a stay that respects the place where it happens.
In the current Belonging strategy, Stay Unique is the pillar that builds sustainability into the guest experience. This chapter is organised in three areas: responsible choices in the stay, each hotel’s connection to its territory, and the digitalisation of the experience. In 2025 those strands are at different stages of maturity — from practices already in place, such as digitalisation and territorial connection, to the definition of sustainability standards and commitments that will be consolidated in the years ahead.
Digitalisation supports that personalisation without removing proximity. The HiJiffy chatbot, available on the unit and Group websites, handled 66 467 conversations over the year. SuitePad, an in-room tablet system, is installed at Grande Real Santa Eulália Resort & Hotel Spa, where it recorded 4 667 requests to skip housekeeping. QR-code menus are used at the Mare bar of Grande Real Villa Itália Hotel & Spa, and wooden RFID keys have replaced plastic keys at every unit except the Amazónia ones.
Inclusion and certification run through all three areas, also at different stages. Green Key is already in place at 11 of the Group’s hotels — an international standard for environmental management in hospitality. TUR4all is a goal still to reach: the Group commits to extending the standard to the units that meet the accessibility requirements, which are being identified.
Guest experience and Digital
The place as part of the stay
What distinguishes the experience is each hotel’s connection to its territory. In Olhão, Real Marina Hotel & SPA offers the Saline Tour in the Ria Formosa salt pans and bicycle rides along the lagoon. In Lisbon, Maxime Boutique Hotel Avenida da Liberdade keeps the cabaret programme that is part of the house’s history. The Group also partners with the Cultural Directorate of the Portuguese Navy, which gives guests a 20% discount on visits to its cultural venues, and Grande Real Villa Itália Hotel & Spa, in Cascais, is a member of Leading Hotels of the World.
The wellness offer, from spa programmes to outdoor experiences, completes this dimension.
Three standards to structure the responsible offer
The Group’s responsible offer is organised in three standards — Unique Stays, Unique Meetings and Unique Meals — whose criteria are still being developed. Before the pilot projects, planned for two units, eligibility requirements, indicators, the verification process and the rules for communicating with the guest will be completed.
Unique Stays
Preliminary criteria to cut material and resource use in the stay: paperless communication, optional housekeeping and textiles with a guest incentive, certified amenities.
Unique Meetings
Preliminary criteria for events that can sit inside corporate clients’ sustainability policies: paperless processes, reusable materials.
Unique Meals
Steers the food offer toward local and seasonal products, plant-protein options, certified products and partnerships against food waste.
Inclusion criteria apply to the three standards. In TUR4all, the commitment is to extend the standard to the units that meet the accessibility requirements, which are being identified.
Digital
The guest’s relationship with the hotel begins, more and more, on a screen. The website chatbot and SuitePad bring the guest closer to the hotel’s services, simplify requests and reduce paper in circulation.
In 2025 the Group used two distinct HiJiffy solutions. Digital Concierge, which sent WhatsApp messages before, during and after the stay, was implemented only at the five-star units and was discontinued during the year. The chatbot built into the websites stayed in operation and is the solution the figures below refer to.
The chatbot was available on the websites of seven units* and on the Group website, handling 66 467 conversations, of which 61 388 on the unit websites and 5 079 on the Group website. In 2024, 75 928 conversations were handled. The share of conversations resolved without a human intervening was 82,86%, against 86,25% in 2024.
SuitePad lets guests opt out of daily housekeeping. Room opt-outs are shown below. The 2025 figures are reported for Grande Real Santa Eulália, the only unit with SuitePad data in 2025. QR-code menus and wooden RFID keys complete these measures.
| Metric | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Units with a chatbot | 8/17 | 7/17* |
| Conversations handled | 75 928 | 66 467 |
| Resolved without a human | 86.25% | 82.86% |
* The chatbot was live on the Real Bellavista Hotel & Spa website until the end of May 2025: the site stayed online after the unit closed on 3 January, and the unit reopened in June under the Holiday Inn Algarve Albufeira brand. Real Marina Residence has its own chatbot and is counted separately in the collection; within the report perimeter it forms part of Real Marina Hotel & Spa. The Group website also has the solution and is not a hotel.
| Metric | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Rooms that opted out of housekeeping | 3 416 | 4 667 |
Certifications and distinctions
TUR4all
1/17 units with this certification
TUR4all is the accessible-tourism distinction awarded to establishments that work on the accessibility of their premises and services. In Portugal it is run by Accessible Portugal, a non-profit dedicated to accessible tourism since 2006, under Turismo de Portugal’s ALL FOR ALL programme, with support from the European Network for Accessible Tourism and Fundação Vodafone Portugal. Award is based on an on-site diagnosis by specialist technicians. Scope is not limited to mobility: it covers visual, hearing, cognitive and orientation needs, and food intolerances and allergies. The assessment report is public, so a guest can check the hotel’s actual conditions before booking.
The commitment in the strategy is to extend the standard to the units that meet the accessibility requirements, which are being identified.
Distinguished unit
- Real Marina Hotel & Spa
Green Key
11/17 units with this certification
Green Key is awarded by the Foundation for Environmental Education and coordinated in Portugal by ABAE – Associação Bandeira Azul de Ambiente e Educação. The certification recognises the unit’s environmental management and sustainability practices, with emphasis on energy and water conservation and waste management, and depends on demanding criteria including an on-site verification visit.
Units with Green Key 2025
- Maxime Boutique Hotel Avenida da Liberdade
- Hotel Real Oeiras
- Grande Real Santa Eulália Resort & Hotel Spa
- Grande Real Villa Itália Hotel & Spa
- Holiday Inn Algarve Albufeira
- Holiday Inn Express Alfragide
- Holiday Inn Express Aeroporto
- Holiday Inn Express Avenida da Liberdade
- Holiday Inn Express Plaza Saldanha
- Holiday Inn Express Porto City Centre
- Holiday Inn Express Porto Exponor
Where TUR4all assesses accessibility, Green Key assesses environmental performance. The two distinctions are complementary.
Guest satisfaction
Guest satisfaction is one of the most direct indicators of the Group’s performance and one of the most demanding to manage: it is the sum of hundreds of small interactions in each stay.
We follow it continuously, bringing together reviews published on online travel agencies and on platforms such as Google and TripAdvisor, as well as the answers to the questionnaires sent to guests after the stay, through the Group’s CRM in the Real units and IHG’s own channels in the Holiday Inn units. In a portfolio that runs from luxury to convenience, each management team follows its own score rather than a single Group average.
Each hotel reviews its scores monthly and reads the comments in order to turn them into action on the ground.
In 2025 the Group average was 8,3 out of 10, a figure that for the first time includes the three Amazónia units and is therefore not directly comparable with the 8,4 of 2024. There were 59 complaints across the units that reported this indicator**.
| Hotel | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Holiday Inn Express Aeroporto | 7.70 | 7.40 |
| Holiday Inn Express Plaza Saldanha | 8.40 | 8.50 |
| Holiday Inn Express Alfragide | 7.90 | 8.00 |
| Holiday Inn Express Avenida da Liberdade | 8.30 | 8.60 |
| Holiday Inn Express Porto City Centre | 8.60 | 8.40 |
| Holiday Inn Express Porto Exponor | 8.00 | 8.20 |
| Maxime Boutique Hotel Avenida da Liberdade | 9.00 | 9.00 |
| Hotel Real Palácio | 8.20 | 8.20 |
| Grande Real Villa Itália Hotel & Spa | 9.10 | 9.30 |
| Hotel Real Oeiras | 8.10 | 8.10 |
| Grande Real Santa Eulália Resort & Hotel Spa | 8.60 | 8.40 |
| Real Marina Hotel & Spa | 8.70 | 8.70 |
| Holiday Inn Algarve Albufeira * | — | 8.70 |
| Holiday Inn Express & Suites Lisbon – Príncipe Real * | — | 8.40 |
| Amazónia Jamor * | — | 7.10 |
| Amazónia Estoril * | — | 7.20 |
| Amazónia Palmela * | — | 8.40 |
| Group (average) | 8.4 | 8.3 |
| Group complaints | 43 | 59 |
The scores come from reviews published on online travel agencies and on platforms such as Google and TripAdvisor, and from the answers to the questionnaires sent to guests after the stay, through the Group’s CRM in the Real units and IHG’s own channels in the Holiday Inn units.
* Units without a comparable 2024 score: Holiday Inn Express & Suites Lisbon – Príncipe Real opened in August 2025; Holiday Inn Algarve Albufeira began operating under this brand during the year, having scored 8,3 in 2024 as Real Bellavista Hotel & Spa; and the three Amazónia units are in the reporting perimeter for the first time in 2025.
** The 2025 complaints count covers 12 of the 17 units in the reporting perimeter. Holiday Inn Express Aeroporto, Amazónia Estoril and Amazónia Palmela did not report this indicator. Grande Real Villa Itália and Grande Real Santa Eulália answered on the basis of online reviews, a criterion not comparable with a complaints record, so they were not included. The 2024 total of 43 complaints was compiled for the Group as a whole, so the two years are not directly comparable.