Its primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange and it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

InterContinental Hotels Group can be traced back to 1777 when William Bass established the Bass Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent. In 1876, their red triangle trademark was the first registered in the United Kingdom.

In 1989, the British Government limited the number of pubs brewers could directly own, so Bass began to grow their small line of hotels. In 1990, they purchased Holiday Inn International from Kemmons Wilson, expanding themselves into North America.

The InterContinental brand began in 1946 as part of Pan American Airways under Juan Trippe, when the first hotel opened in Belem, Brazil. In 1981, holding company InterContinental Hotels Corporation was sold to UK-based company Grand Metropolitan. As GrandMet focused it core business and expanded into fast food through the purchase of Burger King, ICH was sold to fund the restructure in 1988 to Japanese based Saison Group.

In March 1998, Saison Group sold IHC to Bass.

In 2000, the company sold its brewing assets (and the rights to the Bass name) to the major Belgian brewer Interbrew for £2.3 billion and changed its name to Six Continents PLC. IHG was created in 2003 after Six Continents PLC split into two daughter companies: Mitchells and Butlers PLC, to handle restaurant assets and IHG to focus on hotels and soft drinks. Britvic, the company's soft drinks division, was retained by IHG until December 2005, when IHG sold its interest in the company by an initial public offering.

IHG is primarily engaged in managing hotels owned by other parties and in franchising its hotel brands. That is, it sells its expertise in hotel management, systems, and marketing, while leaving investment in real property, which is far more capital intensive, requires different skills, and has a different risk profile, primarily to its partners. This is not an unusual arrangement in the hotel industry. As of 2007 it franchises over 3,200 hotels, manages over 510 and owns only 18. The owned hotels do however include many of the key properties of company's flagship InterContinental brand.

IHG currently operates and/or franchises hotels in the following countries:

AndorraArgentinaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahrainBelarusBelgiumBosnia and HerzegovinaBrazilBulgariaCambodiaCanadaChileChinaColombiaCosta RicaCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDominican RepublicEgyptEl SalvadorEnglandEritrea

FijiFinlandFranceFrench PolynesiaGermanyGhanaGreeceGuatemalaHondurasHungaryIndiaIndonesiaIrelandIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJordanKazakhstanKenyaKorea, Republic ofKuwaitLebanonLibyaLithuaniaMacedonia