IHG named Exclusive Accommodation Partner for the Rugby League World Cup 2026
IHG Hotels & Resorts will house teams, officials and fans through the Rugby League World Cup 2026 as Exclusive Accommodation Partner for the men's, women's and wheelchair tournaments. The company announced the role on 13 October. The tournament opened in Sydney on Thursday.
The tournament in numbers
The three competitions bring together 26 teams from 14 nations. The organiser's per-competition counts add to 53 matches over 31 days: 18 men's, 15 women's and 20 wheelchair. The matches run across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
The men's tournament kicked off at Sydney's Allianz Stadium on Thursday 15 October with Australia against New Zealand. The wheelchair final is at Wollongong's WIN Entertainment Centre on Friday 13 November. The men's and women's finals are at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Sunday 15 November.
Nine cities host matches: Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold Coast, Townsville, Christchurch and Port Moresby.
Where IHG's rooms sit
IHG says the group has hotels across the tournament host cities in all three countries. Its own corporate announcements give the estate its scale. In July 2025 IHG reported 69 hotels in Australasia across nine brands, with another 26 properties in development.
Host city properties include Holiday Inn Townsville, which opened on 22 July 2026 with 93 rooms under a partnership with Luxora Hotels and La Vie Hotels & Resorts. InterContinental Brisbane opened in July 2025 with 319 rooms in the city centre, IHG's first InterContinental in the city and the brand's third property in Queensland. InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort sits on the Gold Coast.
In Port Moresby, IHG signed InterContinental Port Moresby in February 2026 for a late 2028 opening. That opening lands after this tournament. The group's release gives no city-by-city property list.
What the partnership covers
IHG said it will draw on its hotel network and its experience supporting major international sporting events to host teams, officials and fans on and off the field. The release sets out no room allocations, no rates and no value for the agreement.
The organiser's partner page carries the IHG logo among its official partners and links to the group's Australia site. The partner grid carries no exclusivity label, so exclusive is IHG's own description of the role.
The loyalty angle
Matt Tripolone, managing director for Australasia and Pacific at IHG Hotels & Resorts, tied the deal to the group's loyalty programme. "For our IHG One Rewards members, this partnership creates exciting opportunities to get closer to the action," he said.
Tripolone also said major sporting events "have a unique ability to inspire travel, bring people together and create lasting memories", and that the tournament is "a natural fit for IHG".
IHG's release puts IHG One Rewards at more than 160 million members. The same block says the group runs 21 brands with more than one million rooms across 7,100 hotels in over 100 countries and a development pipeline of a further 2,400 properties.
IHG's rugby record
The release points to IHG's experience with major events. Its own announcements record a Rugby Australia partnership renewed in July 2026 and running to 2028, an Official Hotel Partner role for the Guinness men's and women's Six Nations, and an Official Hotel Partner agreement for the men's Rugby World Cup 2027 announced in September 2026. Those are separate properties from the rugby league tournament.
The deal puts 26 squads, their staff and a travelling supporter base into a nine city footprint that sits inside the group's Australasian estate through the whole of October and the first half of November.