Home Inns & Hotels Management’ trademark, ‘Home Inns,’ has been granted official status as a ‘well-known trademark’ in China by the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

Home Inns becomes one of the earliest Chinese hotel companies and the first Chinese economy hotel chain to obtain a ‘well-known trademark’ status, marking a significant achievement for Home Inns and further enhancing the brand’s reputation.

Since its inception, Home Inns has focused on branding and the protection of its intellectual property. After its launch, the Company legally registered the ‘Home Inns’ trademark. However, given the rapid expansion of the industry and its popular brand and product, Home Inns faced trademark infringements which threatened to negatively impact the brand’s image.

The ‘well-known trademark’ certification is an opportunity for Home Inns to further strengthen the protection of its business and branding reputation.

Currently, the Home Inns hotel chain consists of over 400 economy hotels, including hotels under development, in over 90 major business cities in China
Source: Earth Times

After nearly four years in China and 48 signed hotels, Days Inn China is now planning to double its growth rate in 2008.

To achieve this goal, Days Inn China is adding a new leasing business to its existing management and franchise model, where leasing and converting existing properties will become a significant part of its growth strategy.

Days Inn China is now exploring partnership opportunities with real estate owners nationwide.

In the near future, Days Inn China’s leasing business will undoubtedly parallel the growth seen with its existing franchise and management divisions.

Harry Tan, CEO of Days Inn China, said, ‘People tend to believe that luxury hotels and budget hotels enjoy a better positioning than mid-range hotels. We, however, have a different viewpoint. The pricing of high-end hotels is getting increasingly prohibitive, which as a result makes some guests turn to more affordable alternatives. At the same time, more and more business travelers are beginning to seek out more comfortable accommodations with higher standards. We recognize that the majority of leisure travelers today have increasing levels of discretionary income and would prefer mid-range hotels over budget hotels.’

Days Inn’s parent company Wyndham Hotel Group is the largest hotel group in the world, with more than 6,400 hotels worldwide representing more than 535,000 rooms. Days Inn has over 160,000 rooms in more than 1,800 hotels on five continents.

Days Inn China has almost 12,000 rooms in 16 provinces covering 29 cities, including provincial capital cities, second and third tier cities.
Source: Xinhua PR Newswire

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, recently opened a new outlet in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. Two years ago, the hotel giant signed a deal with Chengdu Travel and Exhibition Group to manage six hotels in Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou in the southwestern province. It plans to have 125 hotels in China by the end of the year.

Andy Cosslett, chief executive of IHG and seen in our illustration, said: ‘There is an enormous opportunity for us to grow here.We’re well spread out, and we have enough talent. Our strategy is to develop on that basis and grow faster than in the past.

‘Obviously west China is going to expand very quickly.’

When asked what he thought were the problems of opening a hotel he said, ‘I think the beginning is difficult because people don’t know who you are and in China it is very important that you have a history and a record of success. You need to be seen as a company that has endurance and stamina and is also committed to investment.

‘The biggest challenge is probably the people. Finding people is easy. Finding the right people is harder.

‘Most of our senior managers are Chinese. All the way through it is really a Chinese business, which helps.’
Source: English People’s Daily Online

Starwood plans to set up at least 30 hotels a year in China over the next three years to sidestep a looming recession in its main U.S. market.

Starwood has 41 hotels in China, the world’s fastest growing major economy, and its Asian business has been bolstered by a regional travel boom. However, Asia Pacific President Miguel Ko said, ‘We will, in the medium and long term, be quite immune from a downturn in North America. In the short term, about 25% of our business is still from outside of Asia — 12% from North America — but that percentage is decreasing.

‘In the old days, the yield for Asian business was lower, but that has now changed. The Asian business is now yielding as attractively as the North American and Western European businesses in average room rate, consumption of food and beverage, and use of the facilities for the hotel.’

Starwood owns, operates, or has franchised 896 hotels across the world. It has 136 hotels in Asia.
The firm has sealed deals for two joint ventures to set up ‘Aloft’ hotels in China, each costing between $10 million and $15 million.

Starwood is reducing its investments in real estate and increasingly focusing on franchise agreements and management contracts.  According to its website in 2006 it sold 43 hotels for approximately $4.5 billion.

In China, the firm’s Sheraton brand is the most popular although the brand faces difficulties in the United States through uneven standards.

Rising wages, higher costs of living and a growing need for trained talent putting pressure on firm’s development plans.

Starwood plans to add 15,000 staff in Asia over the next three years — 98% to be hired locally — to add to the 36,000 staff already in the region.

Miguel Ko said, ‘I think the day when you needed a Caucasian man standing in the lobby as general manager to signal that it is an international style hotel is over.’
Source: The Guardian

True, it will not happen until the end of the year, but InterContinental Hotels will launch its 125th hotel in China by the end of 2008.

Peter Gowers, chief executive of IHG Asia Pacific said the group has already opened and run 107 hotels under the group’s various brands in China. And, as an international hotel group, IHG runs the most hotels in China.

Of all the hotel deals signed by international hotel operators, 47% of them are with IHG.

The group operates seven hotel brands, namely InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

It is all a remarkable story and perhaps more so because of its uneven start. InterContinental began in 1946 when Pan American Airways decided that there was a lack of quality hotels in many of its destinations. The first hotel, the Hotel Grande, opened that year in Belem, Brazil.

The company grew and grew and the marketing people decided it would be known as Inter.Continental and were most insistent about the full stop in the middle of the name.

Pan Am started to lose the plot about 1973 although its inflight service in first class — the dining room in the air — put, say, Emirate Airlines to shame. Sadly, often a flight would only have a dozen of so passengers. There was a story, probably an urban myth, that one flight, New York to Amsterdam, only had one passenger. And the airline lost his luggage.

The airline, to keep going, milked money from the hotel company. Eventually, to raise cash Pan Am sold the company even though every person in the hotel company — and the writer was involved with both companies at the time — said sell the airline and keep the hotels.

In 1991 Pan Am finally went down the gurgler while InterContinental Hotels pottered along dropping the full stop in its name on the way. Finally the company was purchased by Bass Hotels & Resorts of the United Kingdom (now InterContinental Hotels Group) in 1998 and became one of the largest and most successful hotel groups in the world. On the official site of InterContinental the Pan Am connection rates one sentence: InterContinental, another of our brands, was created by Pan Am in the 1940s, when hotels were built in many of Pan Am’s destinations. One sentence is probably all that Pan Am deserves.
Source: Hotels and research.

In May, the Lexington Plaza Shenyang Rich Gate Hotel will open. This is a 600-room new construction hotel located in Rich Gate City.

Martin Soran, CEO of The Lexington Collection China said, ‘If you want a glimpse of the future, just take a look at Shenyang. This city has taken the plans from the best engineers, visionaries, and designers of the world and created a masterpiece of a city that’s beyond imagination and unlike anything we’ve seen in modern society thus far.’

Rich Gate City, where the Lexington Plaza Shenyang Rich Gate Hotel is located, encompasses leisure and entertainment districts, a retail center, high-end residential district, and is one of the largest-scale shopping centers in China.

Located near the Lexington Plaza Shenyang Rich Gate Hotel is a 70,000-seat stadium which is near completion. The complex will include a 10,000-seat indoor gymnasium, a 4,000-seat aquatics center, and a 4,000-seat tennis stadium.

Lexington does not stop there. The Lexington Wuhan, a 340-room hotel, is scheduled to open before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in June 2008.

The Pullman Sanya Yalong Bay hotel opened on February 3, 2008. It faces the South China Sea. The hotel opened on February 3 and has 77 rooms and 115 villas (all with private swimming pools) and 9 adaptable meeting rooms. The hotel can host more than 800 people on the occasion of congresses or seminars, in particular with its Pacific Grand Ballroom, which can accommodate up to 350 people. Which makes it, beyond doubt, a MICE hotel.

Pullman is a new Novotel brand and the aim is that by 2009, the Pullman chain will offer 59 hotels (15,600 rooms) in 23 countries covering Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and South America. ooking forward, Pullman plans to build a global network of 300 hotels by 2015, with new hotels being added at the rate of 25 per year.

CEO Gilles Pélisson said, ‘Pullman will be one of fastest-growing brands of the Accor Group, especially in the Asia- Pacific region. The brand will expand rapidly this year, particularly in China. In 2009, we plan to open 18 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region, with the ultimate aim of around 100 Pullman hotels here.’

Novotel sees Pullman as a perfect fit with the Group’s overall portfolio, because its market positioning is complementary to the other non-standard brands of Sofitel, Mercure and All Seasons.
Source: eBlackboard

The head of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Shao Qiwei, pictured here, has said the country’s fast-developing tourism industry is expected to boost the hotel sector.

He said this will mean about 200,000 new hotels, resorts and guesthouses are likely to be built by 2015.

Addressing a seminar on domestic and international hotels’ groups, he said the new structures will include about 10,000 star-rated hotels. The number of five-star hotels in the country is expected to rise from 361 to 500.

Shao Qiwei said, ‘The World Tourism Organization has forecast that China will grow into a huge tourism market, and have 100 million each of inbound and outbound visitors and 2.8 billion domestic tourists by 2015.’

The booming tourism market has created the need for new hotels and other infrastructure facilities.

The general manager of Traders Hotel at China World Trade Center in Beijing, Xin Tao, said Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts plan to open five new facilities in the country this year, and at least 13 more in big cities such Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an in the near future. That is at least 40 new hotels in the country by 2011.

She said, ‘The Olympic Games has brought us unlimited business opportunities and the increase of leisure, as well as business, travel in China will add to the appeal of hotel operators.’

The CNTA has forecast that investment from home and abroad into hotels will hit RMB340 billion ($47.14 billion) between 2006 and 2010.

The hotel sector was one of the first to be opened up in China, with Jianguo Hotel in Beijing being the first foreign-invested hotel to be approved by the State Council in 1979.

Since then, 67 hotel brands of 41 international groups have entered the country and are managing 516 hotels at present.

By the end of last year there were more than 14,000 star-rated hotels, 100 times more than in 1978.
Source: China Daily

Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts will have a new hotel in Tianjin, China’s third largest city.

Scheduled to open in 2010 the 342-room hotel will definitely be a MICE hotel catering to Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions. To deal with this it will meeting room facilities comprising two ballrooms and 15 function rooms covering a total meeting space of 2,378 square meters.

Plus all the usual jollities such as an executive lounge, a specialty restaurant, an all day dining lobby lounge, a fully equipped gym, and a swimming pool with river view. The 24-storey Pan Pacific Tianjin will form part of a mixed-development with residential apartments, offices and shops acquired by a joint venture company Tianjin UOL Xiwang Real Estate Development.

The hotel will be in the northwest of downtown in the Hong Qiao District along Zhang Zhi Zong Lu with a panoramic view of the Hai He River.
Source: Asia Travel Tips

Dubai-based Jumeirah hotel group looks to build ten hotels in China by the end of 2010. This will be the group’s largest expansion into Asia.

Tricia Warwick, Jumeirah VP Sales, said in Gulf News, ‘We are looking all over Asia for new developments but China is a key market. Two-thirds of our 16 hotels in Asia will be in China.’

So far Jumeirah, famous for the Burj Al Arab the world’s tallest all-suite hotel and seen in our illustration, has plans for three properties in China located in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

The HanTong Jumeirah Shanghai was recently voted the ‘Most Anticipated Hotel’ in Shanghai at the 2007 World Traveller Awards China chapter although it is very difficult to get excited about an award which seems to have been invented purely for the sake of making an award.

Scheduled to launch August this year, the 338-room hotel is curiously said in the press release as being ’set to take advantage of post-Olympic crowds.’

There is very little evidence that Olympic Games, once they are over, bring crowds of visitors. Or are these business people who have delayed until the games are over?

Currently in Dubai, Jumeirah has four properties under construction. Within three years, the hotel group intends to hold a global portfolio of 57 properties.
Source: eTravel Blackboard