Poland Hotels Booking

There are still plenty of hotel rooms available for the Beijing Olympics. Director of Beijing’s Tourism Bureau Zhang Huiguang (seen in our illustration) says the crunch that was predicted doesn’t seem to be happening.

She said that about 500,000 foreigners were expected for the games which is in line with earlier predications.

She said only 77% of capacity at Beijing’s five-star hotels have been booked during the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games and the four-star hotel rate is only 44%. And it’s even lower for three-and two-stars.

There seems to be a logical contradiction here. If the numbers of visitors expected comes up to expectations how can the hotels be so under-utilized? Has someone made a miscalculation?

One reason for the low books could, perhaps, be China’s crack down on visa procedures.

This makes it more difficult to plan travel to the Olympics and, essentially, makes it a one stop journey. Another reason, perhaps, is the immense amount of negative publicity caused by the Tibetan demonstrations. Added to which was worldwide continuing reporting on air pollution problems.

Finally, the sheer total cost of seeing the Olympics may have deterred many potential tourists.
Source: The Canadian Press

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Research and Markets has published China Budget Hotel Report, 2007-2008. Amongst much else it tells us that by the end of 2007, China had 1,689 budget hotels and 180,000 guest rooms.

The main budget hotel chain brands are Star of Jinjiang, Home Inn, Motel, Super 8, Sunny Youth Hotel, GreenTree Inn, 7 Days, Vienna, and Joy Inn.

In 2007, the domestic brands still dominated the market. The top three not only further strengthened their leading positions, but also showed their good potential for further development.

China’s budget hotels have a short history and the average age is about five and a half years.

Among the large cities in China, Shanghai has 286 hotels, ranking the first in terms of the number of budget hotels. In second place is Jiangsu Province, close to Shanghai, which has 182 budget hotels. Beijing comes next with 156 hotels. Guangdong Province and Zhejiang Province rank fourth and fifthwith 146 hotels and 126 hotels.

In the year 2000 China had only 23 budget hotels with a total of 3,236 guest rooms in 200. Now there are over 1,698 hotels with a total of 88,788 guest rooms which gives a growth rate of about 85%.

This rate probably cannot be maintained and the report forecasts that in the period 2008-2010, the growth of China’s budget hotels will slow down to, say, 42%.

The increasingly fierce market competition will raise service quality. Meanwhile the market will be consolidated widely by mergers and acquisitions.
Source: PR Inside

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

If it was not enough to announce its new Pullman line Robert Murray, Accor’s assistant president for the Greater China Region said global hotel chain Accor plans to open between 15 and 26 hotels under its economy hotel brand name of Ibis in 2008 and 2009 in China.

By the end of 2008, Ibis will be in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Harbin. The Ibis hotels are expected to serve businessmen in the country’s second-tier and third-tier cities, where costs are relatively lower.

Accor has opened 12 self-run Ibis hotels in China since its entry, compared to many other foreign hotel giants, which mainly manage hotels for local businesses.

There is still room for the growth of the Chinese economy hotel market, said Robert Murray, who disagrees with the widespread belief that it would suffer a hard landing in the near future.
Source: Trading Markets

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

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

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com