Market Highlights | Mid-to-high-end hotel brand Orange Crystal ushered in an upgrade, anchoring the new generation of business travelers

Orange crystal, which was once known for its personalization, has gone to the mid-to-high-end business travel route.

On July 8, Huazhu Group announced that its mid-to-high-end hotel brand Orange Crystal has been upgraded to anchor the new generation of business travelers, and the new store was officially opened in Shanghai's Changfeng Business District on the same day.

In terms of facilities and services, the 2.0 version of Orange Crystal is equipped with a whiskey lobby, meeting room, professional gym, laundry room, providing intelligent services such as "30 seconds check-in, 0-second check-out", robot delivery and so on. Its Shanghai Changfeng Business District store was full of rooms in the month of soft opening, and the RevPAR reached more than 600 yuan.

Cao Juan, CEO of the Orange Family Business Department of Huazhu Group, said that in the next three years, Orange Crystal will strive to reach the scale of 400 stores, mainly gathered in the core property locations of first- and second-tier cities, with the user's aesthetics and the pursuit of experience gradually improved, Orange Crystal will also consider sinking to the third-tier market.

The rise of the younger generation of consumer groups is bringing about a change in the accommodation demand of business travelers, compared with the traditional business travelers of consumer star hotels, the mainstream customers after 75 to 90 are more pursuing core needs.

According to the data of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, from 2016 to 2018, the growth rate of mid-range hotel chains in China was 15.73%, 31.43% and 32.6%, respectively, and the growth rate was much higher than that of economic hotel chains.

Driven by consumption upgrades, domestic high-end hotels still have a broad market space. According to Dongxing Securities, the proportion of domestic high-end hotels will continue to expand and stabilize at 43.8%, and the high-speed growth period will be at least 3-8 years, and the number of rooms will still have 76%-120% growth space compared with the current.

For Huazhu, which holds mid-to-high-end brands such as Orange Crystal, Manxin, Huajiantang and Xiyue, this is undoubtedly a critical period of expansion. According to the plan, by 2023, Huazhu will open at least 500 mid-to-high-end brand hotels, maintaining the growth rate of at least 100 new stores per year.

Faced with the temptation of high growth and high returns, players who enter high-end hotels are more than one. In addition to hotel chain brands such as Jin Jiang and BTG, OTAs such as Ctrip, Meituan and Tongcheng have also entered the market in recent years to promote the mid-to-high-end hotel business.

Under the crowded track, Huazhu wants to seize the opportunity on the road of "upward" and is destined to face more competitors.