The organizational structure of the "King of Small Town Hotels" has suddenly changed and is hidden and worried.
Column | Cultural Tourism Business Review
Field | Hospitality
Behind the architectural mutation
At the end of February, Ma Yingyao, the founder of Shangmei Life, made a bold organizational adjustment.
In this round of adjustment, the former Shangmei Life's Enjoyment Division became "Whale Joy Lianlian Cultural Tourism Group", the Preferential Business Department became "Shangke Excellent Hotel Management Company", the Xinxiang Business Department became "Xinxiang Shicheng Hotel Management Company", and the Exclusive Business Department became "Liuxiang Commercial Management Group".
In addition, Shangmei Life also announced the establishment of two regional companies and a middle office company that supports all companies, "Duoduo Store Brand Co-creation Workshop".
Overnight, the "king of small town hotels" Shangmei Life Group split into 7 companies, independent companies mushroomed, ma Yingyao announced that the future will be "de-grouped".
This time, the large-scale re-disruption and reshuffling of the Shangmei Life Group has made many hotel industry insiders look at it.
"So they're back to Shangkeyou?" He Wenhuan, a Shandong franchisee of the Shangmei Life Group, can't remember the names of many new independent companies of Shangmei Life, he only remembers the old name of Shangmei Life Group in 2016, "Qingdao Shangkeyou Intercity Hotel Management Co., Ltd.".
After joining Shangkeyou for several years, He Wenhuan witnessed nearly 20 new hotel brands such as Junrui, M and Holiday Meidi that Shangmei Life has successively launched in Shandong Base Camp.
According to his observation, "sinking is the main strategy of Shangmei from the beginning, but many details of the strategy when sinking are not done well, and now they can't keep up with the changes of the times, and they have been surpassed by the same industry brands in two or three years." “
Fan Mingxuan, a veteran employee of Shangmei Life, believes that a clear trend can be seen from this round of organizational restructuring: the crisis awareness of Shangmei Life is increasing.
Fan Mingxuan analyzed to the travel industry, "Leaving aside the hidden dangers within each group, Mehood focuses on service design, Orange focuses on personalized services, Vienna focuses on sales intermediaries, Atour focuses on design updates, their product strength, vitality, and market competitiveness still have a lot of space, and Shangmei really does not do any directional insistence." ”
A hotel industry insider believes that when the business development bottleneck period, the general liquor management group will toss the organizational structure, which is a normal operation, and in these years, in addition to Shangkeyou, the influence of other brands has seriously restricted the company's market expansion potential, and Ma Yingyao's upgrading of independent companies is also a "dead horse and a live horse doctor".
On another level, this adjustment may be the beginning of turmoil.
According to the feedback of a number of Shangmei Life employees, they are also waiting for the details of the operation of independent companies, and have said, "Many branch leaders we know, know the ability and pattern is limited, and do not believe that the Ma family will really authorize, so the operation of the branch will probably be limited by a word." ”
At present, after the adjustment of the organizational structure of Shangmei Life Group, it will take time to test whether the specific business can produce synergy, but even if it is not fully prepared, Ma Yingyao and Shangmei Life have taken this step.
The travel industry consulted the national enterprise credit information publicity system and found that Shangkeyou Hotel Management Co., Ltd. was established in February 2022, and Liuxiang Hotel Management Co., Ltd. was established in July 2021.
"It's too urgent," Fan Mingxuan said bluntly, "such an adjustment will be better to test run for a while, and then announce it to the public." ”
Anxiety in the mid-market
This largest organizational restructuring in the history of Shangmei Life has also released more anxiety about Ma Yingyao's decision-making in the mid-range hotel market.
As we all know, as a hotel chain group that started in a fourth- and fifth-tier small city, Shangmei Life's initial strategy was to "surround the city from the countryside", and Ma Yingyao was also known as the "king of small town hotels", disclosing that the number of stores was as high as 5500.
Ma Yingyao, founder of Shangmei Life
As a representative of the sinking market, Shangmei Life Group has been labeled as "economic" and "cheap" in public perception, and its hotel brands have not been competitive in the market in addition to the Shangkeyou in the early years.
According to Ma Yingyao's previous vision, the Lanou Hotel, which focuses on the mid-market under The Shangmei Life Group, "wants to become the most expensive hotel in a small county, about 300 yuan."
The tourism survey found that the investment cost of a single room in Lanou Hotel is almost the same as that of the whole season and Lavande (90,000-120,000), but from the actual pricing of Ctrip and other OTAs, the room night pricing of franchised stores is roughly in the range of more than 100 yuan - 280 yuan.
An investor who intends to invest in Lanou said that after field research, it was found that The Revpar (income per saleable house) in Lanou is extremely unstable, "mainly depending on the location of the property, the brand is of little help to the hotel." ”
On the same path as Shangke Youshu, It is difficult for Lan Ou Hotel to break through the shackles of the sinking domestic market.
According to the search results of Gaode Map, the hundreds of stores of Lan Ou Hotel are basically concentrated in small counties and medium-sized towns, but they rarely appear in first-tier cities, and their urban spread rate is not ideal.
"Dragons and phoenixes, a company has a genetic heritage," Fan Mingxuan believes, "Lan Ou mentioned a part of the original team of Shangkeyou to do it, and the thinking may be limited, so it is not like (mid-range hotels)." ”
Wei Zhihang, an employee who worked in the Lanou Hotel store in the early years, recalled, "Lanou started very early as a mid-range hotel, basically with the contemporaries of the whole season, Heyi and Mehood, but the current development volume and prospects are very bad, which is subject to the defects of the membership system and group management." ”
In this regard, Wei Zhihang took his own third-tier cities as an example, he said that both Shangkeyou and Lanou are mainly local customers, and it is difficult for the "120 million members" promoted by Shangmei Life to form a flow and linkage.
"The brand is indeed a chain, but the brand power is dispensable, so the franchisees found that the original promised membership transportation was basically empty words, and they could only rely on themselves to develop local members." Wei Zhihang said.
Change the soup or not change the medicine?
Lanou Hotel, which was pinned high hopes on by Ma Yingyao, is difficult to complete the breakthrough today when the wave of the mid-range hotel market is getting hotter and hotter, and this organizational structure adjustment has been given more "meaning".
In addition to taking Shangkeyou back to the front desk again, the three newly independent companies have their own emphases, "Whale Xilian Cultural Tourism Group" emphasizes localization, "New Xiangshicheng Hotel Management Company" focuses on the mid-end business market; "Liuxiang Commercial Management Group" focuses on high-end hotels in third- and fourth-tier cities.
For this adjustment, people close to Shangmei Life commented, "One step is slow, step by step, obviously borrowing the auxiliary means of multiple hotel groups, and then as their main direction of attack, but these 'branches' do not change the soup, the result can be imagined." “
In fact, in order to break the mid-range hotel market, Shangmei Life will also pin its hopes on investment and mergers and acquisitions.
At the end of February this year, Shangmei Life invested in Guangzhou Yiyu Hotel Management Co., Ltd., saying that it would iteratively upgrade the original hotel chain model in the form of "brand co-creation" in the future.
One Corner Life has two major hotel brands, "Sino Hotel" and "Yingshang Hotel", of which Sino Hotel is positioned as a "small and beautiful" lifestyle hotel, and Yingshang Hotel is positioned as a mid-range business hotel chain brand, which has a certain influence in the South China market.
This sudden merger and acquisition has also triggered various speculations from the outside world.
People in the industry generally believe that this time Ma Yingyao is really "anxious" behind the knife of Shang Meisheng's activities, indicating that the development of the mid-range hotel brand developed by himself in recent years is not satisfactory, and he hopes to speed up the mid-range market layout by acquisition.
There are also senior hotel industry insiders who raise concerns, "The brand genes of these two companies are completely different, and the real specific implementation, the style of the Ma family, the small team of Yiyu may not be able to adapt." ”
Under the new cycle of dividend peaking, it is difficult for the Shangmei life ship to turn around in the sinking market for too long.
Fan Mingxuan revealed to the travel community that Shangmei does anything with a good original intention and a good idea, but it is always insufficient, "This insufficient stamina is the internal values of the group, the strategy is not unified, the organizational upgrading and transformation can not move and other reasons, it has been unable to form a joint force." “
Although the story described by Ma Yingyao to the outside world is very beautiful, at present, Shangmei Life, which has only completed the organizational structure change, still faces many challenges in the mid-range hotel market, and the bloody storm caused by personnel adjustment has not really begun, and it will take time to test whether the specific business can produce synergy.
The respondents to this article are pseudonyms
*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person
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