As the tourism industry continues to boom, so does the hospitality industry. As a leader in mid-to-high-end hotels in China, SSAW Boutique Hotels (301073.SZ) has achieved steady growth in revenue and continuous expansion of hotel scale in 2023. In terms of operation and management, the company actively builds brand differentiation and development, and uses digital technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency, further enhancing market competitiveness and profitability.
The scale of revenue has grown steadily for many consecutive quarters, with double-digit year-on-year growth
SSAW Boutique Hotel Group is a mid-to-high-end hotel operator in China, and currently has 10 mid-to-high-end hotel brands, including: "Junlan Li", "Junlan Hotel", "Junlan Resort", "Yebo SSAW Pavilion", "SSAW Boutique Hotel", "SSAW Pagoda Design Hotel", "SSAW Boutique Style", "Jinglan Hotel", "Jinglan Vacation", "Jinglan Qingtang" and other original Chinese hotel brands that are deeply loved by consumers, forming a multi-brand matrix spanning the two categories of vacation and business travel, covering full service and selected services.
With an experienced and efficient management team, SSAW Boutique Hotel is gradually realizing its ambitious goal of becoming the "world's leading hotel management group". By the end of 2023, the company has successfully ranked among the top 50 global hotel groups, not only emerging in the mid-to-high-end select hotel segment, but also becoming the industry benchmark for high-star full-service resorts in China.
SSAW Boutique Hotel continues to deepen its main hotel business, which has promoted the significant growth of its revenue scale. According to the financial report, the company will achieve an operating income of 534 million yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 56.16%. Entering the first quarter of 2024, SSAW Pavilion continued to maintain a strong growth momentum, with a year-on-year increase of 67.28% in operating income to 160 million yuan.
It is worth mentioning that both in terms of revenue scale and year-on-year revenue growth, SSAW Hotel has maintained steady growth for many consecutive quarters. Since the first quarter of 2022, SSAW Boutique Hotel has achieved revenue growth earlier than the recovery stage of the industry. With the steady recovery of the tourism industry after the policy liberalization at the end of 2022, its revenue growth has been strengthened, and it continues to maintain a strong growth momentum.
From the perspective of year-on-year revenue growth, SSAW Boutique Hotel has maintained a year-on-year revenue growth rate of more than double digits in every quarter since the third quarter of 2022, which fully demonstrates the company's strong market adaptability and excellent business strategy. This continued growth trend further strengthens its leading position in the hospitality industry and bodes well for future growth.
The scale continues to expand, and the differentiated operation of the sub-brand creates unique advantages
Steady revenue growth and hotel expansion complement each other, enabling the company to fully enjoy the dividends brought by the recovery of the cultural tourism industry. In 2023, in the face of the thriving domestic hotel market, SSAW Boutique Hotel will adapt to the changes and development of the times, adhere to innovation, focus on its main business, and continue to strive to enhance its competitiveness and influence.
Through the differentiated operation of each sub-brand, SSAW Pavilion continues to build its unique advantages. In 2023, the SSAW series of directly operated hotels will be opened in Chengdu, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing and other cities, and the direct brand will achieve steady expansion. In order to meet the new changes in China's resort hotel market, Jinglan brand has increased product innovation and service innovation of non-standard hotels, promoted the project expansion of the sinking market in a flexible and diverse way, and further set a benchmark for rural revitalization and the construction of a beautiful China.
Under the differentiated business philosophy, the scale of the company continues to expand. In 2023, SSAW Hotel will have 55 newly signed hotels and 34 newly opened hotels.
In the first quarter of 2024, under the guidance of strategic objectives, SSAW Hotel will stabilize the Yangtze River Delta market, further expand the Beijing region, the Pearl River Delta region and the southwest region, and select the best and steady development of the project. As of March 31, 2024, the total number of hotels opened by the three major brands of Narada, Junting and Jinglan is 219, and the number of hotels to be opened is 177. The company said that the newly opened hotels have achieved the business goal of the ramp-up period well.
Digital transformation continues to enhance the Group's competitiveness
As digital technology continues to advance, industries are embracing new technologies to enhance operational efficiency and optimize resource allocation, and the hospitality industry is no exception.
In 2023, SSAW Boutique Hotel will build a full-link group digital solution based on the three major platforms of marketing digitalization, operation digitalization and management digitalization, with personnel middle platform, approval middle platform, knowledge middle platform, settlement middle platform, member middle platform and service middle platform as the core, continuously consolidating the foundation of the company's digital transformation, promoting digital construction and refined management, optimizing business processes, improving management work efficiency and quality, and enhancing competitiveness.
In terms of management digitalization, the Group's human resources department launched the construction of a digital platform, actively promoted digital transformation, and created an efficient online human resources system. In 2023, SSAW Boutique Hotel will build a personnel middle platform, approval middle platform and knowledge middle platform with Feishu as the core, realizing the unification of personnel data, procurement approval process, OA approval process and knowledge management, and realizing the unified summary management of knowledge with Feishu as the knowledge middle platform.
In terms of operational digitalization, SSAW Boutique Hotel has built a service platform based on the smart accommodation service platform and members to provide members with services covering all stages of stay, check-in, stay and post-stay.
In terms of marketing data, SSAW Hotel has built a settlement center based on the member middle platform, which has realized the closed-loop of member privatization operation and the income generation of member operation.
In terms of supply and procurement, SSAW Hotel has built a new supply chain platform with digital intelligence, providing various categories of materials during the preparation and operation period of the hotel, and continuously adjusting and optimizing through the launch and use of the new supply chain system, so as to create high-quality hotels in the shortest time and at the best cost, improve the return on investment and shorten the return on investment cycle.
Through a series of optimization measures to reduce costs and increase efficiency through digital means, SSAW Hotel has not only successfully consolidated the momentum of performance growth, laid a solid foundation for sustainable growth in the future, but also further strengthened its position as a leader in the hotel industry.
Looking forward to the future, SSAW Boutique Hotel, as a leading enterprise in the mid-to-high-end hotel industry, will make full use of the opportunities brought by the growth of the industry in the context of the continued strong demand in the tourism industry. With the steady growth of new projects and the continuous expansion of the country, the company's profitability is expected to further improve.