The hotel chain rate rose to 41%, and the development of subdivided products was "hot and cold"

Reporter Jiang Zheng reports from Zhengzhou

According to the latest "2024 China Hotel Industry Development Report" and "2024 China Hotel Group and Brand Development Report" released by the China Hotel Association, by the end of 2023, the hotel chain rate in mainland China will increase from 38.75% in the previous year to 40.95%.

The reporter of "China Business Daily" noticed that economic hotels are still the basic supply of the mainland hotel industry, but the degree of chain is the lowest, only 32.49%. At the same time, the growth rate of different types of chain hotel products shows a trend of "hot and cold", and the rooms of economic and luxury chain hotels are significantly lower than those of mid-range and high-end hotel products.

At the same time, lower-tier cities with the largest hotel stock market and the lowest chain rate are in a state of both supply and demand. New trends such as "reverse tourism" and "dream county" have driven the demand for accommodation in the sinking market. And a number of hotel groups are actively seizing this market.

A number of industry insiders said that there is still a lot of room for improvement and optimization in the chain rate and product structure of mainland hotels. In the future, the number of mid-range hotels will continue to increase, and the sinking market will become an important development direction. However, it is necessary to calmly analyze the market layout of lower-tier cities, and maintain a cautious attitude towards areas with net population outflows. Especially for incremental hotels, consider the return on investment cycle.

Supply differentiation behind the increase in chain rate

According to the above report, by the end of 2023, there will be about 610,000 accommodation facilities and 320,000 hotel facilities in mainland China. The total number of hotel rooms is about 16.5 million, and the number of chain rooms is about 6.76 million. Among them, the number of chain hotels is about 90,600, an increase of 28% from 71,000 in 2022. In terms of the number of rooms, the hotel chain rate in mainland China increased from 38.75% in the previous year to 40.95%.

Guo Derong, chief analyst of Milestone Research Institute, told reporters that with reference to the global situation, the upper limit of the local hotel chain rate is about 70%, and the other 30% are personalized hotels, boutique homestays and family hotels. This also means that there is still a lot of room for branding and chaining of hotels in the mainland.

From the perspective of product structure, economy hotels are still the basic market market. The number of guest rooms was about 9.129 million, accounting for 55.33%. However, the chain rate of economy hotels is the lowest, at only 32.49%, which is much lower than the 55.07% of mid-range hotels, 43.25% of high-end hotels and 57.56% of luxury hotels.

The reporter noticed that different types of chain hotel products have a large differentiation in terms of growth rate. For budget and luxury hotel chains, room growth was much slower than in the mid-range and high-end hotel offerings over the same period.

According to the report, by the end of 2023, the number of economy chain rooms increased by 17.18% year-on-year and 22.90% from 2019. The number of luxury hotel chain rooms increased by 12.27% year-on-year and 14.79% year-on-year compared to 2019. The number of mid-range chain rooms increased by 25.58% year-on-year and 101.62% from 2019; The number of high-end chain hotel rooms increased by 39.48% year-on-year and 121.51% from 2019.

At the same time, the market performance of leading economic hotel chain brands has diverged. In 2023, only the number of Hanting stores and rooms will increase by 10.47% and 9.93% year-on-year, and many other leading economy hotel brands will fall into negative growth.

Zhao Huanyan, a senior economist in the tourism and hotel industry, told reporters that the mainland's economy hotels are in a stage of oversupply, and the occupancy rate of many brands is facing a decline. Therefore, in the future, the market increment will be greatly reduced, and stock competition is the main battlefield.

Yingdie Consulting believes that the total volume of the mainland economy hotel market is stagnating, and the growth of the head brand has an obvious inflection point. However, the economy hotel product will still maintain its main market position for a long time, mainly because it meets the core needs of mass consumption and meets the rigid needs of business travel.

For luxury hotel chains, Zhang Xuyun, an observer of the wine and tourism industry, believes that it is more affected by the regulation of the real estate industry and economic transformation. In the past two years, more and more luxury hotels have entered the auction market, but very few have been sold. All of these affect the pace of development of luxury hotel products.

In contrast, mid-range hotel chains have maintained a strong growth rate, and their room counts have maintained double-digit growth for three consecutive years. More than ninety percent of the top 20 mid-tier hotel chain brands disclosed in the above report are concentrated in the brand matrix of listed or quasi-listed companies and affiliated enterprises. According to the report, listed companies are optimistic about continuing to increase the mid-range hotel market, and the market competition is grouped, platformized, and capitalized.

In fact, the leading hotel group has always regarded mid-to-high-end products as an important development track. In 2023, BTG Hotels will open a net of 204 mid-to-high-end hotels, a year-on-year increase of 53.38%. As a representative of mid-to-high-end hotels in China, Atour Group opened 289 hotels last year and signed 576 new contracts.

Huazhu Group told reporters that the company has been increasing the expansion of mid-to-high-end hotels in recent years. The reporter noticed that the number of hotels in operation of its mid-to-high-end brand Orange Crystal is close to 200, and it plans to open 750 stores by 2025.

"Tales of a Small Town" continues to be hot

The above report mentioned that from the perspective of cities, the chain rate of hotel facilities in first-tier cities is 60.59%; The hotel chain rate of sub-provincial cities and provincial capitals was 49.81%; The hotel chaining rate in other cities was 33.38%.

Compared with the reports of the past two years, the reporter learned that the chain rate of hotels in lower-tier cities increased by 2.71 percentage points, and 658,000 new chain hotel rooms were added.

Zhang Xuyun told reporters that hotels in lower-tier cities are more monolithic, and many giants have accelerated their layout, and the market is undergoing chain and brand changes.

A few days ago, Hengchang Roasting Brewing Co., Ltd., Moutai Town, Renhuai City, Guizhou Province signed a contract with InterContinental Hotels Group. Intercontinental Hotel told reporters that this is the first time that the InterContinental Hotel brand has entered Guizhou. In March this year, Wyndham Hotel Group signed a contract in Gulin County, Luzhou, Sichuan, becoming the first high-end international hotel brand to settle in the county.

In fact, the main force in the layout of the sinking market still comes from local hotel groups.

Huazhu's 2023 financial report shows that by the end of 2023, the company's operating hotels accounted for 40% of third-tier cities and below, an increase of 2 percentage points compared with 2022.

Sun Jian, general manager of BTG Homeinn Hotel Group, mentioned in an interview with the media that the "fragmented" leisure travel mode brings about the habitualization and impulsiveness of tourism consumption, which will become the driving force for the continuous growth of tourism consumption in the sinking market in the future.

"Limited service hotels are a product of marketization. At present, the trend of limited-service hotels moving closer to the leading enterprises is obvious, because small owners are very concerned about the short-term profitability of the hotel. And shelving the sinking market is the same trend. Zhao Huanyan said.

From the perspective of market performance, the sinking market does show a strong growth momentum.

According to the "2024 National Small Town Vitality Report" released by Thank Inn Chain Hotel, the small cities with the highest occupancy rates during the "May Day" period are Qinhuangdao (142%), Zibo (133%), and Luoyang (131%). The tourism market has sunk significantly, and the upgrading of the supply side and the structural changes on the demand side have injected new vitality into the accommodation industry in small towns.

According to the data provided by Tongcheng, during this year's "May Day", the number of hotel guests in Shuanghe City, Kunyu City in Xinjiang, Shennongjia Forest District in Hubei, Fangchenggang City in Guangxi Province and Jiayuguan City in Gansu Province increased by more than 180% year-on-year. Among them, the number of hotel guests in Shuanghe, Xinjiang increased by nearly 25 times year-on-year.

"There has always been demand for accommodation in lower-tier markets, but its hotel supply needs to be optimized. The trend of chain brands turning to this market is becoming more and more obvious. However, it should also be noted that the number of high-quality properties in the sinking market is limited, the brand awareness of users is weak, and there are obvious off-peak seasons. Hotel groups and investors still need to be more rational. Zhang Xuyun said.

Zhao Huanyan also mentioned in an interview with reporters that in areas with pure outflow of personnel, the demand for accommodation is insufficient, and hotels should not be developed too much. In areas with economic development and tourism, there is a high potential for accommodation demand. County hotels need to combine hardware standards with local characteristics to meet market demand.

(Editor: Yu Haixia Review: Li Lin Proofreader: Zhang Guogang)