Best Western Plans to Open 13 China Hotels Next Year | wsj.com
Best Western, Others See Expansion of Budget Hotel Market in China
Best Western International is ramping up its presence in China as the country's growing middle class takes more leisure trips. Best Western China CEO William Dong said the hotel company plans to open 13 hotels now through the end of 2015 in second- and third-tier Chinese cities, as leisure travelers have become the hotel chain's primary customer. Currently it has 39 hotels in China.
BEIJING -- Best Western International is ramping up its presence in China as the country's growing middle class takes more leisure trips.
Best Western China CEO William Dong said the hotel company plans to open 13 hotels now through the end of 2015 in second- and third-tier Chinese cities, as leisure travelers have become the hotel chain's primary customer. Currently it has 39 hotels in China.
He said Chinese travelers are becoming more adventurous and eschewing the no-frills group tours that are a common sight in many parts of the country. "It's not like before, all those domestic travelers in groups with one flag taking a picture and then running away to another place," Mr. Dong said. "Families stay for three days or even one week."
Closely held Best Western is one of many Western chains trying to gain footing in China in the budget-hotel sector. Accor, whose brands include Novotel and Ibis, is building one-third of its hotels planned in China around the country's tourist destinations. InterContinental Hotels Group, which includes the Holiday Inn brand, is constructing 30% of its globally planned hotel rooms in China over the next five years.
They are focusing on an increasingly affluent class of Chinese travelers who want to avoid the skinny mattresses, iffy hygiene and sheer unpredictability of many hotels in mainland China.