Among many international hotel groups, InterContinental can be regarded as a major business owner. Some industry insiders expect that more than 50 high-end hotels under InterContinental in the Chinese market this year are expected to open.
Counting this year, the most important news for InterContinental Hotels is the opening of the 6,000th hotel in the world. Another is that its group executives said, "If there is no drag from the Chinese market, InterContinental Hotels Group's financial report in the first quarter of 2022 will be stronger." In the two news reports of
, the former shows that this century-old store has expanded rapidly, and the latter shows that its group's senior management has hidden worries about the current domestic market.
Greater China is the second largest market for intercontinental hotels. According to its official website, as of March 2022, 587 hotels have opened in Greater China and 473 hotels are under construction.
Behind the accelerated expansion of the Greater China region, what experience does InterContinental Hotel have to support it?
Hotel China Connect's "localization" expansion
InterContinental Hotel has many well-known brands, such as Holiday Series, Indigo, Kimpton, etc., and its luxurious boutique lines include Six Senses Hotel, Regent Hotel and Resort.
This year marks the 38th year of InterContinental Hotel operating in China, and it is like a "China Connection".
CEO of InterContinental Hotel Group Greater China once publicly stated that with the full bloom of multiple brands of InterContinental Hotel Group in the Chinese market this year, China has become the fastest growing market for InterContinental Hotel Group.
briefly sorted out the development strategies of InterContinental Hotels in recent years, InterContinental Hotels are very good at finding hot areas, keeping up with the development of national strategies and regional policies, and practicing its principle of "in China, for China".
For example, with the gradual improvement of domestic highway infrastructure and the continuous development of leisure tourism, mountain tourism has gradually heated up. The western Sichuan-Yunnan Ring Road has attracted a large number of tourists with its unique natural scenery and cultural resources, and has become a popular tourist destination in recent years.
In its 2021 opening plan, the western region, especially the Sichuan-Yunnan Ring Road, has become one of its important layout areas. The Indigo Hotel, Diqing Moonlight City, located in the ancient city of Dukezong of Shangri-La, the Mengdingshan Holiday Resort Hotel, Ya'an, Mengdingshan, and Jiuzhai Paradise InterContinental Hotel have opened and unveiled.
In addition to the southwest region, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has great development potential. As early as 2019, InterContinental Hotel Group established its South China headquarters in Shenzhen. In 2021, brands such as InterContinental and Crown Holiday will be deployed in Foshan and Chaozhou. In addition, the second Yiheng hotel in the Greater China in InterContinental Hotel Group will be opened in Nanshan, Shenzhen. The brand is aimed at millennials, and its design, facilities and services are characterized by health.
Through the store opening plan of InterContinental Hotel in 2022, domestic first-tier, new first-tier and popular tourist cities are still the focus of InterContinental Hotel layout.
For example, InterContinental's boutique hotel Indigo plans to open this year in tourist destinations such as Xiamen, Hangzhou, Anji and Alishan. InterContinental’s Yiheng Hotel and Huayi Hotel both celebrated their 10th anniversary of their brand establishment.
Among them, Yiheng Hotel will be opened in cities such as Chengdu, Suzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai this year. Huayi Hotel will open this year in cities such as Qingdao, Yibin, Leshan, Kunshan and Beihai.
If the nearly 600 hotels that have opened and nearly 500 hotels are under construction, the number of InterContinental Hotels in Greater China will exceed 1,000 in the next few years.
Looking around other hotel groups, earlier, Hilton Hotel Group announced that it plans to reach 1,000 hotels in the Chinese market by 2025; in addition, Marriott International Group also claimed that it is expected to open more than 50 hotels in more than 30 destinations in China in 2022. At the same time, the group is expected to open the 500th hotel in China in early 2023.
The competition among international hotel giants in the domestic market is also gradually intensifying.
In fact, InterContinental Hotel's situation in the domestic market this year is not ideal, and the hidden worries of its group's senior management can also be seen through the data.
According to the first quarter of 2022 operation data of InterContinental Hotels, the hotel occupancy rate in Greater China was 36%, 16% lower than in 2019, with the RevPAR in China falling by 42%, with the worst performance. Affected by the escalation of the epidemic lockdown, Shenzhen's property performance fell by 77% compared with 2019; Shanghai's escalation of epidemic lockdown measures in March, a 40% decrease compared with the same period in 2019.
But the advantage is that the domestic hotel and tourism market is gradually recovering, and the hotel industry will usher in a new round of market opportunities. Where does the confidence for
expansion come from?
1, "franchise +" model suitable for the Chinese market
As early as May 2016, InterContinental Hotel Group and Shanghai Yaqi Business Hotel Co., Ltd. signed the first Holiday Inn Express franchise agreement in China, opening the franchise model in China. It was promoted to mid-to-high-end full-service brands Holiday Hotel and Crowne Plaza Hotel in November 2017.
The characteristics of its "franchise +" model are professional and customized. Under this model, IHG can promptly grasp the pain points of owners’ needs and provide various key tools and system platform support.
InterContinental Hotel has also set up a local service team specifically for franchised hotels in Greater China, providing all-round support to owners in terms of localized training, professional operations and hotel performance, and also providing guarantees for guests' accommodation experience in franchised hotels.
As of September 30, 2021, among its hotels that have been opened in Greater China, the proportion of ICH Group using franchises reached 30%, and it is as high as nearly 50% of the hotels planned to build.
2. Create a "treasure pot" for talents
The development of the Greater China region is inseparable from the creation and reserve of talents.
As early as 2006, InterContinental Hotel created the Talent Training College of IHG in China, and established school-enterprise cooperation relationships with more than 100 schools. It is reported that these institutions deliver more than 4,000 outstanding interns and graduates to IHG's hotels every year. In terms of the training method of
, based on the school's original theoretical and professional courses, practical courses and latest industry consultations will be added to the school's senior management staff, and at the same time, it also provides students with internship opportunities during school.
In addition, a hotel industry insider told "Wine Management Finance" that the turnover rate of InterContinental Hotel is very low, especially those at the management level. This all comes from the intercontinental comprehensive and personalized internal talent training system.
like the "Management Training Program" provides clear and rapid promotion channels for grassroots talents who are new to employment, to support them in achieving their career goals and self-worth. The "Koi Return Home" program attracts talents to return, provides a platform and channel for employees, and facilitates employees who work in hotels in first-tier cities to return to their hometowns to participate in hotel construction, and at the same time solves the problem of insufficient staff in second- and third-tier cities.
It is worth mentioning that among the more than 500 hotels that have opened in China, more than half of the general managers are trained internally through InterContinental Hotels.
3, localization creation
InterContinental Hotel Group is also constantly optimizing product design and tourist experience, and constantly creating localization of hotels.
is like the Shanghai Silver Star Crown Holiday Hotel not only displays various movie props, image documents and other exclusive exhibits in the hotel, allowing guests to gain an "immersive" film culture experience, but also upgraded to a movie culture-themed hotel in 2018, taking cultural tourism resorts and cinema complexes as the entry point, aiming to promote the deep integration of "hotel + cultural tourism".
In addition, Nanchang Ligao Crown Holiday Hotel has rich red resources. For different guest groups, the hotel has launched customized products such as red themed tea breaks, theme rooms, "Red One-Day Tour" dedicated vehicles, etc., providing a unique experience for red enthusiasts from the three aspects of food, accommodation and transportation.
4. Use the regular customer plan to "wind" good members
At the beginning of this year, InterContinental Hotel Group announced that its regular customer plan for the Fine Club will usher in major reforms. Not long ago, the new plan arrived as scheduled, the membership system increased from 4 levels to 5 levels, and the membership benefits also improved significantly.
As the industry's first hotel guest loyalty program, the intercontinental hotel group "IHG Rejoice Club" has more than 100 million members and is one of the world's largest hotel guest loyalty programs.
summary
For 38 years of development in China, InterContinental Hotel has already understood the Greater China market well. It has also taken a series of actions to enable each brand to have local elements and local management.
Some hotel and tourism analysts believe that InterContinental Hotel has not made any major moves in recent years, which is very similar to its performance in China's development time - the stability and subtle pursuit of change as it approaches the "forty years".
also believes that as a well-known international hotel group, it is better to "defend the city" intercontinental.
But the reality cannot be ignored. The leading hotel groups from China represent "Jinhuashou" and International Hotels are all competing for the advantageous resources of the country.
Next, after the industry entered the recovery channel, it will test the skills of each company.
Coordination丨Lao Dian Editor丨Aqia
※Some pictures in the article are from the original content of the Internet
Jiuguan Finance. Any reproduction is prohibited without authorization.
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