Huazhu Hotels Group, a major budget chain and AccorHotels’ partner in China, opened more than 700 hotels in 2016.
The Shanghai-based company revealed this week that it added a total of 737 hotels to its Chinese portfolio last year, while removing 231. This net increase of 506 hotels left the company with a total collection of 3,269 hotels across 367 Chinese cities, and a total inventory of 331,347 rooms. It also has a pipeline of more than 440 new properties.
Huazhu operates hotels under several AccorHotels brands in China, including ibis, ibis Styles, Mercure, Grand Mercure and Novotel. But its largest brand is in the economy sector; HanTing Hotels now features a nationwide collection of 2,181 properties comprising 221,157 rooms.
And this core brand is now being upgraded, with Huazhu having started introducing a new “HanTing 2.0” concept.
“We will continue the upgrade programme of economy hotels in the next three years, so as to revitalise our flagship brand to attract more customers and franchisees,” said Jenny Zhang, Huazhu’s CEO.
“In 2017, our focus remains on product quality. In addition to our economy hotels upgrade programme, we have also strengthened the brand and operating standards for our existing hotels by removing a number of hotels that failed to comply with our standards. We have also increased the proportion of midscale and upscale hotels in the portfolio,” she added.
Previously known as the China Lodging Group, Huazhu also operates the Hi Inn, Elan, JI Hotels, Starway, Joya and Manxin Hotels brands.
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