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Room with a view

By Ding Qingfen (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-16 14:57

Mainland business

Since 1978 HK-based Peninsula Hotels moved to the mainland. In April 1982 Beijing Jian'guo Hotel, the first foreign hotel group entered the mainland market. The company was followed by other international groups. However, the local hospitality industry during the 1980s and the early 1990s was still in its infancy as a result of the slackened tourism market.

It was Hong Kong, especially in the 1990s, that set quality standard for the global hotel business. Usually "many executives from the US and Europe quickly flew back to HK and stay there after having handling business in the mainland," Garside recalls.

The Marriott HK hotel has a unique policy. It was the only one of its kind to conduct a two-day-off system for all associates, not only for managers, and was also one of the few that provided the associates a non-hierarchy environment where they could call each other, and even their bosses, by their first name, and encouraged them to make decisions on how to best serve guests.

It was not until 1995 that Marriott decided to crack the mainland market by opening Shenyang Marriott Hotel in Northeast China's Liaoning province, the first five-star hotel in the provincial capital. Two years later, it signed a package of hotel properties, seven in total, including Courtyard by Marriott Beijing, Courtyard by Marriott Shunde and The China Hotel, Guangzhou.

Stimulated by the stronger local economy and the booming tourism market, in the past 13 years, Marriott's portfolio in China has grown quickly, covering more than 30 hotels offering 11,547 rooms representing its six major brands.

And the group's local expansion strategy has been consistent, setting sight on "the gateway cities," says Garside.

China is becoming a strategically significant market for Marriott since its entry in the World Trade Organization in 2001. During the past few years, China has "held the first position around Asia by contributing more than 40 percent of Asian sales revenue for Marriott."

And the momentum is set to continue. In the next three years, "there will be an additional 100 hotels in Asia coming out, 40 percent of which will be located in China," says Garside.

"And the other 40 percent will be in India, and the rest goes to the other parts of Asia. China and India will be the largest two."

Talent-oriented strategy

But an undeniable truth is that Marriot were slow entering China mainland, about 17 years after the first international entered the local market.

Besides the Peninsula, in the 1980s, some, if not many, international hotel groups have successively shown up. Following the Peninsula were the United Kingdom-based International Hotels Group (IHG) and HK-based Shangri-La in 1984, French Accor and the US-based Sheraton in 1985 and the Hilton in 1988.

And Marriott's expansion rate is not striking either. IHG said it will open 125 hotels in China by 2008; Accor plans to obtain a portfolio of 180 properties around China by 2010.

But these do not cast any shadow on the fairly high brand awareness and recognition among the local guests, which Marriott hotel business in China is heavily relying on.

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