GreenTree to branch out in the US

Some folks have long work commutes. Alex Xu's is extreme.

The CEO and chairman of GreenTree Inns Hotel Management Corp jets back and forth between Shanghai and Los Angeles so frequently that he knows the flight attendants' names.

But Xu's close knowledge of China and the United States has given the hard-working Chinese-American a distinct perspective on the hospitality industry - and a management philosophy that is guiding his budget-hotel chain's expansion into the US.

"The ways of being a leader and managing people are essentially the same," Xu said in an interview.

"The East and West, valuewise, are pretty much the same. So whatever you do that is kindly to other people, will one day be returned."

Xu, along with a number of American investors, has spent a decade building GreenTree into a concern with 1,450 hotels (including more than 400 under development) and 35,000 employees in 400 locations in China, mainly targeting business travelers. In 10 years, he hopes to have 1,000 small and medium-sized hotels in the US.

That US push will bring some of his work closer to his Los Angeles-area office in Rancho Cucamonga and home in San Marino.

"My base of operations has always been in Southern California, so it is a natural extension for me to expand in the US," said Xu, 48, who was born in Shandong province and moved to California in 1987 to study at the University of Southern California.

He plans to build GreenTree's US branch primarily through acquisitions, as well as joint ventures and franchising agreements. A 192-room GreenTree Inn under construction in Salt Lake City, Utah, is expected to open for business late this year or early in 2014, Xu said.

GreenTree's US operations will also include a 150-room hotel in Burlingame, California, on San Francisco bay, southeast of the city's airport.

The hotel, now called the San Francisco Airport South Holiday Inn Express, will be rebranded as a GreenTree Inn, Xu said. GreenTree acquired the hotel from a subsidiary of insurer American International Group Inc at the end of 2011.

A 2006 article in the Los Angeles Times said that Xu grew up poor in a farming village near Weihai, southeast of Beijing.

After graduating from the Beijing Institute of Technology, Xu attended USC on a scholarship, earning a master's degree in applied mathematics and engineering. But he changed direction and began to pursue a business career.

In 2003, Xu began building GreenTree. By 2007, the chain had more than 200 hotels, according to the company's website. The average GreenTree hotel has 100 rooms and a room rate of $180 to $280 per night.

The hotels are grouped under four brand names.

The standard GreenTree Inn, which accounts for 90 percent of the chain, caters to budget-conscious business travelers, with some locations earning three-star ratings from local tourism bureaus.