That 'unique' experience

Photo Provided to China Daily

An independent conference center and function hall featuring two 1,000-sq-m pillarless banquet halls, one auditorium with 500 seats, plus 18 meeting rooms, VIP lounges and exhibition areas, all offer state-of-the-art banquet and meeting facilities hosting events of various scales.

"The Worldhotel brand is famous for food", says John Bertram, general manager of Worldhotel Grand Dushulake Suzhou. Bertram is a chef himself. The group's food philosophy is best described in published recipes from its chefs collected in Discover Our Kitchens - A Journey of the Senses published in January this year.

"Worldhotel branding offers one of the most flexible models in the world for luxury and upscale independent properties and hotel groups with a unique and distinctive European-style brand identity," says Jegge. "As you can see here in Worldhotels Grand Juna Wuxi, the owner of the hotel has her own great ideas and visions for the design. But this hotel needs to compete with Kempinski, Sheraton and Hyatt, so we come in and give our sales and support to help it compete with the big chains."

The Worldhotels brand may be new to China, but the brand has a considerable history. The company's business has been in China for almost 30 years by way of affiliates which do not carry the Woldhotels name, like the Grand Central Hotel Shanghai and Jianguo Hotel Beijing.

"There's no company in China which is doing what we do - that is, to give a brand to the hotels. We are in a very focused niche," says Jegge." The other companies are doing franchising and affiliation, while we are a company that not only offers a broad range of service options, including sales, marketing, training, e-commerce, distribution and technology, but also leaves enough freedom allowing the owners of the hotels to retain their own style and identity."

As the largest European-based brand for independent hotels with more than 500 hotels in 250 destinations and 65 countries worldwide, Worldhotels is now seeing itself breaking new ground in greater China with 36 hotels establishing presence in major cities.