Highlights of this issue
A few days ago, the list of the top 60 Chinese hotel groups in 2023 was officially released. For a long time, the list not only shows the scale and competitive landscape of the current market, but also reflects the development trend and future direction of the industry to a certain extent.
"Wine Management Finance" noted that in 2023, the total number of rooms of the 70 hotel management companies (groups) participating in statistics and providing effective data will be 5,221,267, with a growth rate of 8.4%; The total number of hotels was 51,775, with a growth rate of 7.8%. These two growth figures are not fast compared with previous years, which is also in line with the view of Zhang Rungang, vice president and secretary general of China Tourist Hotel Association, that "scale development has not accelerated".
And when it comes to lists, there will be rankings. As in previous years, Jin Jiang Hotels is the absolute industry leader in terms of scale, maintaining a large lead in the number of rooms and hotels. However, this year, the China Tourist Hotel Association evaluated the wine management group from different dimensions, and at the same time, it is also sending a signal that the industry should focus on all-round development.
(See the end of this article for a full list.) ）
01
"Scale development has not accelerated"
According to the statistics of the overall sample, the total number of hotels in 2023 will be 51,775, with a growth rate of 7.8%; The total number of guest rooms was 5.221 million, with a growth rate of 8.4%.
The growth rate is up from 7.1% and 8.2% in 2022, but it is still slow compared to the double-digit growth in 2021 and 2020.
In this regard, Zhang Rungang made a judgment that "the scale development after the epidemic has not accelerated".
"Wine Management Finance" believes that the reasons for this situation can be analyzed from two aspects. On the one hand, today's hotel groups are more cautious in their expansion than in the past.
For example, in 2023, the three major domestic hotel giants - Jin Jiang Hotels, Huazhu Group and BTG Hotels have all lowered their opening targets.
Jin Jiang Hotels mentioned in its 2022 financial report that it plans to open 1,200 new hotels in 2023, a decrease of 300 compared with 2022, and the target for 2024 is still 1,200;
Huazhu previously expected to open a net increase of 950-1,000 hotels in 2022 and 750-800 hotels in 2023. In 2024, Huazhu plans to open about 1,800 hotels, but at the same time close about 650 hotels;
BTG Hotels will reduce the number of new hotels planned to open from 1,800-2,000 in 2022 to 1,500-1,600 in 2023, a decrease of about 300-400 hotels. In 2024, it is expected that the number of new hotels will reach 1,200-1,400, which is further lower than the target for 2023.
The mere pursuit of quantity may be a thing of the past, and the expansion of the hotel industry has entered a phase of seeking to improve quality.
On the other hand, at present, the stock hotel market is more promising.
In a previous article, "Wine Management Finance" (In the era of stock, how does the hotel break out of the "slow traffic zone"? It is mentioned that today's stock hotels have become a blue ocean for the growth of the entire industry, and can fully become a performance booster for chain hotel groups.
In the list of China's top 60 hotel groups, many hotel groups will take "stock transformation" as the starting point. For example, Dongcheng Hotel, the old store red-hot plan has reached the "3.0" stage; For example, Huazhu also mentioned that Huazhu's mid-to-high-end hotels will mainly be renovated and upgraded in stock; Earlier, there was BTG, which proposed as early as 2017 to "develop to stock".
Because of this, through the top 60 Chinese hotel groups, it can be seen that perhaps "scale development has not accelerated" is not a bad thing in the industry, but a digital manifestation of a benign transformation of growth mode.
02
It's not just about scale, try to evaluate in multiple dimensions
It is precisely because of the change in the growth mode that the evaluation of the list by the China Tourist Hotel Association is also carried out in multiple dimensions.
In fact, in the current competitive environment, there are some other core metrics that need to be considered in addition to scale.
If only local hotel groups are considered, we can see that the top 10 in terms of scale are Jinjiang, Huazhu, BTG, Green, Dongcheng, Shangmei, Atour, Dehao, Anyi and Lingnan.
If sorted by market capitalization, as of the close of trading on December 31, 2023, the market value ranking of local listed hotels is: Huazhu Group ranked first with 75.66 billion yuan, Jin Jiang Hotel ranked second with 28.72 billion yuan, BTG Hotel ranked third with 17.44 billion yuan, and then Atour, Junting, Huatian Hotel, Jinling Hotel and Green Hotel.
In addition to market capitalization, in terms of revenue indicators, the rankings are Huazhu, Jinjiang, BTG, Atour, Jinling Hotel, Green Hotel, Huatian Hotel, and Junting Hotel;
In terms of revenue growth, Atour ranked first with an absolute advantage of 106.6%, followed by Huazhu, Junting, BTG, Huatian, Jinjiang, Jinling and Green.
The order of net profit is different. Huazhu ranked first with a net profit of 4.09 billion yuan, followed by Jinjiang, BTG, Atour, Green, Jinling and Junting, while Huatian Hotel suffered losses.
Overall, the champions of each individual event in 2023: in terms of scale, Jin Jiang Hotel ranks first; RevPAR and single-room market value are the highest in Atour; In terms of total market capitalization, revenue and net profit, Huazhu ranks first.
Obviously, multi-dimensional evaluation can examine the comprehensive strength of a hotel group from different perspectives, not only limited to the size, but also the core elements such as revenue, profit, and RevPAR.
While pursuing scale expansion, hotel groups are encouraged to pay attention to the improvement of internal management and service indicators, and better identify and assess potential risks, such as management challenges and financial risks caused by overexpansion.
The most important thing is to give investors a clearer understanding of the brand of the hotel chain.
03
Not only the pursuit of the mid-range, but also continue to sink
Looking at the list of China's top 60 Chinese hotel groups in 2023, we can also find a trend, which is the continuous expansion of mid-to-high-end hotels.
In 2023, in terms of categories, mid-range hotels are the absolute protagonists of local hotel groups, with 42.8% of hotels being mid-range hotels, occupying an absolute advantage in terms of type. Compared to 2022, there has been further growth in scale.
Among the new openings of hotels of various grades last year, mid-range hotels accounted for 41.4%. Among the hotels to be opened this year, mid-range hotels account for 47.5%. This proportion is higher than the proportion of other grade hotels.
This is a shift in the structure of the industry.
Huafu Securities mentioned in a research report that at present, the structure of star-rated hotels in mainland China is transitioning from the traditional "pyramid" to "olive-shaped", and the trend of high-end upgrading of hotels is obvious.
And for mid-range hotels, the sinking market is a breakthrough that should not be missed. The top hotel group brands in the list are all in the sinking market.
For example, as of March 31, 2024, Huazhu China had 9,684 hotels in operation, including 598 leased and owned hotels and 9,086 managed franchised and franchised hotels. Among them, Huazhu China has covered 1,290 cities across the country, an increase of 158 cities over the same period last year.
BTG also said that it would dig deeper into the sinking market space, and developed a light management model with the characteristics of "small investment, high empowerment, and fast return", and entered the sinking market with the help of light management.
International hotel giants are also targeting the sinking market. In 2023, more than 70% of InterContinental Hotels will be located in second- to fourth- and fifth-tier cities. Marriott proposed that 30% of newly opened hotels in 2024 will be in cities below the third tier.
04
Details in the list
In addition to some of the overall directional trends, there are also some noteworthy details in the list.
For example, Gloria Group, ranked 60th, has 7,160 rooms. This data can be ranked 55th in 2022. In 2022, the 60th place is Xiamen C&D Tourism Group Co., Ltd., with a total of 6,691 rooms.
This also means that under the trend of further expansion of the overall scale of the industry, the threshold for entering the top 60 list has been further raised.
In addition, the top 12 in the list, which is the same as the 2022 list, have not changed. But the "ladder" of scale has already been formed.
Jin Jiang is the absolute leader with more than 20,000 rooms and more than 2,000 hotels in Huazhu. The number of rooms in Huazhu, BTG and Green Hotel has exceeded 300,000 and the number of hotels has exceeded 4,000. Dongcheng Group and Shangmei Group have more than 200,000 rooms; Wyndham, Intercontinental, Marriott and Atour are in the 100,000-room echelon.
The total number of rooms at Jin Jiang Hotel will exceed one million in 2023 to 1.067 million, and it is also the only hotel management group with more than 10,000 hotels under its umbrella.
It owns mid-range brands such as Jinjiang Metropolo, Lavande, Hampton, Vienna International, Kyriad, and Campanile, as well as economic brands such as Jinjiang Inn, Seven Days Series, IU, and Magnolia.
Looking back at the development path of Jin Jiang Hotel, it can be found that capital operation is one of the ways for Jin Jiang Hotel to expand its own scale. Including the acquisition of the French Louvre Group in 2015 and the acquisition of Plateno Hotel Group in 2016, the hotel has achieved a leap in scale and internationalization.
In fact, in the past year, the capital market transactions in the hotel industry have been active, such as the transfer of 52% of the equity of Greenland Hotel Management Co., Ltd. to Mingyu Business Travel Co., Ltd. for a consideration of 624 million yuan, the transfer of 100% of the equity of Beijing NUO to BTG Hotel for a consideration of 214 million yuan, the transfer of 100% of the equity of Jin Jiang Wine Management Company by Jin Jiang Capital to Jin Jiang Hotel for 460 million yuan, and the proposed acquisition of 70% of the equity of Metropolis Hotel Group by Lingnan Group in cash.
Mingyu Business Travel and Lingnan Group both have good rankings in the list. In this way, capital operation is still one of the most effective ways to improve its own scale.
In the future, Zhang Rungang mentioned that the industry will enter the era of "fragmented" competition, and scale is one thing, in the sinking market, emerging areas, three- and four-star stock hotel transformation, destination hotel building, there will be full competition.
"Wine Management Finance" believes that the new era of competition may also bring more opportunities for latecomers.
Co-ordinator丨Lao Dian Editor丨As
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