China and mid-range hotels

from this morning's Business Week Asia Insider (5/12):

Will China Welcome a Mid-Range Hotel?
Hotel Jen marries high design with smart business strategy as it targets an overlooked—and growing—sector of the hotel market
by Matt Vella

"The Chinese hotel boom continues. This March yet another new property opened its doors in Hong Kong's bustling Western District. But Hotel Jen, as the newcomer is called, is unlike any of the myriad other brands that have sprouted in China's fast-growing hospitality market.

Hotel Jen is a study in sleek, ultramodernist design: Light, airy rooms are equipped with high-speed WiFi. In the lobby, wall-mounted flat-panel TVs pulse with rapid-fire images. A rooftop pool overlooks the city's harbor. Despite the glitz, this is not one of the thousands of new high-end luxury hotels. Nor, clearly, is it a budget offering, an equally competitive sector of the market. Rather, Hotel Jen is an experiment—the first, most likely if it's successful, in a line of mid-range hotels aimed at the burgeoning population of Chinese business travelers. It's also a signal that design, as a tool of brand creation, is trickling down from China's luxury sector.

Hotel Jen is born into a rapidly changing environment. China's economic liberalization has fueled a countrywide building boom that has littered the nation's skylines with most of the world's cranes. The World Bank estimates that by 2015, half of new-building construction around the globe will take place in China. And upcoming events such as this summer's Olympic Games and 2010's World's Fair and Asian Games are further sparking growth—and a $10 billion business travel market.

Affordable but Attractive Accommodations
Until now, though, the hotel market has boomed at the extremes: high-end four- and five-star luxury properties and low-cost, homegrown budget accommodations." ...

"Success Uncertain
Rather than construct a new property, The Kerry Group spent about $12 million to redesign an existing hotel in partnership with MetaDesign, which commissioned architects and other manufacturers to create everything inside from the cafeteria's silverware to the furniture in each of the 280 rooms.

The result is in marked contrast to the small, dingy rooms at many of the country's budget chains. Each room comes with a bevy of extras, including wireless and broadband and liquid-crystal display TVs. In the smaller ones, designers located the bathroom sinks and closets between the front doors and bedrooms, creating a more cloistered, private sleeping environment. Designers also laid out certain rooms so they could be used as daytime offices for business travelers. Rates range from $100 to $180 for the high-end suites, compared with about $50 to $100 for bare-bones budget accommodations elsewhere." ...

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