How should traditional hotels be improved and upgraded to meet the challenges?

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In recent years, a new hotel format-budget hotel has emerged quietly in the big cities of China. Provide clean and hygienic rooms, delicious and nutritious breakfast, convenient location, well-known brand chain operation ... This hotel has become a very popular accommodation facility and is booming in the streets of coastal cities. However, government agencies are not ready for the development of this new industry, and the academic discussion on the concept of economy hotel has just begun.

The lag of research and the absence of industry management have led to some conceptual confusion and management misunderstandings in the economy hotel industry. Based on the development of foreign budget hotels, this paper summarizes the characteristics of China budget hotels, tries to define the concept of budget hotels, analyzes the market demand of China budget hotels, and puts forward the future development trend of this industry, hoping to provide some ideas for the researchers and managers of budget hotels.

The Development Course of Economical Hotels

Economy hotel is a hotel format relative to the traditional full-service hotel. The development of budget hotels in the world has gone through four historical stages: germination and early development; A period of vigorous development; Brand adjustment period; Reconstruction period.

From the end of 1930s to the end of 1950s, budget hotels were in the bud and early stage of development. The main feature of this stage is the emergence and development of motels. In 1930s, with the rise of American mass consumption and the development of highway network, motels began to appear, providing cheap accommodation services for civilians. For example, as early as 1939, several motels in Florida, USA spontaneously formed an industry joint organization-Quality Courts, which was renamed Quality Courts United the following year to provide industry services for single motel owners. After World War II, the prosperity of American economy promoted the development of mass tourism and triggered a large demand for middle and low-grade accommodation facilities. The completion of the inter-city expressway network has promoted the popularity of motels. Holiday Motel, founded in 1952, has improved its service quality on the basis of absorbing the development experience of motels in the past, and tried to replicate products and services in a standardized way for the first time, which has developed rapidly along the American highway network in just ten years.

From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, budget hotels entered a period of vigorous development. The number of hotels has increased rapidly, and the product forms are rich, and they have begun to develop in a diversified direction. Chain operation began to replace the traditional decentralized management mode, and single hotels opened up the road of rapid expansion, and some mature budget hotels began to merge and integrate single hotels. At the same time, budget hotels began to develop internationally, spreading from the United States to Canada, Central America, South America and Europe. This expansion has also stimulated the rise of local budget hotels, especially in Europe. By the end of 1980s, budget hotels had become a mature hotel format in developed countries in Europe and America.

From the end of 1980s to the end of 1990s, the economy hotel industry began to adjust its brand. After a long period of rapid development, budget hotels have entered a mature market, and the motivation for rapid growth and large-scale expansion has gradually weakened. The diversification strategy and investment policy of large hotel groups make hotel groups more inclined to acquire and integrate the brands of the original industry through capital operation, rather than independent innovation brands. Market competition eliminated some brands with weak management power and poor capital operation, while some big and strong brands became stronger and stronger because of their capital strength and management strength. The intensification of competition forces enterprises to turn to service quality management and brand building. Brand building, quality management, market segmentation, product diversification and other internal management of enterprises have received unprecedented attention.

Entering the 2 1 century, budget hotels have entered a new round of rapid development. This is mainly manifested in the market development of budget hotels in developing countries and the development of local brands. In China, Southeast Asia and other regions, the expansion of budget hotels is very rapid. World-renowned budget hotel brands have entered one after another, such as Ibis of Accor Group, Formula 1, Super 8 of Shengda Group, Days Hotel, Holiday Inn Express of Intercontinental Group, etc. , all aimed at the Asian market. At the same time, some budget hotel brands in Asia have begun to develop, such as Jinjiang Inn and Home Inn in China.

Second, the definition and characteristics of budget hotels

At present, the academic community has not yet formed a recognized definition of economy hotel. In foreign countries, the classification of budget hotels is mainly based on price. For example, Powers( 1995) thinks that budget hotels are hotels that don't provide a full set of services, and the room price ranges from 19 1 to 1993, which remains below $33. According to the characteristics of budget hotels and the actual situation in China, the author thinks that the definition of budget hotels can be summarized as "a modern hotel format with mass tourists and small and medium-sized business people as the main service targets, guest rooms as the only or core product, low price (generally below RMB in 300 yuan), standardized service, comfortable environment, superior hardware and high cost performance."

As a new format, budget hotel is the product of economic development and social life. It is completely different from the full-service hotel facing the upper class, and it is a product facility that meets the travel and accommodation needs of ordinary people. Its basic features are as follows:

First of all, the products are limited. Economy hotels closely follow the hotel's core value-accommodation, take room products as the soul, and remove other unnecessary services, thus greatly reducing costs. Generally speaking, budget hotels only provide room and breakfast (bed&; Breakfast), some limited service hotels also provide simple catering, fitness and conference facilities.

Secondly, the quality of products and services. Different from ordinary social hotels, budget hotels attach great importance to the comfort of guest room facilities and the standardization of service, highlighting the characteristics of cleanliness, hygiene, comfort and convenience.

Third, the price is moderate. Compared with the price of high-end hotels, the price of budget hotels is generally below RMB in 300 yuan, and some youth hostels and motels even cost tens to 100 yuan.

Fourthly, the target markets of budget hotels are ordinary business people, working class, ordinary self-funded tourists and students. High-end hotels are often targeted at high-end business guests, high-income groups and mass tourists.

Finally, from the external performance, budget hotels generally adopt the way of chain operation, and realize scale benefits and improve brand value through chain operation. This is also an obvious feature that distinguishes budget hotels from other star-rated hotels and social hotels.

Third, the development status of budget hotels in China

The initial development of budget hotels in China began at 1996, and Jinjiang Inn, a subsidiary of Shanghai Jinjiang Group, came out as the first budget hotel brand in China. 2 1 century, various economic brands have sprung up, showing the following characteristics:

First of all, the economy hotel industry in China has developed rapidly, and some influential national brands have emerged. With national influence: Jinjiang Star founded by Jinjiang Group 1996; In 2002, Capital Tourism International Hotel Group and Ctrip Travel Service Co., Ltd. jointly invested in the establishment of Home Inn. There are also some regional brands of budget hotels, such as Motel 168 and Baolong House in Shanghai, 7 Days in South China and Xinyandou in Beijing. These brands are developing vigorously and expanding rapidly in just a few years. Some regional brands are actively striving for national brands.

Secondly, the domestic demand for budget hotels is strong, and several big cities and regions have become hot spots. The demand for budget hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other big cities is very prominent, and the market conditions are relatively mature. The higher overall economic development level in Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin region also determines the demand level of budget hotels. Therefore, budget hotels have developed rapidly in economically developed areas of China.

Third, budget hotels have attracted a large influx of all kinds of capital. Because the investment of budget hotels is relatively small, the return on investment is obviously higher than that of ordinary hotels; At the same time, China's current investment environment is relatively good and its capital supply is sufficient. Many idle funds have been trying to find suitable investment projects. This kind of high-quality project, which integrates property and hotel, attracts the influx of capital. In addition, the appreciation space of China's real estate also leads to investors' expectation of appreciation of economy hotel real estate. Therefore, all kinds of funds are optimistic about such projects.

Finally, the competition between foreign brands and national brands is growing. Many mature foreign budget hotel brands are optimistic about China's market potential and enter with high profile. Their mature management experience, strong financial strength and talent reserve, world-famous brands, developed marketing network and strict quality control all have incomparable advantages, which has formed a strong pressure on China national brands with only a few years of experience in local development. In order to gain a certain position and advantage in the market competition, local economy hotels in China must learn and grow quickly.

Fourthly, the market demand analysis of budget hotels in China.

Mass consumption has stimulated the development of budget hotels. Investigate its reason, the market power of economy hotel development comes from three aspects:

1. The development of mass tourism in China needs cheap hotel accommodation facilities.

With the development of economy, China has gradually entered a well-off society. Since 2000, the gross domestic product has increased at the level of 65,438+0 trillion RMB per year; Some economically developed coastal cities have a per capita GDP of more than $3,000; The total number of domestic tourists in China has exceeded 60% of the country's total population, basically reaching the standard of mass tourism. The development of China's economy has laid a broad market foundation for domestic tourism and opened the curtain of the era of mass tourism.

Mass tourism is accompanied by the improvement of corresponding tourism facilities and the adjustment of tourism industry structure. At the beginning of the reform, the development of the hotel industry was mainly high-star hotels, which was consistent with the country's vigorous development of inbound tourism. However, with the strengthening of domestic consumption capacity, the domestic mass tourism market has exploded, and tourism supporting facilities that meet the needs of domestic tourists and economic strength are needed. There are few middle and low-grade hotels with moderate price, high quality, excellent service and well-known brands. Therefore, driven by the domestic mass tourism with more than 10 billion person-times every year, the economy hotel market in China is booming.

2. China's booming economy has stimulated the development of business tourism, which has also created a huge demand for budget hotels.

In recent years, with the development of the world economy and the acceleration of globalization, business exchanges between countries and within countries have become increasingly frequent, and business tourism has developed rapidly around the world. According to statistics, in 2000, the global business tourism revenue has exceeded 400 billion US dollars, and it is increasing at an annual rate of more than 8%. In 2003, the number of international, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and domestic business tourists in China reached1.65,438+0.6 billion. According to the estimation of the World Tourism Organization, the annual expenditure of business tourism in China is 654.38+003 billion US dollars, which is also experiencing rapid development under the background of rapid economic development in China. It is estimated that it may increase at an alarming rate of 20% in the next few years.

In the past, high-star hotels were the main choice for business guests. However, with the development of private economy and some companies' restrictions on travel expenses, people pay more attention to the choice of cost performance in business activities. Some new hotel formats with luxurious facilities, excellent decoration and excellent service, but only providing guest rooms and conference facilities and cutting off other non-essential facilities to greatly reduce prices, have begun to be favored by business travelers.

3. With the development of inbound tourism in China, the demand of international tourists for budget hotels is increasing gradually.

Judging from the demand of international tourists, more and more international tourists are visiting China. /kloc-young people aged 0/5 ~ 24 and self-help tourists who don't join the group are the main market targets of youth hostels and budget hotels. According to the survey of the National Tourism Administration, in 2004, the number of foreign tourists aged1.5-24 exceeded 1.2 million, and the number of self-help tourists increased rapidly. With the international famous brands such as Accor Ibis, Shengda Super 8 and Days Hotel entering China, and the development of local budget hotels in China, the demand of international tourists for budget hotels will be increasing.

5. Problems existing in budget hotels in China

1. Incomplete market segmentation and unclear product level.

Economy hotels have just started in China, especially some hotels with national brands, and there is no clear target market, or the segmentation of the target market is not detailed and complete enough, which leads to overlapping or too broad markets, no hierarchical product design, and lack of products and services for different market segments. According to foreign development experience, there are three types of budget hotels: limited service hotels, budget hotels/budget hotels and super-budget hotels. Limited service hotels belong to high-grade economy hotels, while middle-grade economy hotels and low-priced hotels belong to the lowest level. The prices of these three levels of hotels vary greatly, and so do the hardware facilities. The guest room hardware facilities of limited service hotels are no less than those of four or five-star hotels, while some low-cost hotels try their best to simplify the equipment under the guidance of reducing costs, and the guest room facilities are relatively simple. In China, there is no clear product hierarchy in the market at present.

2. Lack of management experience and human resources.

Domestic budget hotels have accumulated some management experience in the development of several years, but compared with the management experience of some mature foreign brands for decades, the shortcomings are still obvious. In cost control, service quality, training mechanism, logistics and distribution, corporate culture and other aspects, we need to continue to improve. At the same time, the previous hotel talents in China were trained according to the service standards and characteristics of high-star hotels, which could not meet the skill requirements of one person with multiple posts. For top managers, there are very few talents who are proficient in both chain operation and hotel management. Talents at all levels in budget hotels are facing the problem of insufficient supply. Therefore, all levels of talents in budget hotels are facing the problem of insufficient supply. 3. Lack of marketing means and imperfect sales reservation network.

Compared with foreign brands, domestic budget hotel brands obviously lack the awareness and means of marketing. In particular, some regional brands are not well-known and their brand image construction is not successful enough. More importantly, except for a few hotels such as Jinjiang Inn, Home Inn and Xinyu Inn, which have built independent sales reservation networks and telephone centers, many other hotels mainly rely on professional reservation centers and travel agencies to sell rooms. Even in hotels with reservation network, the reservation technology and efficiency are not very high, and the design is not perfect.

4. Localization obstacles of foreign-funded budget hotels

Many foreign mature brands have been attracted by the China market, but their localization and adaptation will take some time. China's market and customers are very different from those of foreign countries, and the differences in industry forms and supporting industrial chains are also worthy of attention. In the process of cooperation with domestic enterprises, some hotel brands have adopted a hasty entry policy, which leads to brand alienation and quality out of control. For example, Super 8 adopted the brand export mode of franchising and quickly cut into the China market. The price difference between Beijing Wangfujing and Tuanjiehu stores is more than twice, and the price of Wangfujing branch has reached the level of high-end hotels. This large price gap will lead to the brand's unsustainability, thus destroying the brand's expectation and image in consumers' minds. In addition, the obstacles to localization are also manifested in management concepts and methods. The management idea based on foreign cultural background will inevitably face some obstacles in China, so it is imperative to improve it.

5. The influx of irrational capital impacts the industry.

The high return on investment of budget hotels has attracted a lot of capital, but the influx of some irrational capital has caused many problems. Some original star-rated hotels were renamed budget hotels after being acquired by capital; Some budget hotels have great problems in management and operation. Some capitals really care about real estate, they just want to enter through the shell of budget hotels ... These phenomena will disturb the unstable order of this industry, lead to the confusion of the general public's understanding of the concept of budget hotels, and lay hidden dangers for future price competition.

Prediction of Future Development Trend of Economical Liquor in China

With the rapid development of domestic economy and tourism, the public's demand for budget hotels is increasing. Economical hotels that can be accepted by mass consumers have broad market prospects in China. In the future, budget hotels will present the following three main development trends in China:

1. Chain operation will become the main mode of economic hotel development.

Chain operation is the main trend of hotel development in the world. An investment institution in Britain conducted a survey on the world hotel industry, and found that by the end of the 20th century, 1/6 of the total number of hotel rooms in the world was operated by 34 hotel groups, while more than half of the total number of hotels in developed countries such as Europe and America were chain-operated.

Economy hotel is a new format in China. Most investors have no corresponding experience and need a long learning and accumulation process. Therefore, the development of budget hotels usually starts from some single hotels, and gradually promotes chain stores after accumulating certain management experience and brand assets.

The chain operation of budget hotels is the inevitable result of the development of two groups of contradictions: first, the space limitation of hotel sales and the dispersion of consumers; Second, the contradiction between the pursuit of economies of scale and the weak strength of a single hotel.

First of all, the contradiction between the limited space of hotel sales and the dispersion of consumers leads to the possibility that hotels must pursue the maximum spatial dispersion.

Hotel management has a strong spatial nature, which makes the attraction of a single hotel to tourists strongly influenced by the spatial distance. The dispersion of tourists is mainly reflected in the multi-center and wide-range characteristics of the guest activity area in the city. With the acceleration of urbanization and the gradual formation of urban industrial structure, cities have gathered more and more tourism, business and conference functions, and all cities have experienced rapid expansion. The traditional small-area downtown is no longer the only bustling area in the city and the core area of guest activities. More and more new districts, development zones, emerging shopping centers, financial centers, scenic spots and resorts have sprung up, and each area has gathered corresponding crowds and flows. Moreover, these areas have gathered corresponding crowds and flows. Therefore, the space limitation of the hotel and the spatial dispersion of the guests constitute a huge contradiction. Through chain operation, the spatial distribution of this brand hotel in a certain city will be expanded, thus effectively solving its spatial limitations.

Secondly, the contradiction between the hotel's pursuit of scale benefits and the weak strength of a single hotel makes the hotel expand its business scale as much as possible.

Pursuing profit maximization is the ultimate goal of enterprises. To this end, enterprises will take various measures to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Expanding production scale is an effective way to reduce costs. According to the theory of production cost, in a certain period of time, the increase of marginal products will lead to the decrease of marginal cost, but this influence is limited. If it exceeds a certain scale, it will lead to the decline of enterprise efficiency and the increase of other long-term costs, and then the marginal cost will increase with the increase of output. Therefore, there are certain restrictions on expanding the scale of enterprises to improve efficiency and pursue profit maximization. The expansion of enterprise scale has boundaries. After reaching the saturation point of enterprise scale, it is impossible to continue to use this method to reduce enterprise costs. In order to win in the fierce market competition, enterprises must seek other ways to reduce costs and improve profits. Chain can greatly improve the efficiency of each hotel in the chain group and enhance the overall image of the whole chain group.

2. Differentiated management and brand building are the survival ways for the competitive development of budget hotels.

At present, the market division of budget hotels in China is still in the primary stage. Many budget hotels have vague positioning, and some only take self-funded tourism and small and medium-sized business guests as the target market, with few further divisions. However, in the United States, where budget hotels are very developed, the target markets targeted by different budget hotels are very clear and unique. There are motels for go on road trip guests, hotels for elderly tourists, accommodation facilities for young backpackers, hotels for female tourists and apartment-style economy hotels for family travel.

After the number of domestic budget hotels reaches a certain level, the market competition will inevitably intensify. General market positioning and undifferentiated products have been unable to effectively attract customers, especially the homogenization of products will be the fatal defect for budget hotels to participate in market competition. Therefore, market segmentation and product differentiation are the problems that hotel operators must face. In addition, in modern society, brand has become a cultural carrier, and the hotel industry is closely integrated with intangible services and tangible products, and brand is particularly important to it. Every budget hotel brand must complete the positioning and definition of brand image, segmentation of target market, establishment of customer loyalty, improvement of product design and improvement of service in the next few years. Only in this way can we obtain stable customers in the increasingly fierce market competition.

Therefore, according to the age, gender, tourism purpose, occupation, income and other indicators of customer groups, the current economy hotel tourism market can be further subdivided into many target markets, such as the elderly tourism market, the youth market, the medical treatment market, the student market, the business tourism market, the white-collar holiday market and so on. According to the consumption characteristics of these segmented target markets, different economical hotel products and services can be designed to fill the gaps in the market and form a stable target consumer group.

3. Management specialization and technical progress have promoted the development of budget hotels.

The main feature of budget hotels is "high quality and low price", which requires operators to seek the best combination of service quality and cost control. Many new technologies, such as electronic reservation system, financial control system and some advanced management systems, such as front desk management and customer management, can effectively improve service efficiency and reduce management costs. Economy hotels have great demand for such technologies and systems. But at present, these management systems are aimed at high-star hotels, and the management system of budget hotels is still in the exploratory stage. Facing the growing development of budget hotels and the strong demand for management systems, some mature hotel software and management systems will be improved and upgraded according to the characteristics of budget hotels, which will promote the development and perfection of budget hotel management systems.

Specifically, the improvement of the management system of budget hotels is mainly manifested in several aspects:

The first is the appointment system. With the fierce competition, it is very important to establish a very smooth dispatching and distribution system. "Home Inn" and "Jinjiang Inn" have established independent reservation systems, but many small-scale budget hotels are still blank in this respect. Many hotels sell rooms through travel agencies, reservation centers and travel reservation websites, such as Ctrip and E Long. These sales channels grab a considerable part of the profits of budget hotels, which is not conducive to the control of operating costs. Moreover, poor control of sales channels will cause many unstable hidden dangers for future operations. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an independent reservation system, which can not only reduce sales costs, but also stabilize distribution channels.

Followed by the personnel management system. At present, the management talents of budget hotels are very scarce in this industry. The talents trained by traditional hotel management institutions are all adapted to the operating system of star-rated hotels, and rarely adapt to the characteristics of "one person with multiple posts" and "one post with multiple functions" in budget hotels. Therefore, the shortage of talents is the biggest obstacle to the development of budget hotels. Some well-developed budget hotels, such as Jinjiang Inn, have established their own personnel training system, which is bound to be popularized and improved in other budget hotels, and it is also an important way for these budget hotels to establish personnel training. Therefore, the talent training system is an important aspect that budget hotels must pay attention to in the future. In addition, the previous personnel management systems were developed according to the characteristics of star-rated hotels. Under the management framework of budget hotels, how to do a good job in personnel incentive and assessment management is a new problem faced by operators.

Third, operating cost control. The low price of budget hotels depends entirely on the strength and angle of cost control of operators. The operators of some budget hotels have not completely got rid of the management ideas of star-rated hotels, and the cost remains high; Some operators are too strict in cost control, which seriously affects the comfort of hotel products. These two extremes should be avoided. Therefore, exploring and improving cost control will be the theme of future economy hotel management. The management experience of many well-known foreign budget hotel brands will be used for reference and promoted in China.