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Hotels in China Try to Lower Their Ratings

While many hotels around the world try to get as high rating as possible, Chinese hotels are desperate to lower them. The reason for this is the new government law, according to which officials are not allowed to stay in five-star hotels. In order not to lose such a big group of visitors, many hotels across the country voluntary drop one star or more.

This is something new for tourism industry of the country. According to Chen Miaolin, New Century Tourism Group chairman, more than 56 hotels in China have already made star-reduction attempts. Here it should be noted that hotel rating in China is monitored by the state tourism bureau with five stars being the highest rating.

Attempts of hotels in China are clearly understandable if we take a look at their revenues. For example, New Century, the Hangzhou-headquartered hotel company, reported the fall of revenue of 18 percent. The company operates 64 hotels in China, 40 of which are five-star hotels. One of reasons for such a drop in revenues is the new law – the income from government agencies has fallen from 15% to 3%. New Century hotels have always greeted many officials of highest rank – governors, generals and even President Xi. In 2009, he stayed in New Century Grand Hotel in Kaifeng (province Henan). The president chose a non-smoking room with lake view. Lu Zhangong, the former governor of Henan, stayed at the hotel several times.

Some hotels in China want to give up all of their stars. As the law concerns only rating and not hotel price, price tag of upscale hotels has been left untouched.

05.02.2014

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