Chinese people are earning higher salaries, facing increasingly stressful jobs and have more exposure to extravagant lifestyle concepts. They are racing to catch up with the changes taking place in their lives and for those with the resources, top brand products and luxury villas feature high on must-have lists, as well as health and beauty treatments, vacation packages and golf and spa club memberships. China’s nouveaux riches like to spend their money in style and let it be seen that they have it to spend.

In China more than many other countries, lavish lifestyles increasingly revolve around five-star hotels. Top hotels push the realms of the new lifestyle concepts to higher levels. In a five-star hotel in China, you can typically find all elements of a luxury lifestyle under one roof: lunch at an exclusive restaurant, shopping in designer boutiques and a relaxing spa.

Hotels offer the Chinese consumer experienced international management and the reassurance of a quality global brand. The guest, in return, trusts that the hotel will meet his expectations before he has even stepped into its shiny, marbled lobby. Any consumer finds comfort in a product he recognizes, but with consumer trust levels so low in China, it is particularly a factor here. 

Chinese people want, and can increasingly afford, the same levels of luxury that exist in countries with an established hospitality sector. China is already the third-largest luxury goods market behind the U.S. and Japan, and it is expected to be the top consumer of luxury consumer goods by 2015, according to Goldman Sachs.

Luxury brands like to link themselves to hotel chains. Jenny Zheng, General Manager of Greater China Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, explained, “Many hotels order Rolls-Royces for guest services and we use super luxury hotels as our event venues. The two mutually support and benefit each other.”

Hotels’ Giant Footprints

Beijing, Shanghai and several second-tier cities are all on the expansion lists of major hotel groups as China emerges as a key growth market for Asia Pacific’s hospitality sector.

Last year China’s five-star hotel rooms totaled 109,900, according to the China National Tourism Administration. Research from Jones Lang LaSalle estimated the number of internationally-branded rooms in star-rated hotels in Beijing alone will reach more than 27,000 by 2009, and Shanghai’s will total over 33,000 by 2010.

Starwood Hotels plans to open 41 more properties in China, Kempinski Hotels has an additional 12 in the pipeline by 2010, as does Hilton Hotels Corporation. By that year, Marriott International’s portfolio will encompass 48 hotels. Hyatt Hotels plans to open a further 17.

In August 2008, Dubai-based Jumeirah Group will open the doors of its first hotel in China, Jumeirah HanTang Xintiandi, Shanghai. The Asia-Pacific region is forecasted to have 13 Jumeirah operations by 2011, five of which will be in China, according to the hotel’s General Manager, Doris Greif. “This is probably our most aggressive approach in this part of the world, and it’s certainly our key focus to get a very strong presence established in China.”

Not only are international corporations pushing themselves into the vision of the wealthy Chinese consumer, so are domestic brands. Chinese giant Jin Jiang Hotels has major expansion plans in the mainland with 19 new four- and five-star properties scheduled to open over the next three years.

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