HUALUXE Signs Eight Chinese Deals

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced that it has signed eight management contracts for its new HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts brand since it launched earlier in the year. These contracts will include properties in Shanghai, Beijing and six emerging leisure and business destinations across China.

IHG is the largest international hotel group that operates in Greater China, and its new HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts are the world’s first hotels designed especially for Chinese travellers. HUA means ‘majestic China’ and LUXE means luxury.

The brand focuses the unique aspects of local etiquette, spaces that reflect local heritage and customs, status recognition and the significance of rejuvenation. The properties take the best features of Chinese hospitality and applies the group’s international scale, unparalleled insights and power systems in the Chinese market to consistently provide consumers with what they expect in the country nowadays.

The new hotel contracts that IHG has signed for the HUALUXE Hotel and Resorts brand will bring a combined room total of almost 2,800 in the pipeline. This is a huge milestone to reach in less than five months of the brand being launched. The brand’s success so far shows owners’ confidence in it and is recognition of the market potential and great consumer need for it.

All of these newly signed contracts were made with new owners working with the group for the first time and will see HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts open between 2014 and 2016. The HUALUXE Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao will have 400; HUALUXE Beijing Xinan will have 380 rooms; HUALUXE Chengdu High-Tech West will have 350 rooms; HUALUXE Fuzhou Downtown will have 330 rooms; HUALUXEZhangjiajie Resort will have 380 rooms; HUALUXEYangjian City Centre will have 282 rooms; HUALUXE Ordos Dongsheng will have 300 rooms; and HUALUXE Foshan Nanhai will have 350 rooms.

The first eight signings will mean HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts venues will pop up in cities where IHG has an open hotel or one already in the pipeline. The new properties will complement these other venues, and they will be a key part of the group’s strategy to grow market share throughout the country. To begin with, the brand will be launched in Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities and resort destinations. The group sees the possibility that the brand will be in more than 100 cities across Greater China during the next 15 to 20 years.

IHG Greater China chief executive Keith Barr says that, since entering the region in 1984, they have evolved their services and operating standards to ensure all Chinese guests feel comfortable and welcome. HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts is an innovation in the hospitality industry.

Barr added that the group’s 30 years of experience has provided it with deep insight into what consumers want, and they have used it to create a brand where every feature has been designed to suit the sensibilities and tastes of Chinese guests. Nobody else has ever done this, and it’s very rewarding to see so many business partners and owners understand, support and get on board with this vision.