The range of accommodation is constantly extending, from simple star-rating hotels to budget and midscale hotel chains, plus diversified accommodation options including homestay, vacation rental, long-stay rental, and integrated co-working and retail space, not to mention emerging themed hotels. Meanwhile, consumer demand for accommodation has also evolved to become more personalized, diversified and intelligent. 

How should the accommodation industry be redefined in this context? And how will consumer demand lead a revolution in the sector?  

After a series of mergers and acquisitions, China’s three major hotel groups – Jin Jiang Hotels, BTG Homeinns Hotels and HUAZHU Hotels Group – have entered the Global Top 10 Hotel list. In their ongoing efforts to optimize the synergy of M&A, the giants have also refined their offerings, tapping into alternative sectors such as boutique vacation rental, long- and short-term rental, and co-working space. The companies are also building their own IT platforms with in-house technologies and channels.

The hotel giants are becoming more like micro-ecosystems of the hospitality ecosystem, with each having all types of accommodation. How will hotel groups grow their own accommodation ecosystems based on existing and growing inventory? In a broader sense of hospitality, what growth opportunities are there across different segments? And where is the next high ground for hotel giants? 

The intelligent mobile devices have broken the boundaries of time and space. When the hotel lobby is no longer limited to deal with check-in, how to make use of vacant public areas or even rooms? What can a hotel also be? As a leading multi-brand hotel operator in China, how will HUAZHU Hotels Group maximize the space utilization to integrate different scenario of accommodation, business affairs and travelling.

Meituan has quickly become an important player in China’s online travel market as the company ventured into travel services including hotels, air tickets and free independent travel, in addition to its local lifestyle services related to catering, entertainment, ticketing and others. How should Meituan Hotel, as a latecomer faced with challenges from domestic and international OTA giants, differentiate the positioning of its hotel business? What values can it bring to its hotel partners? What role will it play in China’s hotel distribution landscape?

As the leader of China’s sharing accommdation industry, Sweetome Group is specializing in cultivating the expertise in the B&B operation and management. This time, Justin Luo, Co-founder and CEO of Tujia and Sweetome Group, will present his insights on 12 major differences between hotel and B&B including the customer profile, the means of property acquisition, the marketing matrix, the management of the property owner and the franchising model. In addition, Justin will also showcase the advantage and successful cases of Sweetome Group and its developing strategy. 

The midscale hotel segment is heated, with domestic hotel titans intensifying the consolidation in China’s mid-range hotel market, and overseas hotel brands also vying for a share through their partnerships with local players.   

With fewer midscale hotel brands standing alone, how should they stay competitive in the face of “midscale fatigue”? How will they maintain robust development and scale up? Should they stay independent or tie up with consortiums when the giants are on a buying spree? 

As Chinese consumers continue to evolve, the demand for hotels is becoming increasingly personalized and diversified, and the expectations for hotels are also going up. Results-oriented investors and franchisees, on the other hand, are increasingly concerned with payback period. This has caused more anxiety than ever among hoteliers in China. 

Against the odds, the Wyndham Hotel Group keeps experimenting with new brands, new products, crossover operations, technologies and entertainment. As the technological landscape keeps changing, how do hoteliers identify the real needs and pseudo innovations? Should they value operation performance over network effects or the other way around? Is it better to follow the norm or become a game-changer? 

China’s first “crossover” hotelier Leo Liu, President of Wyndham Hotel Group Greater China, will share his ideas on if one should evolve in the hotel industry.

Hotels have been frenemies with OTAs for decades. While they appreciate the online agencies’ marketing capabilities, they resent the agencies for charging high commission fees. Thus they build their own hotel platforms against the OTAs. 

AccorHotels initiated a distribution platform for independent hotels on AccorHotels.com in 2015, but shut down the booking engine in just two years. This came as no surprise, as the hotelier-driven booking platform had not provided a solution for conflict of interest in commission and traffic. 

As an independent business entity, how should a hotel platform design a business model and operation mechanism to better serve partner hotels while fulfilling its own core strategic goals and establishing a win-win cooperation with OTAs? 

Ms. Katharine Wang will introduce the development of naked Group and then use naked resorts as examples to illustrate how creative marketing can help to promote engaging customer interaction, to build emotion connection and to create memorable immersive experience at naked resorts. At the same time, some best practices of online to offline interactive experience and brand cooperation will be shared in the speech. If you want to know how to make your brand and experience fun and spread brand concept in a more vivid way, no doubt that story of naked will inspire you. 

With continued growth in most markets across China and wider Asia, many owners have seen good revenue growth to fuel profits and potential expansion. Chinese brands continue to both grow and consolidate, providing bigger platforms for brand awareness and future development. Similarly, the appeal and importance of the Chinese traveller keeps spreading and growing both home and abroad. Where in the cycle are these various markets and hotel classes - and which of them has seen the fastest growth and has the strongest opportunity? In order to see the future, one should understand the past. STR presents a broad view of historical hotel performance along with supply/demand and pipeline trends to anticipate the future ahead.

Hoteliers are always looking to meet customer demand as they move away from “design dependence” to standardized scale-up replication, regain the design focus and advocate differentiated and personalized choices.

What kind of hotel design can cater to user needs and attract the new generation of consumers? How should hotels design their properties in harmony with the local community and commercial amenity, and increase their brand value and customer experience?   

The Chinese inbound tourism market is set to grow significantly. In this session, find out what you need to be doing to capture new opportunities and what are the new digital innovations that are changing the hospitality industry globally.

Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, New Retail... We have heard much about them, but what matters is how they are integrated into business operation. 

Yunji Technology offers robotics solutions for hotels, restaurants, office buildings, hospitals, museums and government offices. With indoor positioning and navigation, robot mobility and IoT solutions, the company is now providing what is being described as “bell-hop bots” to take care of delivery, escort, communications and other services in hotels, which helps to upgrade hotel brands and services. 

How to build a direct-booking platform that truly suits a hotel? Why do certain platforms not achieve significant growth in user or order numbers? Why do customers prefer OTAs over hotel platforms? What solutions does a hotel need for effective WeChat marketing? How to ensure customer retention on hotel platforms? How should hotels update their marketing plans to keep up with customer preferences?

What roles do "big data" and "AI" play for the increasingly intelligent hotel industry? What smart products can be developed with big data and AI technology to solve hotel problems? How can hotels improve services and management efficiency with intelligent solutions?

Did you know that by 2021 it is estimated that there will be more smartphones than humans in the world? We asked 16,000 smartphone users in 10 countries how they want to pay for travel on their phone in 10 countries. The opportunity for companies to make the most of the mobile shopping experience is huge – and payments plays a vital role. In this presentation, find out what is most important to mobile shoppers, what would make them buy more and what would stop them in their tracks. Don’t miss it!

Business travelers demand efficiency, and they want simple processes to make things easier when they are on the road; on the other hand, their employers want to save costs, follow administrative requirements and keep track of every penny spent. How can hotels balance these different needs? 

APEX Technologies will use hotel case studies to examine the disparity between the massive customer data hotels have amassed and the low utilization rate. It will explore smart data solutions for hotel operators and the potential of blockchain technology in disrupting hotel marketing.

No marketing and operation strategies in the tourism market can work forever. A proven strategy may quickly lose its edge once it’s extensively copied. Tourism marketers have to constantly consider whether they should use social media, live video, mini program, O2O integration or personalized recommendation.

So what designs will increase registration rates? How does the login page contribute to conversion? How to boost sales volume with pricing strategies? What kind of H5 content communication can deliver better conversion? How to make full use of data analysis and predicative experiments to meet user demands and drive sustainable business growth?

Many hotels and hotel management groups are grappling with identifying new opportunities for revenue management. As hotels are increasingly focusing on members who have high brand affinity, how do they reach out to more loyal customers and stimulate their consumption to enhance profitability? 

Who are your target loyal customers? What do loyal customers want - discount or personalized in-depth experience? Will new technologies cause mass unemployment or enhance guest experience? How can hotels increase revenue growth through management? IDeaS will present revenue management solution cases and share ideas to help hotels reshape loyalty programs and boost return.

Today’s hotel business is all encompassing yet fragmented, covering operations, marketing and services. As OTA giants are penetrating the hospitality sector and the whole industry is rapidly developing, it is increasingly difficult for hotels to corner markets when trial and error is costly. 

Consumers’ enthusiasm to leave comments online and the rich data accumulated by hotels are useful for high-value decision-making. So, how should hoteliers take advantage of such treasure troves of information?

With luxury brand Bulgari and ecommerce platform Netease Yanxuan both having interpreted new retail in their own ideas and forms, “Retail + Accommodation” is hardly a new business model. The re-invention of hotel space that transforms hotel lobbies into malls, bars, cafés and co-working offices has become a trend, extending consumers’ lodging demand to more brick-and-mortar consumption avenues. 

Still, finding new profitable niches in existing inventory and reconstructing hotels’ revenue management model have always been challenging for the industry. How should hotels expand consumption channels based on their own brand propositions? And how will they increase revenues beyond guestroom service by exploring the customer needs of both guests and local residents after the space re-invention, and improve revenue management as well as brand reputation? 

A brand is not a combination of luxury components, but a continuation of experience. What extended proposition can crossover brands bring to the hospitality industry? Are they selling goods or guestrooms in their hotels? How will these new accommodation species take on the operation and profitability challenges when they step out of the spotlight? 

The rise of emerging technologies has led an exciting transformation in the hotel industry with products ranging from chatbots to voice assistants and robot concierge, and the smart hotel devices are making all-intelligent hotels a reality.

How to turn the much-discussed smart hotel concept into a profitable business? What AI breakthroughs have been applied in the hotel industry? Did AI increase operational efficiency? How to truly connect user experience and demand with new technologies?

Which finalist case will be recognized as the most innovative hotel marketing case study of the past year? How do they plan and execute their campaign to engage customers and improve reputation?