Exclusive Interview With Zhou Kui, President Of Platinum Tao Group: Accelerating The Integration Of Hotels And Intensifying Competition In Terminal Hotels

After this hard "epidemic", the hotel industry has been hit hard. The report issued by the China Hotel Association in February indicated that the higher the hotels in the epidemic situation, the stronger the ability to resist risks, while the low end hotels were generally single hotels, with smaller body size, unstable customer groups and poor risk tolerance.

In winter, the domestic epidemic is leveling off, and the hotel industry is showing signs of recovery. In response, Zhou Kui, President of platinum Tao Group, told the twenty-first Century economic report that the epidemic accelerated the integration trend of the original monomer hotel, and this year's end to early next year is likely to become a good opportunity for the integration of quality assets.

The 40 Chinese tourism brigade, 2020, is a series of topics on the "Wen Ji" series. It is invited to be selected as the leader of the "Wen Hua brigade 40" in the "post epidemic" economic revival "tourism revitalization". The industry's "restart" is put forward from the personal perspective and the practice of enterprises to put forward the discussion and prospect, showing the exploration, thinking and strength of the leading figures in the industry.

Zhou Kui, President of platinum Tao Group. Data map

Hotel industry integration to meet opportunities

Twenty-first Century: at present, Chinese hotel brand chain accounts for 22%, monomer hotels account for 78%, single hotels occupy most of the whole industry, but wine management group also develops rapidly. Will the epidemic become an accelerator to speed up the integration of whole industry and monomer hotel?

Zhou Kui: Yes, most of the existing monomer shops are resource based or have their own property, or they have lower rent and rentals, or they have the advantages of having their own flow and geographical location around the scenic spot. Coupled with some passenger flow brought by OTA, the profit is usually good. Generally speaking, single shops choose to join in the general view is that the group can bring good management ability and membership traffic. To put it simply, a single shop line requires systems and members, and a line manager is needed. This is a process of collaboration between the online and offline businesses. At the same time, these two resources are usually the leading group in the industry.

In the industry, the challenge posed by the current epidemic is called "the tide is receding to see who is swimming naked." For a single hotel, good assets can last longer, and bad assets are no longer affordable. However, a good single hotel may last until the end of the year, so it is expected that the end of this year and the beginning of next year will be a good time to integrate high-quality assets. At this stage, hotel operation may become very difficult, but it is very suitable for asset consolidation.

Twenty-first Century: before the outbreak, most single hotels can get relatively sufficient traffic through OTA. Will the trend of the future trend be that single hotels are included in the large light asset management group?

Zhou Kui: it should be said that part of the monomer hotel will be managed by the liquor management group. In the past few years, because of the large volume of OTA traffic and the habit of booking rooms on the platform, OTA has made a huge profit. Most of the monomer hotels have been kidnapped by OTA. OTA used its platform traffic to attract single hotel access to the platform, initially collecting service fees very low, but after a year and a half, charges continue to rise. At this time, it is very difficult for the monomer hotel to retreat and build its own channels. Now that the world has changed, hotels can now cooperate directly with fast moving, WeChat, jitter and other large flow platforms, not only through OTA to get traffic.

Twenty-first Century: what inspiration and thinking can the tourism industry get from this epidemic? The stock market is a battleground for the hotel industry. What are the development trends and opportunities of the domestic hotel industry?

Zhou Kui: we must establish a very professional long-term mechanism for risk prevention and control, and enhance the ability to deal with emergencies. This is a need for experience and foresight. It has also proved that light chain hotel chains are more capable of preventing and resisting risks. According to the countries in Europe, America and Japan, the normal structure of the hotel industry is olive shaped or spindle shaped. However, the structure of the hotel industry in China is triangular, the number of high-end hotels is small, the middle end is rising, and the number of Econo Hotel is large. Under such circumstances, the volume of Econo Hotel is actually enough, although the competition is fierce at the middle end, but the space is very huge. The development trend of domestic hotel industry is not only from monomer to chain, but also from economic type to middle end. For Hotels with a sense of quality and personalization, there is a great chance of upgrading.

The first is quality, the structure of consumption has changed, and the young consumer groups and middle class with a sense of quality are on the rise. In addition, young consumers focus on personalization. Now the tunable Architects Inn in the market can sell at a high price and business is good. If a liquor management group can effectively integrate personality and scale, it is personalized in brand and tonal management, and operation management chain will be very promising.

At the same time, hotels and real estate are highly correlated. The infrastructure also enables the first tier cities to create new property opportunities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, a good quality international hotel. After the rapid development of the second tier cities, the urbanization process accelerated, and many new properties were born. Some state-owned assets and military property are also being released gradually.

Mid market competition accelerated

Twenty-first Century: whether in form, from monomer to franchise, or from the ordinary economy to the middle and high end, the epidemic is accelerating its transformation trend.

Zhou Kui: Yes, although the hotel industry would have gone the same way, the epidemic will accelerate the process. After the resumption of work, this phenomenon has been found, that is, the occupancy rate of the middle end hotel is faster than that of the Economy Inn Airport. Including many liquor management groups before Econo Hotel opened in some scenic spots, for example, in Sanya, Hainan, in fact, business is not good. One is that consumers choose to stay at Econo Hotel less than their destinations. Two, they feel that the quality of the hotels is better, the safety is higher, the service is better, the goods are separated by a penny. No one can block the demand for progress and pursuit of better quality of life.

Twenty-first Century: at present, the middle end market has become the Red Sea. If the whole trend of the industry is to shift from the economic type to the high-end hotels, will the competition of the hotel industry be more concentrated in this area?

Zhou Kui: the high-end hotels in China are basically international brands, with relatively few domestic brands and regional brands. So in recent years, the competition in the industry is more intense, and the middle end market has changed from blue ocean to red sea. But the market in the mid - end market is large enough, and even a first tier city can accommodate several middle - end plates of hotel groups.

There are many excellent state-owned enterprises in the middle end market. The mechanism of state-owned enterprises will be relatively slow and stable. In the long run, the whole efficiency of hotels under state owned enterprises will also change to the direction of the country's prefix. Although some hotel groups have begun to make mixed changes, this mechanism is still hard to break. The speed of development of state-owned enterprises tends to be stable. In fact, it gives some opportunities to private enterprises. In the next 5~10 years, there will probably be excellent hotel groups in these enterprises.

Twenty-first Century: what is the current situation of hotel reemployment under the platinum group?

Zhou Kui: now the recovery rate and occupancy rate are getting higher and higher. The hotel reemployment rate has exceeded 90%, and the stores that have been opened have resumed operation. At the beginning of the resumption of work, the hotel occupancy rate is relatively low, for example, the 100 rooms may only come to 20 guests. Now the occupancy rate is increasing by 5%-8% per week. The occupancy rate of the middle end hotels has exceeded 50%, and the occupancy rate of Econo Hotel is over 40%.

Twenty-first Century: at present, the peripheral tourism in some areas has been slowly reviving. Will the "retaliatory consumption" expected by the travel industry really come?

Zhou Kui: I think it will be "wave progression, spiral rise". What a good or bad business model is actually not human. Although it is not necessarily "revenge consumption", the freedom of human activities will increase. Although the subsequent travel may be affected by online office development and the reduction of travel expenses, once the epidemic has really passed, the tourism industry is definitely explosive growth. First of all, since China's per capita GDP has been upgraded, domestic tourists' enthusiasm for domestic and international tourism has been rising. At present, the epidemics are spreading abroad, and once the domestic stability has been achieved, it is likely that before going abroad to travel abroad, the domestic high-quality tourist attractions will be very hot.