路透社报道，德国工程师Michael Bosch居住的经济型酒店位于上海一座经过改建的办公楼里，他并没有因为缺少健身房或其他的物质享受有所困扰。他在中国十来个城市的旅行都住在这样的酒店。
“我所需要的是一个干净、温暖的可以睡觉的地方，对服务没什么要求”，32岁的他说。他正在上海金融区边上的莫泰168等一位忙碌的前台接待，已等了10分钟。
中国以及国外数以百万计的商务人士和游客，都在从中国经济型酒店业的繁荣中受益。他们仅需支付每个房间不到65美元，而周围的五星级酒店则高达260美元。
经济型酒店在过去8年中如雨后春笋般出现，从几乎为零到超过10万个、100多个品牌，都在为从中国迅速发展的国内旅游市场分一杯羹而竞争。已经出现了超过100个品牌。
中国经济型酒店业的快速发展类似于美国汽车旅馆景气的20世纪50年代，受益于旅游业与高速公路的延伸。
“中国人口是美国的4倍，有潜力成为世界上最大的经济型酒店市场”，汉庭经济连锁酒店首席财务官王烈说。
尽管激烈的竞争和下降的入住率正在威胁利润，中国大小投资者，以及外国如摩根士丹利、华平投资集团和美林证券这样的重量级公司，都在挤进这一行业。
政治与社会变迁，以及中国经济的蓬勃发展救了这一行业。在此之前，政府几乎没有做任何事引导公民国内旅游，这部分是因为他们担心公众安全和社会稳定。
许多中国旅客要住在由当地政府管理的，糟糕的“招待所”，这里缺少供暖、洗漱不便，是臭名远扬的集体宿舍。
但是在1999年，中央政府开始推动旅游成为刺激经济的一种方式，三个长达一周的法定节假日的出现促进了酒店客房的需求。
这引发了旅游市场的繁荣。最新的官方数据显示，2006年中国旅游者13.9亿人次的国内游创收1100亿美元，比2005年增长了17 ％。业内人士称，增长将以近似的水平持续。
根据美国运通的数据，中国商务旅行市场价值约130亿美元，位于世界第四。
在上个月北京将长假从三个减为两个后，预计中国今年8月的奥运会和2010年的上海世博会将有利于保持需求的增长。
“资金正在涌入这个热门行业，每个成员都在积极扩大市场占有率”，总部设在上海的锦江之星总裁徐祖荣说。锦江之星成立于1996年，是中国首家经济型连锁酒店。
与豪华旅行相比，中国的经济型酒店业以本地品牌占主导。虽然廉价旅馆吸引了国外的经济旅游者和背包客，但绝大多数顾客仍是本地人，对国外的品牌并不熟悉。
一个经济型酒店的平均投资仅仅130万美元，而且3到5年就可以收回成本。小型、快速站稳脚的中国企业已经能够驾驭市场，而外国的竞争对手仍在做可行性研究。
业界塑造了中国企业家。季琦，42岁，留着平头，一个农民的儿子，很健谈。20世纪90年代中期，他辞掉了在上海的电脑销售经理的工作去美国旅行了一年，然后返回建立了一系列公司。
1999年他合伙创建了网上旅行社携程网，2001年创办了如家酒店，现在是中国最大的经济型连锁酒店。两者皆在美国的纳斯达克上市。季现在的目标是他2005年创办的汉庭酒店能在海外上市。
季表示，经济型酒店是有吸引力的，这是因为，环境污染和国际贸易的紧张局势意味着中国不能再仅仅依靠制造业的成长，该国正在由“中国制造”发展模式转向“中国服务”。
居主导地位的中国企业家已经对当地公司进行私人直接投资，而这正是很多外国投资者进入快速发展最简单的方式。
在获得总部位于美国的风险投资公司美国国际数据集团（IGD）投资后，2006年10月纳斯达克上市时如家酒店筹集资金超过1.09亿美元。它计划未来几年内将它的酒店数量翻4倍，达到1000家，并从中国扩大到亚洲。
中国第五大连锁酒店，总部位于深圳的7天酒店，在九月份接受美林证券、德意志银行和华平投资集团注资后，计划2008年将酒店数量翻三倍，达200家。
不过一些外国大型连锁认为他们具备在中国竞争的专业知识，在中国，建立名望可以帮助他们从数十万计的出境游中国游客那里吸引国外业务。
欧洲最大的旅馆业者雅高的目标是，到2010年，在中国拥有的宜必思经济型酒店从现在9家发展到120家，尽管雅高大部分的中国收入仍然来自其较高端的索菲特和诺富特酒店。
与许多中国产业一样，投资景气可能导致一场换血。为争夺客源和好的选址的竞争正哄抬营运成本，同时也损害了租金和入住率。
最近的商务部数据显示，尽管仍高于酒店业平均约60%的入住率，经济型酒店的入住率在2006年平均下降45％，占有率从89％滑至82.4％ 。
作为成本的一大部分，物业租金上涨了5倍，速度比2006年中国的房地产价格泡沫还快。
“对经济型酒店最大的挑战就是成本控制，”锦江之星徐说。“除了租金上升，能源价格和工资的上涨都增加了成本压力。”
中国饭店协会会长助理张明厚说，由于执法不严，市场也受到许多把自己称作“经济型连锁酒店”的不合格私营酒店的损害。
张帮助起草了拟今年发布的旨在规范管理部门和服务标准的规范。
“中国已经不再是经济型酒店的处女地，巨额利润的时代已经结束了”，美国私人投资公司红杉资本副总裁计越说，“现在已经有一些明显的市场领导者，我们期望看到巩固”。
作为上海锦江国际酒店集团的成员，如家酒店、莫泰168和锦江之星已经控制了44 ％的市场，并有可能上升。
10月份，通过收购两年的老对手七斗星，如家又获得了26家酒店。首席执行官孙坚说，长远目标中收购将占如家酒店扩张的五分之一。
但其他的连锁店仍可能通过市场细分获得蓬勃发展，汉庭酒店王说，“在中国潜力是巨大的，这不是一个赢家通吃的游戏”。
为了避免同领导者直接竞争，汉庭自称为“中级”连锁酒店，其目标是特定商务旅客。
酒店里装饰着油画，每个房间都配备了不是一个，而是两个因特网宽带线路。
马来西亚国有的邮轮运营商丽星邮轮以低端人群为目标进入市场，每晚收取旅客少于14元（约2.50新西兰币 ），相比之下，如家酒店收取两倍以上。
原文链接：http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1125618.php
China's budget hotels profit from no frills
A Reuters report says that German engineer Michael Bosch is not fazed by the lack of a gym and other creature comforts at his budget hotel in a converted Shanghai office building. He's stayed at such hotels on nearly a dozen trips to Chinese cities.
"All I need is a clean, warm place to sleep. I don't care so much about service," the 32-year-old said as he waited for 10 minutes for a distracted receptionist to attend to him at a Motel168 on the edge of Shanghai's financial district.
Millions of businessmen and tourists, both Chinese and foreign, are taking advantage of a boom in China's budget hotel industry, which offers rooms for less than $65 a night compared with around $260 at five-star hotels.
The number of budget hotel rooms has mushroomed in the past eight years from practically zero to over 100,000 with more than 100 brands competing for a bite of China's rapidly expanding domestic tourism market. More than a 100 brands have emerged.
The fast-developing Chinese budget hotel industry resembles the US motel boom of the 1950s, which was fuelled by tourism and expanding highways.
"China has a population four times that of the U.S, and the potential to be the world's biggest budget hotel market," said Wang Lie, chief financial officer at budget chain Hanting Hotels.
Big and small Chinese investors, plus foreign heavyweights such as Morgan Stanley, Warburg Pincus and Merrill Lynch, are piling into the industry, even though fierce competition and sinking room rates now threaten to hurt profits.
Political and social change, as well as China's economic boom, have aided the industry. Until recently, the government did little to encourage domestic travel by its citizens, partly because of concern about public security and social stability.
Many Chinese travellers had to stay at grim "guest houses" run by local governments, notorious for Spartan dormitory rooms, lack of heating and poor plumbing.
But in 1999, the central government began promoting travel as a way to stimulate the economy, creating three week-long national holidays that boosted demand for hotel rooms.
That unleashed a travel boom. In 2006, 1.39 billion domestic trips by Chinese tourists generated $110 billion, up 17 per cent from 2005, the latest official data shows. Industry sources say growth continues at a similar pace.
China's business travel market is worth about $13 billion, the world's fourth biggest, according to American Express.
The Olympic Games in China this August, and the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, are expected to help keep demand growing after Beijing decided last month to cut the number of week-long holidays from three to two.
"Money has been pouring into this red-hot industry and every player is expanding aggressively for market share," said Xu Rongzu, president of Shanghai-based Jinjiang Inn, which was founded in 1996 as China's first budget hotel chain.
In contrast to luxury travel, China's budget hotel industry is dominated by local brands. Though cheap hotels have lured budget tourists and backpackers from abroad, the vast majority of customers are locals who are unfamiliar with foreign brands.
Small, quick-footed Chinese firms have been able to dive into the market while potential foreign rivals are still doing feasibility studies, as average investment in a budget hotel is just $1.3 million and can often be recouped in three to five years.
The industry has drawn Chinese entrepreneurs including Ji Qi, 42, the crew-cut, fast-talking son of a farmer. He quit his job as a computer sales manager in Shanghai in the mid-1990s to travel in the United States for a year, before returning to establish a string of firms.
He co-founded online travel agent Ctrip in 1999 and Home Inns, now China's biggest budget hotel chain, in 2001. Both are listed on the US Nasdaq market. Ji now aims for an overseas listing of Hanting Hotels, which he set up in 2005.
Ji says the budget hotel industry is attractive because the country is shifting from a growth model of "Made in China" to "Service by China," as pollution and international trade tensions mean it can no longer rely solely on manufacturing growth.
The dominance of Chinese entrepreneurs has left private equity investment in local firms as the easiest way for many foreign investors to get into the boom.
Home Inns raised over $109 million in its October 2006 Nasdaq listing after investment from US-based venture capital firm IDG Ventures. It plans to quadruple the number of its hotels to 1,000 in a few years and expand outside China into Asia.
Shenzhen-based 7 Days Inn, China's fifth biggest chain, plans to triple its number of hotels to 200 in 2008 after receiving in September a combined $124 million injection from Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Warburg Pincus.
But some big foreign chains think they have the expertise to compete in China, where establishing a name could help them attract business abroad from the hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists starting to travel overseas.
Accor, Europe's largest hotelier, aims to have as many as 120 Ibis budget hotels in China by 2010, up from nine now – though most of Accor's Chinese revenue will still come from its higher-end Sofitel and Novotel hotels.
As with many Chinese industries, the investment boom may lead to a shake-out. Competition for customers and well-located properties is driving up operating costs while hurting rents and occupancy rates.
Room rates for budget hotels fell 45 per cent on average in 2006 and occupancy slid to 82.4 per cent from 89 per cent, the most recent commerce ministry data shows – though that remained above the hotel industry's average occupancy rate of about 60 per cent.
Property rents, a big part of costs, rose five times faster than China's already-frothy real estate prices in 2006.
"The biggest challenge for budget hotel operators is cost control," said Jinjiang's Xu. "In addition to rising rents, rising energy prices and wages are adding pressure to costs."
The market has also been hurt by many substandard, privately run hotels which have been able to call themselves "budget chains" because of lax government regulation, said Zhang Minghou, an official at the China Hotel Association.
Zhang helped draft rules, to be published this year, designed to regulate the sector and service standards.
"China is no longer virgin territory for budget hotels, and the days of fat profits are over," said Ji Yue, director of US private equity firm Sequoia Capital. "There are already some obvious market leaders. We expect to see consolidation."
Home Inns, Motel168 and Jinjiang Inn, which is part of the Shanghai Jinjiang International Hotels Group, already control a combined 44 per cent of the market, and that may rise.
In October, Home Inns obtained 26 more hotels by purchasing two-year-old rival Top Star. Chief Executive Officer David Sun has said acquisitions will account for a fifth of Home Inns' expansion in the long term.
But other chains may still thrive through market segmentation, said Wang at Hanting Hotels. "The potential in China is enormous, and it's not a winner-takes-all game."
To avoid direct competition with leading players, Hanting calls itself a "mid-level" hotel chain and targets business travellers in particular.
Its hotels are decorated with oil paintings and each room is equipped with not one but two internet broadband lines.
And Malaysian-controlled cruise operator Star Cruises has entered the market by targeting the lower end, charging travellers less than 14 yuan ($NZ2.50) per night compared with more than twice that at Home Inns.
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