CONSUMERS

Boutique Hotels on the Rise as China’s Wealthy Splurge on Accommodation

by

Daniel Meesak

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit: This is the featured image credit

Among the biggest trends among China’s luxury travelers is the growing popularity of boutique hotels, according to new research presented by the Hurun Report’s Rupert Hoogewerf at ILTM Asia in Shanghai.

Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.

PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.

In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris

Among the biggest trends among China’s luxury travelers is the growing popularity of boutique hotels, according to new research presented by the Hurun Report’s Rupert Hoogewerf at ILTM Asia in Shanghai.

With 60 percent of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) reporting that they spend over 3,000 RMB (US$441) per night when they stay at hotels, the future looks bright for luxury hotels catering to China’s growing number of high-end travelers. While large luxury chain hotels remain dominant on the list of HNWIs’ preferred accommodation providers, the report finds that HNWIs now increasingly favor boutique hotels—a clear significant shift from the trend just a few years ago.

For wealthy Chinese travelers, The Ritz-Carlton was the most popular hotel group in 2016, followed by the Banyan Tree, the Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Fairmont and the Peninsula. The luxury boutique hotel group Aman also broke into the top 10, and Chinese HNWIs’ favorite boutique hotel brand, Banyan Tree, keeps climbing on the list of hotel brands preferred among luxury travelers. Hilton, while not topping the overall list, still remains the preferred business hotel for survey respondents. Ritz-Carlton, which tops the list, also has the by far most popular membership scheme among overall luxury travelers and millennial luxury travelers alike at 33 percent and 31 percent membership rates respectively. In comparison to airline membership schemes, hotel membership rates remain low among China’s wealthy. Nevertheless, Ritz-Carlton’s jump in membership rates by 19 percent compared to the year prior indicates that there is substantial interest in membership schemes among luxury travelers given the right incentives.

According to the report, the cost-effectiveness of different hotel options remains a relatively unimportant factor when choosing a hotel among survey respondents, with only 15 percent quoting it as a factor that they consider. Instead, personalized service, views, cleanliness, and location are the most important factors influencing hotel choice. In fact, the average nightly hotel budget among high-end travelers has reached record heights, the average nightly spend has reached 3,800 RMB (US$559)—and 32 percent of respondents spend over 5,000 RMB (US$735) per night for their hotel accommodation.

While authentic and unique experiences are highly sought after by China’s luxury travelers, the same applies to a much lesser degree in terms of accommodation. Only 25 percent of HNWIs interviewed for the report had even considered Airbnb-style accommodation options, and instead preferred private boutique hotels and yachts when considering options other than brand hotels. In fact, only 30 percent of respondents said that they have the impression that Airbnb-style rentals allow them to better experience local life—arguably defeating the purpose of rentals for travelers that put little importance on cost-effectiveness.

Instead, boutique hotels seem well-positioned to benefit from Chinese HNWIs’ lust for authentic and unique travel experiences. With accommodation cost of little concern for these travelers, boutique hotels certainly have an exciting future ahead of them in China’s luxury travel market.

Image: Boutique Hotels are growing in popularity among China's wealthiest travelers. (Courtesy Photo)

Article originally posted on Jing Daily

Daniel Meesak
Daniel Meesak

Jing Daily

Daniel spent significant time in China conducting field research and later joined a consultancy firm focused on global Chinese travel. Coming from a finance background, he puts great emphasis on data and the business of travel.

CONSUMERS

Boutique Hotels on the Rise as China’s Wealthy Splurge on Accommodation

by

Daniel Meesak

|

This is the featured image caption
Credit : This is the featured image credit

Among the biggest trends among China’s luxury travelers is the growing popularity of boutique hotels, according to new research presented by the Hurun Report’s Rupert Hoogewerf at ILTM Asia in Shanghai.

Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.

PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.

In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris

Among the biggest trends among China’s luxury travelers is the growing popularity of boutique hotels, according to new research presented by the Hurun Report’s Rupert Hoogewerf at ILTM Asia in Shanghai.

With 60 percent of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) reporting that they spend over 3,000 RMB (US$441) per night when they stay at hotels, the future looks bright for luxury hotels catering to China’s growing number of high-end travelers. While large luxury chain hotels remain dominant on the list of HNWIs’ preferred accommodation providers, the report finds that HNWIs now increasingly favor boutique hotels—a clear significant shift from the trend just a few years ago.

For wealthy Chinese travelers, The Ritz-Carlton was the most popular hotel group in 2016, followed by the Banyan Tree, the Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Fairmont and the Peninsula. The luxury boutique hotel group Aman also broke into the top 10, and Chinese HNWIs’ favorite boutique hotel brand, Banyan Tree, keeps climbing on the list of hotel brands preferred among luxury travelers. Hilton, while not topping the overall list, still remains the preferred business hotel for survey respondents. Ritz-Carlton, which tops the list, also has the by far most popular membership scheme among overall luxury travelers and millennial luxury travelers alike at 33 percent and 31 percent membership rates respectively. In comparison to airline membership schemes, hotel membership rates remain low among China’s wealthy. Nevertheless, Ritz-Carlton’s jump in membership rates by 19 percent compared to the year prior indicates that there is substantial interest in membership schemes among luxury travelers given the right incentives.

According to the report, the cost-effectiveness of different hotel options remains a relatively unimportant factor when choosing a hotel among survey respondents, with only 15 percent quoting it as a factor that they consider. Instead, personalized service, views, cleanliness, and location are the most important factors influencing hotel choice. In fact, the average nightly hotel budget among high-end travelers has reached record heights, the average nightly spend has reached 3,800 RMB (US$559)—and 32 percent of respondents spend over 5,000 RMB (US$735) per night for their hotel accommodation.

While authentic and unique experiences are highly sought after by China’s luxury travelers, the same applies to a much lesser degree in terms of accommodation. Only 25 percent of HNWIs interviewed for the report had even considered Airbnb-style accommodation options, and instead preferred private boutique hotels and yachts when considering options other than brand hotels. In fact, only 30 percent of respondents said that they have the impression that Airbnb-style rentals allow them to better experience local life—arguably defeating the purpose of rentals for travelers that put little importance on cost-effectiveness.

Instead, boutique hotels seem well-positioned to benefit from Chinese HNWIs’ lust for authentic and unique travel experiences. With accommodation cost of little concern for these travelers, boutique hotels certainly have an exciting future ahead of them in China’s luxury travel market.

Image: Boutique Hotels are growing in popularity among China's wealthiest travelers. (Courtesy Photo)

Article originally posted on Jing Daily

Daniel Meesak
Daniel Meesak

Jing Daily

Daniel spent significant time in China conducting field research and later joined a consultancy firm focused on global Chinese travel. Coming from a finance background, he puts great emphasis on data and the business of travel.

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