Jinjiang Inn and Jinjiang group

Before leaving I stayed at the Jinjiang Inn 锦江之星 near Zhongshan park, so I had an oppertunity to check out the current status of Jinjiang Inn. I stayed in Jinjiang Inn two years ago near Century park at Pudong. Overall I liked the setting, the furniture. It appears to me Jinjiang Inn is more luxurious than Home Inns (Ru jia). But there is one minor problem this time: the windows did not close. When I tried to pull the handle of the window, the handle breaks. Being close to the busy Changning road, I had to bear the traffic noise all night. Over my 3 months stay in Shanghai, we also frequented the Jinjiang Chef restaurant, which is owned by Jinjiang Inn. The food there is good, I think. Because we got a membership card, there usually gave some discount for certain items.

Home Inns Stock HMIN Looks Scary

I mean the stock for the short term, not the hotel. They reported the Q4 2006 and full year results today. Here is the result. It’s good number, but again the current stock price is way ahead of curve. Going forward they are “going to beep up franchise hotels in Beijing and China”, translated in plain English: franchise hotel does not generate much  revenue, the profit margin may not be as good as leased/operated hotel too. They expect a 60% to 70% top line growth for 2007, which is reasonable. But that may not satisfy the lofty expectation from the Street.

Jinjiang Inn Hook up with Expedia

Zhao Huan Yan published his January report for China domestic hotels industry. I am interested to learn some update on the economy chain such as Jinjiang Inns. I noticed Expedia, the leading US online travel consolidator, is establishing partnership with Jinjiang Inn. It seems foreigners can use expedia to book the Jinjiang Inn soon.

(Update 04Feb07) I looked up expedia, it appears you can book many 2.5 stars (and up) hotels in Shanghai right now, some of them are belong to Jinjiang group (such as the famous Peace Hotel in Nanjing Rd Bund). Have not seen Jinjiang Inn (or Jinjiang Stars yet).

I vaguely remember the foreigners make up about 7 to 8% of guests for Jinjiang and Home Inns (Rujia). This includes the foreigners already in China. In other words, I don’t expect Expedia Jinjiang partnership to give Jinjiang Inn a huge leg up in this “foreigners market”.