Touch of authentic Beijing

Deng Yuanming, general manager of Jianguo Hotel Beijing, leads the hotel for its 30th anniversary. Provided to China Daily

Zhang Zhao reports that the joint venture pioneer Jianguo Hotel is celebrating three decades of international clientele. 

The first joint-venture hotel on the Chinese mainland, Jianguo Hotel Beijing is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. 

Not a towering skyscraper, the Jianguo has a more human scale of low-profile buildings and surrounding gardens that create a quiet and cozy atmosphere in the heart of the bustling central business district of Beijing. 

The hotel caters to international business customers and has earned a well-recognized brand image over the past three decades for its top services, said Deng Yuanming, the hotel's general manager. The average occupancy rate last year was about 75 percent. 

"We are not the earliest hotel in Beijing, but we are one of the first explorers at the early stage of the reform and opening-up to find out how Chinese hotel management come up to international standards," said Deng. 

A subsidiary of the State-owned Beijing Tourism Group, the hotel is fostering a globally known hotel brand from China featuring a service concept proposed by BTG Chairman Duan Qiang. 

"The concept 'Chinese Service' means to combine world-class standards with local characteristics, to provide service that is worth more than what the customers pay," explained Deng. 

Blending traditional Chinese management and Western ideas, Jianguo Hotel has developed a corporate culture that advances with the times, he said. It also has a team of employees "who keep learning new things and accepting innovative concepts". 

Jianguo Hotel also uses an e-business model, said the general manager. Along with room booking functions, the hotel website in both Chinese and English offers real-time updated news and promotional information. 

With the Beijing property as the flagship, about 70 Jianguo Hotels have now opened nationwide in major cities including Wuhan, Xi'an, Nanjing and Guangzhou. 

Deng said his hotel has benefited from membership in Worldhotels, an international association of independent hotels, because it found a platform to promote itself and better understand the global market to adapt to today's challenges. 

"It offers global customers another way to book our hotel, and provides the latest information and advanced marketing strategies for us," he said. 

The global economic crisis in 2009 hit the hotel hard, but business has improved since 2010, the general manager noted. He expects the hotel's sales revenue to clear the 150 million yuan ($23.8 million) threshold in two years, matching its pre-crisis peak in 2007. 

In addition to increasing revenue, the hotel also aims to improve its business catering with a redesign of conference and banquet facilities to meet the increasing needs of customers, Deng said. 

It also plans more marketing efforts in Europe and the US markets, according to the hotel's mid-term plan. 

"Our ultimate vision is to build China's home-developed brand of international fame and influence," said Deng. "This long-term target can't be achieved in three or five years - it requires so much hard work." 

Contact the writer at zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn 

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