Home Inns Launches New Brand In China

Chinese budget hotel chain Home Inns intends to develop in the domestic medium- and high-end business hotel market to improve its overall operating profit margin.

David Sun, CEO of Home Inns, told local media that the company will launch a new hotel brand and its first outlet is scheduled to be opened in Shanghai this December.

Unlike Home Inns' budget hotels that target the medium- and low-end business markets, the new brand hotels will be built to four-star levels and will be positioned as business hotels targeting the medium- and high-end business market with rates higher than other Home Inns outlets.

Home Inns' unaudited financial results for the second quarter of 2008 indicated that its net income was CNY7.5 million, compared with CNY22.7 million in the same period in 2007. The overall occupancy rate for the entire Home Inns hotel chain was 88.2% in the second quarter of 2008, compared with 95.2% in the same period in 2007. RevPAR for the second quarter of 2008 was CNY153, compared with RevPAR of CNY174 in the same period in 2007.