China’s new wave of budget inns and small hotels are transforming the country’s tourism landscape with a focus on heritage, comfort and style
Powered by online booking sites, hospitality entrepreneurs in China are pioneering a new range of small properties that offer links to the local community and culture that are often missing at large, corporate chains
Until recently, staying at a budget hotel or inn in China was a high-risk venture that would likely involve clouds of acrid cigarette smoke, stained carpets, inedible breakfasts and suspect plumbing. A colleague once told me that in the 1990s, while on a tour of Beijing, the guide asked him as they approached their hotel: “Would you prefer a room with a shower or a window?”
Many seasoned travellers to China still opt for the more upmarket and sanitised comfort of internationally branded business hotels, and for good reason.
Earlier this year, my short stay at the budget Jinsanjiao International Hotel in Zhoushan, in north-eastern Zhejiang province, was enough to trigger disturbing flashbacks several weeks later.
The room came with an overflowing ashtray and curious blood-coloured stains on the bathroom wall. There wasn’t a minibar as such, but the shelf next to the TV was stocked with bottled water, a can of Red Bull energy drink, two packs of playing cards (still in protective cellophane wrap), one container of seafood flavour pot noodle, and three boxes of extra-strength condoms (also in their cellophane wrap).
Judging by the extensive staining to the once cream-coloured rug by the bed, a previous guest had used all these items in one rampant night of in-room entertainment and then performed an oil change on a large motorbike.
These unsavoury experiences are becoming a thing of the past in China as a new generation of hospitality entrepreneurs – powered by online hotel booking sites – pioneer stylish, comfortable inns for those on low to medium budgets, with an emphasis on heritage and individual style.
