Chapter 190: Building a Hotel Alliance

After arriving at the Suzhou Industrial Park, Lin Ruoyan walked around the plots of land that were about to be launched and talked with the head of the local management committee. She still felt that it was possible to consider opening a hotel by the lake.

This area will have many business activities and exhibitions in the future. Domestic businessmen now live in lower-end places, and overseas guests mostly stay in some old four- and five-star hotels in the old city, and visit the Jiangnan gardens in the old city, or the beautiful lakes and mountains in the west.

The landscape construction on the shores of Jinj Lake has not started yet. People can see the lake when they come, but they can only enjoy the scenery on the lakeside.

The conditions here are much better than Zhang Huanyu's hometown, and the key is that there is no need to worry about customer sources. The existing hotel is old and does not actually meet the fast pace and real needs of business guests.

Business travelers, often departing for just one or two days, require a comfortable sleeping environment and may not necessarily spend their daytime hours in a hotel. Consequently, dining, entertainment, and nightlife may be reduced in scope, favoring city hotels. Even if located near a lake, the primary purpose is not leisure, but rather a quiet sleep environment.

Another type of guest is someone who stays here for ten days or half a month, visiting factories, attending exhibitions, negotiating deals, or monitoring project progress. Renting an apartment in the old city or a more established residential area wouldn't make it convenient to come here every day.

To save commuting time, most people settle for budget hotels, renting for a month or ten days. Those hotels don't even have washing machines or refrigerators, and traditional hotel laundry is prohibitively expensive. Renting a private apartment is often a waste of time, and they don't really need much else. They just need to shower, wash clothes, and occasionally cook, and it's a hassle to have no one to clean up after them. Furthermore, residential buildings lack security and other property services, making taxis and parking inconvenient.

Lin Ruoyan often travels on business in the real world and has stayed in various types of hotels. She immediately thought about what type of hotel she wanted to develop here.

She wants to open a high-end business hotel, the kind that can accommodate foreign guests.

This type of hotel requires a small, boutique buffet restaurant, but no large banquet hall. Meetings are possible, but on a small scale. High-maintenance features like spas, hot springs, and swimming pools are omitted, with only a gymnasium equipped with stylish, modern equipment. An adjacent self-service laundry room with integrated washing and drying services is essential. Guests staying for more than ten days can work out, chat, or enjoy a cup of coffee in the adjacent cafeteria-cum-lobby while waiting for their laundry to arrive.

The café, cafeteria, and lobby could all be integrated. The scale and proportions are similar to those of a courtyard-style B&B, with the overall area kept under control. All of the above functions are located on the ground floor. The lobby waiting area doesn't need to be extravagant, and the front desk staff realizes that proficiency in multiple foreign languages ​​is paramount.

From the second floor onwards, all the rooms are guest rooms, about a hundred of them, not standard rooms, but single rooms with double beds.

The guest rooms are all decorated in a standard way, with expensive items in bedding and bathroom. The room must have interfaces for internet and laptop use, and an office countertop. This does not require a very high-end desk or a boss's desk, just a wooden countertop.

LCD TVs were relatively rare back then, so she wanted one that could be connected to a computer and used as an external monitor. The entire room cost as much as a typical business suite, with the money primarily spent on improving sleep quality and work convenience. Rooms don't need to be oversized like five-star hotels; simply add more rooms within the same total floor area.

There are already star-rated high-end hotels in the industrial park. She wants to differentiate herself and become a top-notch new type of business hotel in the country.

Lin Ruoyan had stayed in a hotel like this before, and it was far more comfortable than any standard business-class room. Those traditional hotel rooms had a large TV that they hardly ever watched, a sofa and a coffee table, but no work surface at a suitable height with a power cord or internet connection.

The large bathtub with the shower set is completely useless, and the showerhead is too small and uncomfortable. Her hotel needs a giant showerhead, a full-range shower, a smart toilet, and more. Plus, a mattress that conforms to the body, memory foam pillows, and bedding designed to make it easy to fall asleep right away, so even guests who are particular about their beds can relax instantly.

After finalizing the agreement with the Management Committee, Lin Ruoyan took a hotel plot by the lake. After roughly discussing the price, she agreed and waited for the contract and payment to be signed in the future. This was the new Su City project added to the Southern Region, and Lu Gan would carry out the specific work later.

Cui Xuan accompanied them to the meeting and then stayed in his factory in the park. Lin Ruoyan took the company car back to Hangzhou and shared her ideas on the way. As workers, everyone was of course very much looking forward to the hotel she described.

Traditional hotels, guesthouses, and guesthouses may have adapted to the previous pace of business. But times have changed, demands have changed, and what business travelers want has also changed.

In addition, the design department has actually accumulated a lot of experience in hotel design. When Lin Ruoyan returned to Beijing, she held a telephone conference with the headquarters and the Hangzhou design department, and talked about her ideas about business hotels. Zhao Xingxing immediately thought of an overseas design firm that was very suitable for this project.

Zhao Xingxing said, "That firm is helping us with the boutique hotel project in Country Y. The project there is almost finished, but we can't rush the start of construction. The efficiency is much lower than back home, and the construction period will be at least a year. Mr. Li is also investigating companies that could undertake the construction there."

"Oh, if the work is slow, we can just pay them slowly based on progress. Foreigners are like that, so let it be." Lin Ruoyan had reviewed the cost department's estimated financial statements for Country Y and felt she could allocate several million yuan per month without any problems. She could also consider partnering with a local hotel management company. She specifically called Li Yiqi to discuss this matter, and Li Yiqi was also inspired.

Li Yiqi felt that rather than having to finance the hotel's construction himself, it would be better to find a suitable hotel company from the start. They would provide the property, and the interior decoration could be tailored to the hotel's management needs. They could simply use the property as equity. Doing business overseas without a local company could easily lead to grievances.

Lin Ruoyan knew that Li Yiqi had a good business sense, so she let her do it.

Returning to the domestic hotel situation, she continued, "Xingxing, Mengmeng, do you think it's time to come up with a new set of hotel management methods? We already have three courtyard-style B&Bs, a designer hotel, and boutique hotels about to open in Yicheng and Hangzhou. In the future, there's also Wang Min's hotel in XX New Town, a hotel in Chongl, and the upcoming hotel in the Suzhou Industrial Park. "

Zhao Xingxing smiled and said, "Boss Lin, you're putting me in a difficult position. I only know the ins and outs of hotel design and can tell the functional differences between them. As for management, I'm a complete novice. Boss Hua, please tell me quickly. That idea you mentioned to us during the internal training a few days ago is quite good."

"Mengmeng, if you have any ideas, just tell me." Lin Ruoyan knew that whether she came to work or not, there would be internal training every Friday, and people from different departments would talk about some of their department's projects or share their experiences.

Hua Mengmeng is in charge of the hotel and some external liaison matters. Inspired by Lin Ruoyan a long time ago, she began to conceive the hotel's business empire.

She no longer hid her shortcomings and spoke frankly, "Boss Lin, relying solely on our own hotel and internal memberships won't bring us enough customers. I plan to talk to the heads of other single-building hotels of similar or smaller size about forming a hotel alliance. It might not be appropriate to start with too many categories, and people wouldn't trust us. So, let's divide it into smaller categories, like leisure resorts, B&Bs, business hotels, and urban boutique hotels. We can gather these small groups, connect our customer base, and establish a membership system so that our guests can get discounts when traveling or doing business domestically."

"Then what benefits can we gain as the initiators of membership?" Lin Ruoyan deliberately tested her.