Whatever you do, don't call it an "inn."
"A hotel is nicer than an inn," said Harry Tan, with conviction. "When people tell me, 'You've upgraded the Days Inn image in China,' I say, 'I've upgraded the Days image in China.' "
The Singaporean-born Tan and his brother, Ted Fang, are the master franchisees for Days Inn in China. And what they've done with the midrange brand in their sprawling adopted nation would surprise even the most discerning U.S. traveler. Grand marble foyers, beautifully appointed rooms, fine restaurants, even expansive ballrooms grace many of the roughly 60 Days-branded properties in China, most of which eschew the homey "inn" appellation for something altogether grander.
"My Days Hotel is a four-star product," said Tan, CEO of the Frontier Group, the Singapore-based operator of Days Inn China. "My Days Hotel & Suites is five-star."
A five-star Days? Welcome to China, where North American brands take on new and sometimes surprising life and stand to make a tidy sum in the process.
"Growth in the market is exponential," said Tan. "In five years, we have signed 60 projects. The previous guy had two."
But what "the previous guy" apparently didn't have, and what Tan certainly does, is an eye for what Chinese travelers want from their hotels: in short, a recognizable international brand that delivers quality and consistency yet also adds a little Chinese flair, even opulence, for good measure.
"The mentality [in China] has always been that anything that's international is good," said Tan. "It's more consistent. When you go into a McDonald's, everything is the same. When you go into a Holiday Inn, you get a clean room; it's safe."
But Chinese travelers, who make up roughly 80% of Tan's business, expect a little luxury with their consistency, he said. As a result, midrange foreign brands must kick it up a notch if they want to make inroads in the world's most populous nation.
"People want more comfort," said Tan, in "consumer products, food [and] hotels."
A brand-new Days
And comfort is exactly what Tan and his franchisees provide in their Days Inn, Days Hotel and Days Hotel & Suites properties, whose gleaming towers and bountiful amenities render the brand essentially unrecognizable to U.S. travelers.
"We've had local partners who have stories of foreign incentive groups who were told they'd be in a four-star hotel [and] throw a fit when they realize that they're staying in a Days Inn," said Jay Riskind, chairman of BTS Asia, a consolidator of ground travel services in China. "They don't realize that the Days Inn [in China] is probably nicer than the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C."
And while multinational corporations usually go to great lengths to avoid segmenting or diluting their global brand, those rules get tossed out the window in a market as vast as China's. That's because local travelers, not international ones, are the bread and butter of midrange foreign brands like Days Inn in China.
"In Beijing, [international hotel brands] can expect at least 60% foreigners in a reasonable location," said Tan. "But in a second- or third-tier city, you'll be lucky to get even 5%."
It's precisely in these smaller cities -- where a five-star Days Hotel & Suites commands about $50 a night vs. $120 in a major city, according to Tan -- that he and Days' parent company, Wyndham, have been carving out the brand's upscale niche.
"In China, we penetrated the secondary cities before our competitors did," said Sean Worker, Wyndham's managing director and senior vice president of international operations. "So we have a greater breadth than our competitors do."
According to Worker, Wyndham's wildly successful expansion of the Days franchise in China, a staggering 25-fold growth since 2004, lies in both Harry Tan's energy and in the company's willingness to tailor global standards to Chinese tastes.
"If the customer wants a firmer bed in China and a softer bed in Europe, that's what they get," he said. "Not the Wyndham-approved bed, [but] what the customer wants."
And what of the global economic downturn, which is even affecting mighty China? Tan is sanguine about the prospects for Days.
"The Chinese market is big enough for us to survive," he said, noting that even a projected 7.5% growth rate, less than half that of recent years, "is pretty good."
Indeed, Tan predicted that the global economy will lead even more travelers to give the low-cost, high-style Days properties a second look.
Visit www.daysinn.cn/get/en.