Chinese travel website Qunar recently formed an alliance with high-end hotel groups to further tap into China's premium market, gunning for market leader Ctrip, according to the 21st Century Business Herald.
"In 2015, Qunar seeks to become the No. 1 in all segments in the hotel market and the key focus is on high-end starred hotels," said Qunar CEO Zhuang Chenchao in a company statement on the launch of the hotel alliance in late January.
Qunar created the alliance with 22 of the world 's premium high-end hotel groups, which include Wyndham, Club Med, Banyan Tree, Howard Johnson and Millennium, according to the travel website, in which China's top search engine, Baidu, is a major shareholder.
The alliance, Zhuang said, will combine the edge of his company and these premium hotels and help build an ecology catering to high-end travel.
Qunar's edge, according to the newspaper, is the user data it has collected from the daily sales of 250,000 flight tickets, which accounted for 20% of total flights tickets sold in China.
The company claims that the website has been China's largest sales platform for flight tickets since 2013, and such a position, along with a feauture found on th e website that recommends hotel options for users that buy flight tickets, are appealing to hotels.
Premium hotels, which have seen a surge in the number of properties in China, are facing pressure to improve their occupancy rates, while four- and five-star hotels have posted a rapid drop in the daily net profits per room, the newspaper said.
In 2013, China's 11,687 starred hotels posted a net loss of 2.1 billion yuan (US$334.5 million), another across-the-sector loss since the 2008 global financial crisis, the newspaper added.
Qunar's expansion in the premium hotel market, the newspaper said, comes after the website achieved substantial growth in the medium- to lower-end hotel market.
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According to Qunar, it offers more hotels in hundreds of cities in China than its main rival, the daily deal site Meituan.
The newspaper said that Qunar is without doubt targeting the market leader Ctrip in the more lucrative premium hotel market.
Source: Want China Times
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