China Hotel Industry Study 2026

In Brief: The China Hotel Industry Study 2026, by the China Tourist Hotel Association (CTHA) and Horwath HTL, offers upgraded market analysis, using hotel owners, operators, and financiers detailed insights into supply and efficiency patterns throughout China’s hospitality sector.

The China Hotel Industry Study, collectively released by the China Tourist Hotel Association (CTHA) and Horwath HTL, is a reliable yearly analytical publication on China’s hotel market. Released in 2003, it has actually been released for 24 successive years. In 2026, the research study gathered reactions from 1,321 hotels, covering almost 357,573 guestrooms and more than 437,310 food and drink seats.

The research study supplies thorough insights into hotel operating and monetary efficiency throughout measurements consisting of star score, management design, space rate section, and city tier. It allows hotel operators to benchmark efficiency, recognize strengths and locations for enhancement, and assistance budgeting and functional decision-making. It likewise supplies important market insights for hotel owners, financiers, and market specialists to notify financial investment and possession management choices.

Based upon the worldwide acknowledged Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI), the research study continually lines up with worldwide hotel accounting requirements, supporting the advancement of data-driven practices and benchmarking throughout China’s hotel market.

In 2025, after 2 years of volatility and change, China’s hotel market went into a duration of modest healing, though efficiency continued to diverge throughout sections and markets. On the profits side, spaces as soon as again ended up being the primary motorist of healing. Some tiers and markets, consisting of first-class and four-star hotels, saw both tenancy and rates enhance. The healing in profits and earnings, nevertheless, was unequal. F&B, conferences, and other non-room earnings stayed under pressure. Labor efficiency and channel expenses likewise continued to weigh on margins. The market is for that reason moving beyond a basic demand-led rebound. It is now in a more structural stage of modification, formed by the quality of need, channel technique, non-room profits conversion, and the capability of hotel companies.

While the spaces department saw a general healing, hotel efficiency in 2025 stayed unequal throughout area types, star rankings, placing, and rate bands. Each classification revealed a various pattern of change in earnings, revenue, and spaces yield.

– By Hotel Locations: Market efficiency in 2025 was no longer specified by city tier alone. Location resorts restored momentum after a duration of correction and went back to the top in both overall profits and operating earnings, supported by strong costs on higher-quality leisure stays. Efficiency within first-tier cities was more combined. Shanghai and Shenzhen held up much better, assisted by core service need and higher-spending private tourists. Beijing and Guangzhou dealt with higher pressure from slower service healing, weaker high-value leisure need, and more extreme rate competitors. Second-tier and third-tier cities likewise revealed pockets of strength, particularly in markets with both active tourist and a steady service base. Significantly, a market’s capability to draw in high-value need is ending up being a more vital motorist of efficiency divergence than city-tier labels alone.

– By Star Ratings: Higher-star hotels continued to reveal reasonably more powerful healing capability, although their running quality was not figured out by spaces income alone. Luxury hotels showed the greatest durability, with a clear healing in the spaces department and some enhancement in success. Overall profits per offered space increased less than RevPAR, showing that non-room earnings had not yet completely recuperated. Four-star hotels stayed squeezed by item depth, pricing power, and expense structure. They tape-recorded a moderate healing, however overall earnings enhanced just somewhat. Three-star and limited-service hotels counted on lower rates to support tenancy, while both overall profits and revenue fell greatly. The division divergence seen in 2025 resulted from the combined results of rates power, non-room income efficiency, and expense structure.

– By Room Rate Levels: From the point of view of rate positioning, the K-shaped intake pattern ended up being more apparent in 2025. Hotels with an ADR above RMB1,000 carried out highly on distinguished experiences and a strong high-net-worth client base, with crucial signs continuing to enhance. Hotels priced listed below RMB700 took advantage of resistant important need in the middle of tighter spending plans, causing some healing in chosen earnings and earnings signs. By contrast, hotels in the RMB701– 1,000 variety dealt with double pressure from worth compression by higher-end items and need diversion to lower-priced options, leading to additional efficiency pressure. This usage stratification recommends the market’s competitive focus has actually moved from bring back visitor volume to recording premium profits, with higher-value visitors, item worth, and earnings structure ending up being crucial factors of durability throughout cycles.

View the total China Hotel Industry Study 2026