Star Rating System

More than 5,200 hotels in China accommodate foreign visitors, with a total of 700,000 guest rooms and 1.41 million beds. These hotels are rated according to established international star-rating standards. By the end of 1997, there were 2,724 star-rated hotels in the country, including 57 five-star hotels, 157 four-star hotels, 895 three-star hotels, 1,339 two star hotels and 276 one-star hotels. In other words, more than half of China's hotels open to foreigners have been star rated.

These tourist hotels, star-rated ones in particular, bear the brunt of the flow of foreign visitors to China, providing them with food, lodging and many other services according to international standards.

No star hotels are exist in remote areas or small villages, the guests house or family Inn will always be equipped with clean bed, AC room, private bathroom with hot water shower. Limited English may be available at the reception desk but it is unlikely that any other employees will speak any English.

One-star hotels are equipped simply with dining facilities and other basic accommodations that are meant to satisfy travelers' basic needs.

Two-star hotels are usually built with a store, post office, barber shop, and other amenities in addition to guest rooms and dining rooms.

Three-star hotel rooms are always equipped with an air-conditioner, color TV, refrigerator, telephone, double curtain and a private bathroom. Hot and cold water is available 24 hours a day and internet access may be available except in remote areas or cities like Lhasa. And they are also have restaurants, bar and coffee services, banquet halls, conference rooms, ballrooms and laundry facilities. Some of the staff can speak basic, everyday English while other may be able to speak only Chinese.

Four or five-star hotels are luxury properties with spacious, soundproof rooms; large lobbies; health clubs; business centers; 24-hour room service and excellent Chinese and western food. And they are also equipped with swimming pools, bowl golf courses, saunas, safety-deposit boxes, as well as facilities for fishing, boating, horseback riding, hunting, sharp shooting and other sports.

Ownership Status
Additionally, hotels are sometimes grouped by ownership status:
State-owned: those hotels owned by the Chinese state.
Collective: those hotels owned most often by agricultural, industrial and business collectives. These are often rurally based.
Private: these are few in number and represent nascent entrepreneurism in the hotel industry by Chinese investors.
Pooling: these are hotels featuring mixed ownership structures usually through Chinese interests.
Shareholding: Again, as with pooling above, these are usually hotels featuring a mixture of interests - both Chinese and foreign.
Foreign invested: these are invariably owned and/or managed by the international chains in conjunction with overseas property developers/investors. Foreign in this context is taken to mean any overseas involvement excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwanese invested: these establishments are usually upmarket hotels with investment from overseas Chinese (overseas Chinese are subject to slightly different visa, investment and other regulations in China).

Upmarket, Mid-range and Budget Hotels

Upmarket hotels can be found in all the major cities and a growing number of provincial towns and include the vast majority of the foreign funded hotels in China. In general they usually conform to four or five star international status and have, or have had, foreign management. Upmarket hotels in China invariably have international business centers, money changing facilities, conference facilities and a range of restaurants.

Mid-range hotels are often those built by local developers, or less well-known foreign investors, that invariably have pretensions to upmarket status. Room rates tend to be below RMB300 and restaurant facilities are less western-oriented. Indeed, these hotels are usually targeted at the growing Chinese business community and Asian travelers.

Budget hotels are almost unknown in China and there has not yet been the expansion in low priced accommodation seen in countries such as the UK and the USA. Therefore budget hotel in China invariably indicates cheap and poor quality. Most are not available to foreigners and English is intermittently spoken. Plumbing is notoriously faulty, lifts slow and restaurants poor quality if attached. They tend to be located near railway stations or, in the case of Beijing and Shanghai, in the suburbs.