Remember that post where I said Asian Governments and businesses were more focused on attracting foreign investment and tourism than their Western counterparts?
Well it’s pleasing to see that Starwood and Hilton hotels have finally got off their arses and evolved their offering so that they actively appeal to Asian guests rather than continually expecting them to adapt to Western tastes and habits.
Despite the major step in the right direction, I do find it tragically amusing that Starwood Chief Executive, Frits van Paasschen, said:
“I know how daunting it is to step into a country for the first time so we want to make sure that when Chinese travellers go outside of China for the first time, whether for business of pleasure, that they are as comfortable as possible.”
So I assume for the previous 25 odd years, neither Starwood or Hilton gave a flying fuck about making their Chinese guests feel comfortable when outside of their home country.
There is a major issue they’re missing …
In many cases, Chinese hotel guests – especially those traveling for business – actively choose to not stay in an expensive international hotel.
They may eat or meet people there, but in terms of where they choose to stay, there are some fundamental differences in what they look for.
A while ago, I did some work on the differences between Western and Chinese business travelers and what we found was …
| WEST | EAST |
| Grandeur | Comfort |
| Social | Practical |
| “Deserve It” | “Earn It” |
| Their Money | My Money |
| Work, Rest & Play | Work & Rest |
| International Food | Local Food |
| Indulgence | Purposeful |
| Rest Stop | Pit Stop |
Of course, not everyone thinks/acts this way – however there was some data we got our hands on, that showed the average Chinese business traveler valued very different things to the average Western business traveller and almost universally, international hotels were not catered to these requirements.
[International hotels tended to base their ‘Asian credentials’ on an aesthetic or a cuisine choice rather than appreciating what many really valued and were willing to spend their money on]
Saying that, I think it was a smart move for Starwood to temporarily move its headquarters to Shanghai for a month [though if I strip away the PR hype, I assume what they really did was send some of their Head Office people to their Shanghai office for a month] though I still stand by my view that more companies should be globally located in this part of the World because they know way more about the West than the West know about Asia.