Starting from Dec 1, 2011 Crowne Plaza Sanya has been officially renamed as Huayu Resort & Spa Yalong Bay Sanya, now managed by the property owner itself, Sanya Huayu Tourism Development Co., Ltd., who took over the management right earlier on Aug 30 by terminating its management contract with InterContinental Hotels Group, the famed international hotel management brand.

Statistics show that during its six-year management of the hotel, InterContinental Hotels Group has not for a single year achieved the contracted operating performance, generating business profits far less than those agreed upon by the two sides in the management contract, let alone further losing the hotel owner's trust by tampering with the annual report submitted to the owner in order to cover up its poor performance, though later found out by yet having caused irretrievable loss to the owner.

The past decade witnessed the rapid development of the hotel industry in China, especially in Sanya, China's only tropical resort, with various hotels and resorts mushrooming. With China becoming increasingly prominent in the international community, more and more people are traveling to China to experience the Chinese culture, feel its fast development, or just have vacations, making China a key market for the hotel business, the boom of which reciprocally benefit the tourism industry.

Meanwhile China's vast territory and abundant business opportunities prompted many world-famous international hotel management brands to throng into and compete in the Chinese hotel market. By now 66 world-renowned luxury hotel brands including InterContinental, Hilton, Marriott, Kempinski and Shangri-la have all entered the Chinese market. The rapid expansion of international brands resulted in that 80% of China's hotel business profits is generated by those 20% high-star hotels, among which again 80% are managed by foreign brands.

Fairly speaking, the international hotel management groups played a pivotal role in the early stage at the rise of China's hotel industry. In the process of conquering the Chinese hotel market by virtue of their popularity and reputation, international brands also face serious shortage of management personnel. It's been a common phenomenon that the key management positions might be kept vacant for a long term in hotels manged by foreign brands. Lack of management staff means their incompetence to sign management contracts with more property owners. However, none of those international brands is willing to slow down their expansion in the Chinese market in order to ensure their service quality. So in spite of such a severe problem, they still signed the contract, but more or less failed to achieve their claimed operating performance. Why is that equipped with first class hardware facilities and managed by the same world-famed international brands, the hotels and resorts in China often receives far more complaints than those overseas? Isn't it thought provoking?