2025 Domestic Hotel Giants' Financial Reports Review: "One Super" Crowned King, "Three Strong" Fall Behind, No More "Four Major Giants" in the Hotel Industry

Ask AI · Why has Atour’s non-room business become a new growth engine?

Everyday Economic News Reporter: Shudong Ni Everyday Economic Editor: Bi Luming

By 2025, the divide in China’s hotel industry is becoming more pronounced.

Once known as the “Big Four,” Huazhu Group (HK01179), Atour Group (ATAT), Jinjiang Hotels (SH600754), and BTG Hotels (SH600258) no longer advance together—Huazhu leads with revenue of 25.31B yuan and net profit of 5.08 billion yuan, six times the net profit of BTG Hotels and five times that of Jinjiang Hotels. Meanwhile, Jinjiang Hotels’ net profit has fallen below 1 billion yuan, and BTG Hotels is at the bottom with 810 million yuan, with both traditional giants falling behind.

At the same time, Atour, with nearly 10 billion yuan in revenue and over 1.6 billion yuan in net profit, has surged forward, establishing a pattern of “one super, many strong.” As scale accelerates, it becomes harder to profit per store, with three key data points still declining. While the hotel room business faces challenges, pillows and quilts have become new battlegrounds.

“One super, many strong” has become the definitive pattern, with traditional giants accelerating their fall behind

In 2025, Huazhu Group, with revenue of 1.57B yuan and net profit attributable to parent company of 5.08 billion yuan, remains far ahead, the only one among the Big Four with revenue exceeding 20 billion yuan and profit over 5 billion yuan, forming an absolute advantage in scale and profitability, solidifying its “super” position.

Atour Group demonstrated strong growth, with revenue jumping from 1.62B yuan in 2019 to 9.79 billion yuan in 2025, and net profit attributable to parent reaching 550k yuan. Its size and profitability are approaching those of the traditional second-tier companies, making it the biggest variable in the industry landscape.

In 2025, Jinjiang Hotels’ revenue was 13.81 billion yuan, with net profit attributable to parent dropping to about 925 million yuan; BTG Hotels’ revenue slightly declined to 7.61 billion yuan, with net profit only 810 million yuan. Neither has recovered to 2019 levels, widening the gap with Huazhu to several times, with profits falling below 1 billion yuan, clearly “falling behind.”

The hotel industry has been reshaped over the past few years, evolving into a pattern of “one super, many strong, with two poles of polarization.” Huazhu Group leads by a wide margin, Atour Group rises strongly, while Jinjiang Hotels and BTG Hotels lag behind in revenue and profit, with the gap widening. The once “Big Four” no longer advance together.

Scale accelerates, making it harder to profit per store

In recent years, increasing chainization has remained the main theme of the hotel industry. According to the “2025 China Hotel Industry Development Report” released by the China Hotel Association, by the end of 2024, China’s total hotel room count reached 17.6432 million rooms, with a chainization rate of 40.09%. The chainization rates for economy, mid-range, high-end, and luxury hotels were 29.96%, 55.33%, 44.70%, and 57.98%, respectively.

In the process of chain expansion, listed hotel companies are the main players. Huazhu Group, Atour Group, Jinjiang Hotels, and BTG Hotels together account for over 60% of the country’s hotel room count, but the size tiers are already distinct—Jinjiang Hotels and Huazhu each have over 1 million rooms, BTG Hotels has 550k, and Atour has just surpassed 220k. Overall, industry concentration at the top continues to increase. However, behind rapid scale expansion, the contradiction of increasing quantity but weak pricing is becoming more apparent, reflecting a decline in core indicators of per-store operation quality, which is a key bottleneck restricting high-quality industry development. For example, Atour Group’s average daily rate (ADR) in 2025 was 432 yuan, a slight decrease from 437 yuan in 2024; occupancy rate was 75.9%, down significantly from 77.4% the previous year.

Other leading companies are no exception. In 2025, Jinjiang Hotels and BTG Hotels saw varying degrees of decline in average room rates and occupancy rates; Huazhu’s average room rate slightly increased by 0.2% compared to 2024, but occupancy rate dropped by 1.2 percentage points, and RevPAR (revenue per available room) decreased by 1.3%.

Room pressure, bedding “step in” — retail becomes the new battlefield

Facing pressure on the single-store room business, hotel groups in 2025 began to break away from the traditional model of relying solely on room sales for profit, focusing on extending accommodation scenarios and actively expanding non-room businesses.

As one of the earliest hotel groups to deploy new retail, Atour Group’s non-room business, namely retail, performed remarkably well, becoming its core competitive advantage. Financial reports show that in 2025, Atour Group’s retail revenue reached 220k yuan, a substantial increase of 67.0% year-on-year, accounting for nearly 40% of the group’s total revenue, making it the second-largest revenue segment after hotel management. This income mainly comes from extending the hotel experience through product sales, centered on bedding.

Other top hotel groups are also actively exploring non-room business fields. In 2025, Huazhu Group and BTG Hotels both launched new retail bedding businesses. Huazhu introduced its self-developed “Huazhu Hui M3 Memory Pillow” on March 21, World Sleep Day, promoted via its member and supply chain platform “Huazhu Mall”; BTG Hotels launched hotel-style bedding and personal care products on its app “Preferred Mall.” From an industry perspective, the hotel sector is accelerating digital transformation and diversification, with retail and value-added services becoming new growth engines for hotel groups.

Overall, in 2025, China’s hotel industry is steadily progressing amid the contradiction between scale expansion and quality improvement. The weak pricing growth relative to volume increase remains a major feature of the current stage, reflecting the urgent need for industry transformation. The rapid growth of non-room businesses offers a new path for breaking through development bottlenecks, but how to balance scale expansion with per-store profitability and transform non-room businesses from “incremental supplement” to “core pillar” remains a key challenge for leading hotel groups in the future.

Daily Economic News