Wyndham Hotel Group (WHG), one of the three business units of Wyndham Worldwide, is to expand its presence in China with the addition of eight new Ramada properties in the next two years.
The eight new Ramada properties, which will have a combined capacity of more than 1,500 rooms, will be built in the Chinese cities of Linyi, Liuzhou, Changzhou, Changsha, Suzhou, Wuyishan and Xishuangbanna.
With the addition of the eight new hotels, WHG will own 57 Ramada properties in China, making it the second largest WHG brand in the country after Super 8.
The 133-room Ramada Suzhou Luzhi, the first of the new Ramada hotels, was already opened in November 2012 in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.
Of the remaining properties, Ramada Changzhou in Jiangsu province, Ramada Linyi North in Shandong province, Ramada Plaza Liuzhou Liudong in Guangxi, and Ramada Plaza Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province will open in 2013, while Ramada Plaza Changsha West and Ramada Plaza Changsha Riverside in Hunan province and Ramada Wuyishan in Fujian province will open in 2014.
To develop the hotels in China, WHG has partnered with local developers such as Linyi Mingze Import & Export, Liuzhou Dong Cheng Investment & Development, Changzhou Aoyang Real Estate Development, Hunan Xiangbo Real Estate Development, Suzhou Canfield Hotels, Hunan Wanli Hotel Management, Fujian Wuyishan Sanmu Industrial and Yunnan Jiasheng Hotel Management.
WHG chief operating officer Robert Loewen said the addition of new hotels is part of the company’s continued development within China.
"The lack of quality rooms in many second-tier and third-tier cities provides us with opportunities to further expand our presence," Loewen added.
WHG has a collection of 543 hotels and 67,559 rooms in China under five brands – Wyndham, Ramada, Howard Johnson, Days Inn and Super 8 – making it the largest US-based hotel operator in China.
