Billionaire Chen Miaolin"s outfit is the biggest homegrown private operator in the four-stars-or-above niche. State-owned Jinjiang Hotels is still larger, but with 40-plus inns across the country, New Century, based in Hangzhou, can be more targeted and nimble.

　　Chinese luxury travelers, an increasing lot who go abroad but still mostly crisscross the mainland, need places to stay. In the top-tier cities they can choose among foreign hotel brands if desired, but in China’s smaller metropolises, the picks are more likely to be domestic. New Century Tourism Group aims to be their default selection.

　　Billionaire Chen Miaolin‘s outfit is the biggest homegrown private operator in the four-stars-or-above niche. State-owned Jinjiang Hotels is still larger, but with 40-plus inns across the country, New Century, based in Hangzhou, can be more targeted and nimble. It also brings to bear complementary Chen arms in real estate, property management, travel agency, construction materials and cleaning.

　　“We grew up in the China market, so we know our audience,” says the 60-year-old founder and chairman, who retains about 60% ownership after awarding shares to management. Last year the whole group’s revenue rose 19% to $1.2 billion.

　　And how does New Century attract these affluent customers, sometimes away from the multinational hotels with which it competes directly? The first secret is the stomach.

　　A Chinese clientele is certainly choosier about Chinese food. New Century trains its own chefs and stages yearly contests among them to perfect skills and create new cuisines. Many of its hotels, not just one outside of Shanghai but in Kaifeng, Henan Province and Changchun, Jilin Province, added wild herb specials on the menu this spring. That’s a lure to the growing number of Chinese who prefer to eat organically. Its restaurants also hire performers to serve dishes, transforming the process into a show like Teaism.

　　The dining area in Chen’s hotels includes more private rooms than restaurants in most international chains?”because most Chinese prefer dining in an intimate, closed space,” Chen points out. “Westerners usually don’t mind sitting in the hall.”

　　Thanks to these measures, restaurants bring in 60% of the group’s hotel-operation revenue. By contrast, food and beverages brought in 44% of Shangri-La’s $1.9 billion global hotel operation sales last year, when it achieved $853 million sales in mainland China from 31 self-owned hotels.