China is obviously a big focal point for a lot of global hotel companies because of its potential market. For the hoteliers, focusing on growing their mobile presence is a better way.

Hotel companies are focusing on growing their portfolios in China. They better also be focused on growing their mobile presence in the country.

Home to nearly 1.4 billion people, China is obviously a big focal point for a lot of global hotel companies. Most recently, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced plans to open four resorts on Hainan Island during the next five years.

Further, Hong Kong-based Shangri-La last month introduced a new hotel brand—Hotel Jen—that will launch in 10 Asia/Pacific cities by March 2015, including properties in Beijing and Shenyang.

There’s a big shift happening in the Chinese hotel market, however, and if hotel operators aren’t paying attention their efforts to capture the Chinese guest could fail. That was the takeaway from a recent, interesting PhoCusWright webinar that I’m going to go ahead and assume a lot of you Western Hemisphere-ers missed because it was held at 11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (also known as correct time). Thankfully, the good people at PhoCusWright had the good sense to record this webinar to allow those of us living in correct time to listen during a less un-godly hour.

It was definitely worth a listen, as PhoCusWright analyst Maggie Rauch laid out the dynamics of an ever-evolving hotel distribution scene in China. She said hotel consumers in the country are moving away from offline and desktop hotel bookings for the first time and are now increasingly booking via mobile and utilizing review sites.

Mobile bookings in China saw a total volume of $658 million in 2012, but that total is expected to climb to $2 billion in 2016. More than a quarter of bookings were mobile-based in 2013, and that number is forecast to shoot up to 40% by 2016. To put those numbers in context, Rauch said China is home to a $32.1-billion total hotel market, which grew by 6.9% year over year.

“No market this big is expanding this fast,” she said.

And mobile is a big part of this growth.

“They’re still in the offline-to-online transition, but that transition is happening incredibly fast,” she said during the webinar titled “The role of traveler reviews and social media in China’s online travel landscape.”

She added, “As Chinese consumers travel more, they are increasingly mobile-enabled.”

As a result, third-party booking sites are investing heavily in their own systems and also making travel reviews a focal point of their sites. Rauch said 80% of Chinese travelers reference travel reviews for their trips, while 70% reference travel photos during the planning stage. 

In a study PhoCusWright completed with Brand Karma, they found that monthly review volume increased nearly fourfold from 20,000 reviews to 80,000 reviews between 2012 and 2013. “It has been on a tear,” Rauch said.

So what’s the takeaway here? In my mind, it’s that if a developer wants to make a move into China, that developer better ensure, just like with markets across the rest of the globe, that mobile is more than just an afterthought. And as the importance of travel reviews continues to grow, it might not be the worst idea to incorporate the capability to leave reviews on the hotel company’s mobile site.