Can small-scale hotels get rich quickly by leveraging "content"?
Recently, from Hongtang on Gulangyu Island and Fanyun Xixi, which joined the Design Hotels system, to Tanjiaxi Lane in Wuzhen signed by Brett Hotels, and then to Zuwang Forest in Qingcheng Mountain, these hotels generally stay in the small - scale range, but have high investment and high pricing, and are entering the vision of international brands, large groups, and capital more and more frequently. They are neither like standard chain hotels nor traditional homestays. Instead, they are more like a type of "content - driven hotels" whose value is driven by content, venue, and experience. How do they survive, and why do they continuously attract international groups, real - estate developers, and asset management parties to get involved?
More and more "content - driven hotels"
In the recent dynamics of new openings, signings, and brand collaborations in the hotel industry, Space Detective has found a batch of "small - room - quantity" hotels.
For example, Hongtang Hotel on Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, which recently joined the Design Hotels system, only has 13 guest rooms. Fanyun Xixi Hotel in Hangzhou, which joined the system during the same period, also has only 38 guest rooms. Subsequently, Brett Hotels Group signed a contract for the Tanjiaxi Lane Natural and Cultural Village project in Wuzhen, and the project scale is also small, with a total of 40 guest rooms.
Looking further back, in April this year, Zuwang Forest Hotel in Qingcheng Mountain joined the system of the French Parfois Hotels Group. The project only has 30 guest rooms, but it has built a complete experience system around healing, Zen, and Taoist philosophy. Luoyang Longmen Shouyan Hotel, located in the Longmen Grottoes scenic area, has a total of 49 guest rooms. However, what the project really emphasizes is not the accommodation scale, but the Tang - culture scene, immersive drama, and cultural experience content.
Among the new projects of Wanda Hotels & Resorts in the first quarter of this year, Xi'an Bell Tower Linkano Wanda Yihua Mansion has 34 guest rooms, Baoshan Wanda Mercure Courtyard · Ancient Road Private Hot Spring only has 29 guest rooms, and the signed Wutai Mountain Wanda Yuehua Hotel also has only 46 guest rooms.
If we continue to look back, projects with small scale, high positioning, heavy design, and strong content have actually been emerging in the industry in the past few years. Many projects under Vanke's Youxiong Hotel, the Songzan system, more and more mountain resorts, historical building revitalization projects, and local - culture hotels generally have 20 to 50 guest rooms. Take the newly opened Songzan Nailang Mountain Lodge this year as an example. The whole project only has 20 guest rooms. Even Songzan's largest - scale project at present, Kunming Linka, only has 53 guest rooms.
The traditional "boutique hotels" are difficult to fully cover this type of project, because "boutique" mainly refers to the aesthetic style and product tone, but cannot explain the value logic behind it. In contrast, a more accurate description may be "content - driven hotels".
The so - called content - driven hotels are not just hotel products with stronger design or richer experiences. They are a type of hotel model that takes content density rather than room quantity scale as the core competitiveness. In these projects, accommodation itself is just an entry point. What really constitutes the core of the product is the overall experience system centered around the destination, including the natural environment, cultural narrative, lifestyle expression, and the organization of emotional value. Such as the historical buildings on Gulangyu Island, the cultural villages in Wuzhen, and the cultural immersion in Longmen Grottoes... Hotels are gradually shifting from "providing a space with a bed" to "providing a content structure that can be experienced".
Who is driving the growth of "content - driven hotels"
In fact, most of the brands that have attracted industry attention in recent years, such as Jixiaoshan, Wuyulan, Xishang, and Puyan, belong to "content - driven hotels". Why have there been more and more content - driven hotels with low room quantity, high investment, and high operational complexity in recent years? The answer may not be single. Space Detective believes that there are three industry logics that are being strengthened simultaneously behind this.
Firstly, content - driven hotels cover the property areas that neither chain hotels nor homestays can cover. From the most basic industry definition, hotels with more than 14 guest rooms can be recognized as hotels. This standard is already very broad, which can accommodate large - scale chains and small - scale boutique projects. However, the core of chain hotels is standardized replication, obtaining efficiency advantages through unified product models, unified service processes, and scale expansion. Homestays are more like decentralized operations, centered around individual assets, emphasizing flexibility and low - cost operations.
However, spaces such as mountains, villages, ancient buildings, blocks, islands, nature reserves, and historical buildings are naturally non - standard, with many restrictions and non - replicability. But they naturally carry strong venue value and content value, and are difficult to be incorporated into the product modules of chain hotels. The cases that have appeared frequently recently are essentially answering this question. For example, the former site of Hongtang Hotel on Gulangyu Island in Xiamen was a Christian "preaching hall", used as a place for community family gatherings, and it is difficult to turn it into a standard hotel. Fanyun Xixi Hotel in Hangzhou is embedded in the original ecological texture of Xixi Wetland, and how to coexist with nature is also a problem.
Under this logic, hotel development is no longer "building products from scratch", but more like a space translation job, transforming architectural memories, natural environments, and historical information into content products that can be experienced and consumed. Therefore, content - driven hotels have become a practical outlet for a special type of property. It is different from the scale logic of chain hotels and beyond the ability boundary of traditional homestays, but creates a new solution between the two.
The second driving force comes from the continuous growth of the demand for urban renewal and the activation and protection of cultural relics. In recent years, against the background of urban renewal, a large number of historical buildings, historical blocks, cultural heritages, and stock spaces have entered the stage of activation and utilization. However, the problem is that cultural - protection spaces cannot be left vacant, and commercial development cannot be carried out through rough transformation. How to find a balance between protection and operation has always been a difficult problem.
Content - driven hotels have become one of the few commercial models that can simultaneously take into account long - term operation, cultural expression, and space protection. For example, Xishang · Hupao 1934 Hotel in Hangzhou was originally a summer villa for Catholic priests built in 1934. After renovation, it retains a small number of guest rooms, and every space responds to the historical memory of the Republican - era architecture. Guandu Mansion · Songyang Wenli integrates two provincial - level cultural - protection buildings, the Confucian Temple and the City God Temple, and many historical heritages into the project system. The building itself is an irreplaceable cultural asset, and the number of guest rooms naturally conforms to the pattern of cultural protection.
In addition, it is worth noting that it is no longer just designers and niche brands that are promoting the increase of "content - driven hotel" projects. Large groups, real - estate developers, and asset management parties have also begun to get involved actively. For them, the value of content - driven hotels is far more than the operating income of a single hotel. The traditional hotel asset management logic focuses on space efficiency, such as RevPAR, floor - space efficiency, and GOP rate, and ultimately measures the hotel's cash - flow ability. However, content - driven hotels have opened up another path: hotels are no longer just operating assets, but can also become brand - narrative tools, asset - value amplifiers, and display windows for urban - operation capabilities.
Youxiong Hotel under Vanke is a typical case. From Changyuan Garden in Suzhou to Nantou Ancient City in Shenzhen, and then to Yantai Mountain in Fuzhou, Youxiong has almost exclusively entered urban - renewal properties, with the number of rooms never exceeding dozens. From the perspective of the financial performance of a single store, they are difficult to compete with traditional large - scale hotels. However, for Vanke, Youxiong has never only borne the profit task, but is a strategic expression of "cultural - operation capabilities". A successful Youxiong project can serve as an endorsement of Vanke's capabilities in urban renewal, cooperation with the government, and the operation of stock assets.
Brett's signing of the Tanjiaxi Lane project in Wuzhen also has a similar logic. Being able to operate the non - standard village - type assets in the core area of Wuzhen itself proves its ability to operate complex cultural projects to local governments, the cultural and tourism industry, and asset parties. And the value of this ability is far more than the profit and loss of a single store with 40 guest rooms.
In this sense, the increasing number of content - driven hotels does not mean that the industry suddenly starts to favor "small - room - quantity" hotels. Instead, it is because they just fill the middle area where chain hotels cannot do the job, homestays cannot go deep, and non - standard assets need an outlet.
Can these small - scale, high - investment hotels make money?
For the hotel industry, "content - driven hotels" have a small number of rooms, but the costs of design, landscape, renovation, operation, and human resources may not be low, and may even be higher than those of ordinary high - end hotels. How do these hotels calculate their accounts? Are they just "losing money to gain popularity"?
Firstly, room revenue is the most basic cash - flow source for content - driven hotels, but its pricing logic is completely different from that of traditional hotels. The room rate of traditional hotels is determined by "location + hardware star - rating + market supply and demand", while the room rate of content - driven hotels is determined by "the uniqueness of content + the recognizability of service". According to the publicly available data on OTA platforms and hotel official websites, the pricing of these hotels is generally significantly higher than that of traditional high - end hotels in the same area.
For Hongtang Hotel on Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, the listed price of the basic room type on weekdays is stable in the range of 1,300 to 1,500 yuan per night, and it rises more significantly during holidays and peak seasons. During the same period, the average price of most boutique hotels on Gulangyu Island is between 600 and 1,000 yuan per night, and the pricing of Hongtang is about 2 to 3 times that of its competitors in the same location. Jixiaoshan · Meili, located in Wunongding Village, Deqin, Yunnan, facing Meili Snow Mountain, has its snow - mountain view rooms priced stably between 3,000 and 5,000 yuan per night during the peak season from October to March of the following year. For reference, the average accommodation price in Deqin County and around Feilai Temple is usually in the range of 300 to 800 yuan. The price of Jixiaoshan is several times that of the surrounding market.
As mentioned above, the 20 - room Songzan Nailang Mountain Lodge has a recent room price of 1,880 yuan per night. For the 53 - room Songzan Kunming Linka, the basic room type is basically priced between 2,400 and 2,600 yuan per night, and the price soars to 4,000 yuan per night from July to August in the summer. The average price of international five - star hotels in Kunming urban area is usually in the range of 800 to 1,600 yuan.
It can be said that content - driven hotels are not selling the price of "accommodation function", but the price of scarce space, destination content, and experience value. More importantly, there are indeed people in the market willing to pay. During the best viewing season of the "Sunshine on the Golden Mountain" at Jixiaoshan · Meili, the view rooms are often shown as sold out or with only a small amount of inventory on multiple platforms, and many guests need to make reservations weeks or even months in advance. The core - node hotels of the Songzan system in Meili, Laigu, Shangri - La, etc. also maintain a tight situation during the peak season for a long time. The official even directly suggests that some room types should be booked 60 days in advance. Compared with the traditional logic of "full occupancy means victory", content - driven hotels are closer to a luxury - vacation approach, that is, controlling the reception scale, maintaining the purity of the customer group, and amplifying the value of each customer.
The second ability that truly supports the establishment of content - driven hotels is the space - reuse ability. More precisely, although the number of rooms is small, the functions are not reduced, and they are better at making the space generate income repeatedly. In other words, these hotels often seem "small", but actually "have all the necessary organs". The same physical space can host a variety of content activities within a day, and each switch creates a new income opportunity.
Take Hongtang Hotel on Gulangyu Island in Xiamen as an example. This "preaching - hall" courtyard can be the venue for cultural and artistic activities such as music performances, poetry recitations, and healing tours. It is also a "love auditorium" for couples, a good place for various team - building parties, and a carrier for theme dining tables such as seasonal family feasts, natural tables, seasonal dinners, and fusion cuisine. According to the public information on the hotel's official channels, the afternoon tea in the hotel courtyard is priced at 138 yuan per person, the theme - table customization starts at 499 yuan per person, and the wedding - table starts at 799 yuan per person. The "Overseas Chinese Style and Fujian Flavors, Gulangyu Hot Pot" package launched during the Spring Festival costs 498 yuan for a 2 - person meal and 998 yuan for a 4 - person meal.
Calculated at this price, a 4 - person theme private dinner can contribute 2,000 yuan during the dinner period, which has exceeded the room revenue of the hotel's basic room type for one night. For a 20 - person wedding private dinner, calculated from 799 yuan per person, the single - event income is about 16,000 yuan. And Hongtang only has 13 guest rooms in total. Calculated at the average price of 1,500 yuan for the basic room type, the upper limit of the all - day room revenue is only 19,500 yuan. A dinner in the courtyard is almost equal to the all - day room revenue of the whole hotel.
In some cases, the income from a single wedding event can even cover the room revenue for several days to weeks. The hotel itself is rented as a "scene asset" rather than a simple accommodation facility. Weddings, proposals, private dinners with the whole venue rented, brand launches, community activities, small - scale corporate team - building, and high - end parties are becoming more and more important income sources for these hotels.
The third - layer income comes from the productization of experiences, which is also the most obvious dividing line between content - driven hotels and traditional hotels. In the past, experiences were just accommodation accessories. Now, experiences themselves have begun to become independent commodities. For example, Wuyulan Design Hotel in Yunnan will launch "Forest Mushroom Picking" and "Wenhai Mushroom Picking" packages after the local rainy season. There will be professional guides for explanations, and guests can visit on the way and taste mushroom delicacies after picking. Jixiaoshan recently launched a small - group tour activity called "Searching for Beauty in Northern Shanxi, Stories of the Silk Road", inviting the author of Lonely Planet and local cultural scholars to lead the team. Guests can feel the beauty of Datong along places such as Ying County, Hunyuan County, and Dai County, and the price starts at 14,888 yuan per person.
While these experience products increase the hotel's income, they also strengthen the connection with the membership community. For many guests, the consumption path in content - driven hotels is no longer the "room rate + breakfast" model. Experience fees, activity fees, destination - content consumption, membership activities, local courses, catering, and community consumption are gradually becoming new income sources.
In this sense, the profit - making logic of content - driven hotels has shown an obvious divergence from that of traditional hotels. They still need room revenue, but what really supports their establishment is more and more the superposition of three abilities: high - premium room ability, space - reuse ability, and experience - productization ability. Therefore, on the surface, these projects seem to be running hotels, but at the bottom, they are more and more like a "content business", selling rooms, spaces, stays, relationships, a night's accommodation, and a lifestyle that is willing to be consumed repeatedly.
Is "content - driven hotels" a new trend?
Previously, we talked about the concept, causes, and profit - making model of "content - driven hotels", which seems to point to an optimistic conclusion: content - driven hotels have their own new business logic under the constraint of small scale through content premium, space reuse, and experience productization. So, is "content - driven hotels" a good track? Will it become the new mainstream in the hotel industry?
Space Detective believes that the answer may be no. On the one hand, it naturally has a "scalability paradox". The core ability of traditional chain hotels is replication. After a product model is established, it can quickly enter different cities, different properties, and different investment systems. However, content - driven hotels are just the opposite. Their value is based on non - replicability.
Taking Jixiaoshan as an example again, the reason