"Supercar-Style" Hotel Opens in County Town: What to Expect

Lamborghini Hotels has been in China for 14 years. What is its development prospect?

Recently, in Ningguo, Anhui, a hotel signing ceremony has caught the attention of many in the industry. The Tonino Lamborghini Hotel has officially landed in Ningguo. Half a year ago, Ningguo welcomed its first international brand hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn. Half a year later, it has jumped directly to a luxury hotel brand with the "super - car" halo. Why did a county - level city sign a deal with the Lamborghini Hotel? And for this super - car hotel brand that has been in China for more than a decade, the number of opened projects is countable. Is Ningguo its new starting point or just another lively signing? < h2 > Lamborghini Drives into a Small City in Southern Anhui < / h2 > After the news spread, what first sparked discussions was not the hotel itself, but the location. Ningguo, a county - level city under the jurisdiction of Xuancheng, is not a frequently mentioned name in the national hotel map. Compared with popular destinations like Huangshan, Anji, and Moganshan, Ningguo doesn't have a very strong presence. Many people know it because of the increasingly popular self - driving route of the "Southern Anhui Tibetan Highway" in recent years. Just half a year ago, this county just welcomed its first international brand hotel, the opening of the Ningguo Hilton Garden Inn. From "having an international brand hotel for the first time" to signing a deal with an international luxury hotel, it's been less than half a year. What's more special is that the hotel signed this time is the Lamborghini Hotel. In the past more than a decade, this name hasn't appeared frequently in the Chinese hotel market. And Ningguo is a rare county - level city project at present. In terms of the landing mode, this is also different from the past. In the early days, Lamborghini hotel projects were more often tied to real - estate development, usually serving as high - end supporting facilities in real - estate projects. However, the Ningguo project involves local state - owned enterprises and introduces professional operators, with less real - estate flavor. The combination of a county, a super - car brand, and a hotel brand that hasn't expanded frequently in the past seems a bit unexpected. Half a year ago, the Hilton Garden Inn opened, which was the first time an international hotel brand was truly introduced to the local area. Before that, the accommodation market in Ningguo mainly consisted of local business hotels and small - and medium - sized homestays. When you open an OTA platform, you'll find that the prices of hotels in Ningguo are not high. In the urban area, the prices of mainstream business hotels are mostly around 300 yuan, and they will increase during holidays. There aren't many hotels that can truly undertake business receptions, family vacations, and mid - to high - end consumption. With the continuous popularity of the "Southern Anhui Tibetan Highway", an obvious change in Ningguo's tourism is that more people are coming, but they don't stay long. Many tourists from the Yangtze River Delta, especially self - driving tourists from Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, regard Ningguo as a stop on their surrounding tours. They drive in the mountains during the day, visit places like Chujia Beach, Qinglong Bay, and Banqiao Nature Reserve, and then return directly at night or stay in nearby homestays. Judging from Ningguo's actions in recent years, it is obviously not satisfied with "passing - by tourism". In recent years, Ningguo has been improving its hotel industry. In addition to starting to introduce international hotels, the local area is also promoting hot - spring resorts, health - care projects, and a cluster of high - quality homestays. In the past two years, there have been more and more tourists in Ningguo, but there aren't many accommodations that can provide high - quality vacation experiences. For many Yangtze River Delta tourists, this place is more like somewhere to "visit for a day and leave". The Hilton Garden Inn fills the gap in standardized mid - to high - end business hotels, but for some vacationers, it is still more "functional". At this time, the role of the Lamborghini Hotel is different. According to the public plan, the Ningguo project is not a traditional business hotel, but more of a vacation - type product. Especially in the surrounding - tour market, a hotel can sometimes become part of the destination itself. For example, some people go to Moganshan for the homestays, to Anji for the vacation hotels. In the past, Ningguo lacked such projects. When Ningguo starts to try to retain more and more surrounding tourists, will a Lamborghini Hotel become a new attempt? Of course, what's more worthy of attention is: why exactly is it Lamborghini? < h2 > 14 Years of Slow Progress < / h2 > Mr. Tonino Lamborghini, the heir of the Lamborghini family, carried forward the brand spirit of "purity, extremeness, and non - compromise" and founded the Tonino Lamborghini Group named after himself in 1981, expanding the family business from super - cars to luxury hotels, high - end furniture and other fields. In 2012, the Tonino Lamborghini hotel brand entered the Chinese hotel market for the first time in the form of brand authorization. However, until today, the number of truly opened projects is not large. As of now, the brand has 7 hotels in operation in places like Hangzhou, Chengdu, Suzhou, and Kunshan. Many people first heard of the Lamborghini Hotel in Suzhou. In 2019, on the banks of Jinji Lake in Suzhou, a project called the "Tonino Lamborghini Book Garden Hotel" was officially launched. This is also the first real Lamborghini Hotel in China. Different from what many people imagined a "super - car hotel" to be, it doesn't have extremely flamboyant sports - car elements, but is more in the style of a Chinese garden. With 30 villas, a lakeside view, and a small - scale route, it is more like a high - end vacation hotel. At that time, this project received quite a lot of attention. On the one hand, the name Lamborghini naturally attracts attention. On the other hand, it was the first time a luxury - car brand opened a hotel in China, which easily aroused curiosity. However, after the Suzhou project, the Lamborghini Hotel didn't expand rapidly like international hotel groups. This may be related to the way it first entered China. In the early days, the Lamborghini Hotel was more like part of a real - estate project. Behind the Suzhou project was a real - estate enterprise group. When the hotel was launched by Jinji Lake, the surrounding area was in a stage of rapid development of high - end business and real - estate. For many developers at that time, a hotel with an international label and high recognition was not only an accommodation product, but also could become part of the project's value. It wasn't initially a business that could be "rapidly replicated". Compared with Marriott and Hilton, which rely on standardized brand expansion, the logic of the Lamborghini Hotel is more like "one project, one hotel". The hotel will only appear when there is a suitable project and development demand. Therefore, for a long time after the Suzhou project, there wasn't much new news about the Lamborghini Hotel in the market. In the following years, project news came out successively from places like Huangshan, Chengdu, and Yixing. The Huangshan Lamborghini Hotel project was signed, and the location was related to vacation resources. The Chengdu project was also publicly launched, trying to enter the high - end hotel market in the city. However, from the public progress, the progress of these projects is not the same. Some are still at the signing stage, some have a long construction period, and some projects have kept a relatively low profile in the market. At the end of 2013, the Huangshan Lamborghini Hotel was officially launched. Different from the Suzhou project, the Huangshan project no longer emphasizes urban business, but is more vacation - oriented. The location is related to natural landscape resources, aiming to attract high - end vacationers. However, the direction of the project later changed. In 2023, the Huangshan Lamborghini Hotel was officially renamed the "Wentai Garden Hotel" and continued to operate. The name changed, but the hotel didn't stop. Behind the name change, it may be related to the adjustment of the owner. Public information shows that the owner behind the hotel was once related to the real - estate assets of Wentai Technology. In 2018, Wentai Technology proposed to divest its real - estate business and promote the "de - real - estate" direction. The relevant hotel assets were also within the scope of adjustment. With the subsequent changes in equity and operation arrangements, the brand cooperation between the hotel and "Tonino Lamborghini" finally ended. This also shows that for a luxury - car brand to run a hotel, it's not as simple as just hanging a name. From signing, construction, to brand cooperation and operation, any change in the middle can lead the project in a different direction. Then came Chengdu. Compared with Huangshan, the Chengdu project took a different route, returning to the urban market and trying to enter the high - end hotel track by leveraging the consumption ability and business demand of the core city. And the Chengdu Lamborghini Hotel finally opened in March this year. However, compared with the imagination of a "super - car brand hotel" before its opening, the market discussion of the Chengdu hotel is not very high. One reason is that in today's high - end hotel market in Chengdu, it's hard to create a sense of freshness just by a name. Around Tianfu Square and Taikoo Li, it is one of the most concentrated areas of high - end hotels in Chengdu. From Shangri - La to St. Regis, Ritz - Carlton, and various characteristic hotels, the high - end hotels in Chengdu are very crowded, and guests have many choices. What has really opened and formed a certain presence is actually Yixing. Around 2023, the Yixing Yunyi Tonino Lamborghini Resort Hotel opened. The hotel is located in Taihua Town, Yixing, near Nanshan Bamboo Sea. The whole project is more inclined to mountain - vacation and wild - luxury routes, with all - villa products, built along the mountain, and targeting short - distance vacations in the Yangtze River Delta. Compared with urban business hotels, it is more like a project where people "go to the destination for the hotel". With 600 mu of private mountains and waters, it is positioned as the world's first wild - luxury Lamborghini hotel, and the room price once reached about 6,000 yuan. From Suzhou to Yixing, an obvious change is that the Lamborghini Hotel is starting to shift from urban landmarks to vacation destinations. Compared with the expansion speed of dozens or even hundreds of hotels per year of international hotel groups like Marriott, InterContinental, and Hilton, the Lamborghini Hotel is much slower. This "slowness" is, to some extent, also related to its early development mode. The Lamborghini Hotel was not initially an open - franchise brand in China. The Jiangsu Zhongyin Group, which obtained the exclusive authorization of the brand in the Chinese market at that time, was itself a real - estate enterprise. The core purpose of obtaining the brand authorization of Lamborghini was to add premium to its high - end real - estate projects. Later, there were changes in the Lamborghini Hotel. From the public actions, it started to try to enter more vacation destinations and was no longer limited to the real - estate supporting mode. Yixing, Huangshan, and now Ningguo, the project locations are gradually shifting from core cities to places with strong cultural and tourism resources and obvious demand for stays. At the same time, the cooperation mode is also changing. In the past, it was mainly led by real - estate development, but now, a mode of joint participation of all parties has emerged. Ningguo is a typical example. Behind the project, it is no longer a single real - estate developer, but local state - owned enterprises participate in the investment, a professional team is responsible for the operation, and the brand side provides brand authorization and resource support. To some extent, this also means that today's Lamborghini Hotel is different from when it first entered China. It is becoming more asset - light and starting to enter markets that it rarely touched before. However, one question has always remained: Can the name with the super - car halo finally be transformed into a long - term business for a hotel? < h2 > The Next Stop of the "Super - Car" Hotel < / h2 > If we only look at its actions over the years, the Lamborghini Hotel has never stopped. It has been signing projects and changing locations. From Suzhou to Yixing, from Huangshi to Ningguo, it has tried urban hotels and vacation products, and even started to enter the county - level market. Objectively speaking, the Lamborghini Hotel has indeed caught some new opportunities, but on the other hand, it has always faced some real difficulties. Opportunities and challenges exist almost simultaneously. The opportunity first comes from the super - car halo of the brand. The name Lamborghini sports car has far higher recognition and topic - worthiness in China than luxury hotel brands at the same level. Even people who don't understand hotels probably know what this name means. Especially in destination cities like Ningguo, Huangshan, and Yixing, a hotel with a super - car label is easier to remember and more likely to spark discussions. Moreover, Lamborghini cars have a large high - net - worth population base and a very young customer group in China. These potential customers have a natural fondness for the name "Lamborghini", and there is a large space for conversion into hotel consumption. In addition, it has a flexible operation mode. Compared with the mature and standardized management system of international hotel groups, the Lamborghini Hotel is more like a flexible brand - cooperation mode. Currently, Shanghai Qiaoying Hotel Management Co., Ltd. is an important operator and brand - authorization provider of the Tonino Lamborghini Hotel in the Greater China region. Compared with traditional international hotel groups that are involved in every aspect from design to operation, the Lamborghini Hotel is more inclined to "brand output", and the specific operation is jointly completed by the professional team and the owner. This way also makes it easier to land in some emerging destinations, especially in the county - level market, giving local areas more room for operation. But the problems on the other side are also very real. Firstly, there is the scale problem. There are many well - operated luxury hotels in China, each with its own rhythm and strategy. For example, with 18 stores, the Ritz - Carlton is not the largest in the luxury hotel market, but it's not the smallest either. More importantly, each Ritz - Carlton is not isolated. It is backed by the large - scale operation system of the Marriott Group, with a global membership community of more than 271 million people and more than 30 hotel brands under its umbrella. Guests may already be users of the membership system, and they are used to booking rooms, earning points, and enjoying benefits. As one of the core brands in Marriott's luxury matrix, the Ritz - Carlton can share the customer source, technology, and talent resources of this system. However, the current scale of the Lamborghini Hotel is not large, and the space for real brand synergy is still limited. Secondly, there is the positioning problem. What kind of hotel is the Lamborghini Hotel exactly? The garden style in Suzhou, the wild - luxury style in Yixing, the urban - fashionable style in Chengdu, and the mountain - and - water hidden - luxury style in Ningguo, the style differences between different projects are extremely large. This "one - hotel - one - face" flexibility is an advantage, but it may also lead to the blurring of brand recognition. Compare it with Aman. Although the Aman at the Summer Palace in Beijing has removed the brand, it follows the same "small and hidden" philosophy as the Amanfayun in Hangzhou and the Yangyun Aman in Shanghai within the Aman system. When guests enter any Aman hotel, they can expect a similar experience. The Lamborghini Hotel currently seems to lack such a clear brand core. Finally, there is the market environment. For places like Ningguo, there are more and more hotels. Ten years ago, a county - level city had few options if it wanted to introduce a recognizable hotel. But today, many international groups are starting to expand to lower - tier markets, and domestic mid - to high - end brands are also accelerating their penetration. The number of newly signed projects of Marriott's select - service brands will increase by 40% in 2025, and Huazhu Group aims to "open Huazhu hotels in every county in China by 2030". When these brands are seizing the market at a faster speed and lower cost, can the "slowness" of the Lamborghini Hotel still be an advantage? For the small city of Ningguo, it may be a new hotel business card. For the Lamborghini Hotel, this also seems like a new test. When the luxury gene of the Italian super - car family is injected into the poetic texture of the southern Anhui mountains and waters, how much stay and consumption will this collision of "speed and passion" bring, and can it become a real long - term business? The answer may only be known after the hotel actually opens for business. This article is from the WeChat official account < a target = "_blank" rel = "noopener noreferrer" href = "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/In

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When the "supercar-style" hotel opens in a county town...