In 20 years, it has reached the fourth place globally. The technological engine behind Huazhu's leadership in improving industry efficiency

On March 18th, Huazhu Group released its full - year performance for 2025. During the reporting period, Huazhu Group achieved an operating revenue of 25.3 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 5.9%. The adjusted net profit reached 4.9 billion yuan, a year - on - year growth of 32.9%. As of the end of 2025, the group had 12,858 operating hotels globally, with over 1.26 million rooms, covering 21 countries.

2025 marked the 20th anniversary of Huazhu Group's establishment. This performance report not only reflects the group's steady business growth but also the achievements of its supply - side reform driven by technological innovation.

A few months ago, Ji Qi, the founder and chairman of Huazhu Group, clearly pointed out at the Huazhu Partners Conference that the greatest opportunity in the Chinese hotel industry lies in "supply - side reform". Against the backdrop of rising labor costs, rigid service standards, and bottlenecks in operational efficiency that continuously squeeze the industry's profit margins, Huazhu Group has achieved a high - quality growth curve that outperforms the industry's fundamentals.

Looking through the financial report, Huazhu Group's technological path is particularly clear: It uses intelligent technologies such as AI in - stay services and the industry's first unmanned new front - desk "Huazhanggui" to release labor productivity. It pioneered a digital product for GOP cost management to achieve refined control of seven major operating costs and promoted a digital - model construction mode to improve the capital efficiency of hotel owners. A series of measures are reshaping the hotel industry from a traditional labor - intensive industry to a technology - enabled modern service industry.

This is not an isolated technological superposition but a systematic reconstruction of the industry's underlying logic. It precisely responds to the strategic directions of "deepening supply - side structural reform" and "comprehensively promoting digital technology empowerment" in the 15th Five - Year Plan, attempting to provide a reference practice sample for the high - quality development of the Chinese hotel industry from three aspects: efficiency revolution, experience reconstruction, and industrial upgrading.

Technology Redefines Service Boundaries, Making Experiences Warm

For a long time, the traditional hotel industry has faced an irreconcilable contradiction: Front - desk employees are trapped in cumbersome registration processes and repetitive customer service inquiries, unable to truly focus on improving the customer experience. Huazhu Group's solution is to hand over high - frequency and repetitive mechanical tasks to machines and return valuable warm - hearted services to humans.

Last year, with the rapid development of large - model and intelligent - agent technologies, Huazhu Group officially announced a cooperation with Tencent in September to explore the efficiency improvement of AI intelligent agents in the hotel field.

Within just a few months, the jointly - developed AI in - stay services have been implemented in over 3,200 stores under Huazhu. For the most complex in - stay service scenarios, 38 workflows have been established to automatically handle over 70% of high - frequency inquiries, replacing human service staff.

Different from traditional intelligent customer service, AI in - stay services can also provide integrated responses based on different intentions. When a guest requests "a bottle of water" in the room, the system can automatically generate a work order and dispatch a robot for delivery within 5 seconds without manual transfer.

This end - to - end automated closed - loop not only compresses the customer service response time from the traditional ten - plus minutes to seconds but also liberates customer service staff from mechanical roles, allowing them to focus on handling complex issues that machines cannot solve.

This "human - machine collaboration" model is most prominently reflected in economy hotels. Take the Haiyou fully self - service hotel as an example. The check - in, item delivery, and laundry services are all completed by intelligent devices. For instance, through the self - check - in device, guests can complete the check - in procedure in as fast as 10 seconds, solving the problem of low reception efficiency at the hotel front - desk during peak check - in periods, and reducing the staff - to - room ratio to 0.1. With the energy released, front - desk employees no longer need to sit behind the service desk and operate the computer mechanically. They can patrol the lobby with a tablet in hand, actively help families with children carry luggage, or provide guidance for the elderly. This extreme efficiency enables the hotel to maintain guest services within the economy price range while still leaving sufficient profit margins for franchisees, providing the possibility for large - scale growth in a broader market.

Through such digital exploration and implementation, Huazhu has transformed the hotel industry, which was traditionally regarded as a labor - intensive industry, into a modern service industry.

Digital Solutions Crack the "Cost Black Box"

If technological innovation eases the balance problem between service quality and human efficiency, then Huazhu's pioneering digital product for GOP cost management, specifically developed for refined "hotel management", is like installing a "smart brain" in the hotel, making invisible costs visible and uncontrollable profits manageable.

In 2025, while the domestic hotel industry was in the warm current of consumer recovery, it also faced profound internal pressure. The industry's profit margins were often eroded in invisible ways, such as energy waste, inflated laundry costs, and material losses. Every link represented a real loss of money.

The GOP cost management digital system, which has been put into use in 7,763 hotel stores under Huazhu, achieves automatic data synchronization and visualization by integrating seven major operating cost modules of the hotel. For example, the system can automatically compare the energy consumption benchmarks of similar hotels. Once it detects that the electricity consumption per room - night in a certain store is abnormally high, it will immediately issue a warning, prompting an investigation into whether there are problems such as shared public - area electricity meters or aging equipment.

This refined management helps franchisees bid farewell to the extensive "intuition - based" hotel management model and shift towards data - based scientific decision - making, effectively filling the profit black hole in traditional management.

In the more capital - intensive construction and renovation stage, the digital - model construction mode promoted by Huazhu Group is more like an efficiency revolution.

Traditional hotel decoration has a long cycle and complex construction processes. Huazhu Group disassembles the guest - room space into standardized modules from the design stage. The size specifications and material requirements of each set of furniture are stored in the "smart brain", making room arrangement and drawing production more efficient. From the standardized production of main materials and furniture to the integrated shower room, a large number of processes are pre - fabricated in the factory, with a short inventory cycle and high delivery accuracy, eliminating the need for a second on - site measurement. The automotive - grade "optical - electrical cable" system is pre - integrated in the factory, and there is no need to dig grooves and lay wires at the construction site. It can be easily assembled like building Lego blocks, and furniture can be instantly transformed into household appliances. Taking the 5.0 version of the All Seasons Hotel as an example, a room can be installed by as few as 2 people in 3 hours at the fastest. It generates zero waste, has low losses, high efficiency, and can also save labor costs.

This "building hotels like building cars" model significantly shortens the construction cycle, not only reducing the capital - locking - in period for franchisees and providing efficiency guarantees but also reducing construction costs and environmental pollution.

Technological Innovation Is the Core Engine Driving the High - Quality Development of the Industry

It is worth mentioning that in the past year, the domestic hotel industry as a whole faced the structural pressure of "excess supply and weak demand". Against this backdrop, the value of Huazhu Group's investment in technological innovation is not limited to improving the return on investment of individual stores. Its deeper significance lies in helping to break through the efficiency boundary of the traditional hotel industry.

By reducing construction costs through digital models, and lowering daily operating costs through the GOP management digital product and AI in - stay services, Huazhu Group packages its technological capabilities into a complete solution, significantly lowering the threshold for non - professional investors to enter the hotel industry. The extreme standardization and automation empowerment also increase the certainty of investors' returns, which is expected to attract more diversified capital and partners.

Huazhu Group uses AI intelligence to hand over repetitive tasks to machines, allowing employees to focus on more warm - hearted services. With the high occupancy rate supported by the brand effect, its hotels have stronger risk - resistance capabilities and cash - flow stability, also bringing new valuation imagination space to the industry.

Looking back at the present, the operating performance in 2025 can be regarded as a comprehensive test of Huazhu Group's technological innovation achievements. Behind this is the enterprise's core ability to transform technological innovation from a "story" into "performance".

By integrating artificial intelligence and digital technologies into every aspect of hotel operations, Huazhu Group has created high - quality products and services for customers, real value for franchisees, and provided a replicable path for the high - quality development of the domestic hotel industry. In the first year of the 15th Five - Year Plan, Huazhu Group's practice may prove that technology is not only a tool for cost reduction and efficiency improvement but also the core engine for enhancing service experience, promoting industrial upgrading, and achieving high - quality development.