Revelations of 1 Hotels' "Failure"...
Recently, the 1 Hotel Haitang Bay Sanya has officially been delisted, and the original site will introduce the Conrad brand under Hilton. This means that the only hotel of the new Starwood in Chinese Mainland has left the market quietly, and also announces that Conrad has returned to Haitang Bay after four years of absence. Why did the niche and pioneering 1 Hotel exit while the traditional luxury brand Conrad make a comeback? In the current era of fierce stock competition, why do property owners either operate the hotels themselves or turn to international hotel giants one after another?
1 Hotel Rebrands to Conrad, Does the New Starwood Exit the Chinese Market?
Recently, the Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay project has been launched quietly.
Surprisingly, the project was once rumored to be rebranded to Andaz, the luxury lifestyle brand under Hyatt, but now it has "tied the knot" with Hilton instead.
The 1 Hotel Haitang Bay Sanya, which originally opened in 2020, has been delisted. As the first and exclusive hotel of the new Starwood Hotels & Resorts Group in China, this hotel was invested by Sunshine Insurance Group and was previously operated and managed by Starwood Group.
At present, the first five-year cooperation period between Sunshine Insurance and the new Starwood has expired. As the two parties failed to reach a consensus through negotiation, the cooperation has been terminated. Many industry insiders have raised questions, believing that this indicates that the new Starwood Group may withdraw from the Chinese market.
To understand the significance behind this delisting, we need to first go back to the 1 Hotels brand itself. In 2015, Barry Sternlicht founded this nature-inspired luxury lifestyle hotel brand that emphasizes sustainable development.
For 1 Hotels, Barry Sternlicht once said, "I want to stay in the hotel and do my best to protect the beauty of nature. This is our shared responsibility, and it is also 'one' world." At the beginning of its establishment, the founder had high hopes for 1 Hotels, hoping that it would represent an attitude towards life and a platform that triggers lifestyle changes.
Overall, the 1 Hotel Haitang Bay Sanya, which opened in 2020, is not old at all. As the only layout of the new Starwood in Chinese Mainland, it has important strategic significance for an international hotel group that intends to return to the Chinese market.
In terms of specific presentation, the details of this hotel can also withstand repeated scrutiny. At the beginning of its opening, the hotel became a pioneer in the market with its distinctive design that deeply integrates environmental protection concepts and tropical customs.
In terms of material selection, the hotel uses a large number of raw and recycled materials such as rammed earth, natural stone, iron sheet, discarded ship wood, and railway sleepers. This rough and real natural texture responds to the brand's pursuit of sustainability.
In a series of environmental protection measures, many exquisite details have left a deep impression on guests. For example, do-not-disturb signs made of stone, room cards made of waste wood, and cups made of recycled wine bottles. This kind of perfectionism and environmental advocacy that "even a bottle is hand-blown" reproduces the brand's lifestyle concept of "dialogue with nature".
However, it is such a hotel that is commendable in both concept and design that eventually failed to escape the fate of delisting.
First of all, compared with other international hotel groups that have been deeply rooted in China for decades, the new brand's public awareness before and after the restart of the new Starwood is limited after all. As a niche environmental brand, 1 Hotels is even less well-known to mass consumers. Most importantly, in the highly competitive Sanya market, 1 Hotels also faces fierce competition from local and other luxury hotel brands.
Overall, this delisting seems to be the result of the interweaving of multiple practical difficulties.
From Building a New System to Strong Alliances, the New Starwood Once Came With a Vision
The plot of Haitang Bay has never lacked high-end and luxury hotels.
To a certain extent, it is almost one of the bay areas with the highest density of resort hotels in China, and every new entrant faces a silent ranking competition.
/ Densely Packed With Hotels, Haitang Bay Has Long Been a Hot Land
At the end of December 2010, Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay officially opened. On this top resort hotel belt positioned as "National Coast", Conrad is not only the first hotel opened in Haitang Bay, but also the first hotel of this brand in Chinese Mainland. Its arrival almost set a luxurious tone for the entire bay area.
What really made Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay go viral was two high-profile celebrity weddings. On March 22, 2011, Barbie Hsu and Wang Xiaofei held a grand wedding at Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay, and booked the 8888 suite of the hotel as their wedding room. Later, Hong Kong celebrity Lam Chi-chung also chose to get married here.
However, the trend of the story is not static. Until January 1, 2022, this hotel finally chose to be rebranded to Wanda Reign, returning to the embrace of domestic brands. After a lapse of four years, Conrad can be said to have returned to this luxury hotel gathering place again.
Between this departure and return, the hotel landscape of Haitang Bay has long been completely changed.
Today's Haitang Bay is already full of luxury hotels. In terms of ultra-luxury, Fairmont Sanya Haitang Bay features "Venice on the Water", introduces seawater canals into the hotel, and provides boating check-in experience. The Edition, Rosewood Sanya and Capella Sanya are surrounded by beaches, each occupying a front-line sea view.
In addition, Haitang Bay also has hotel complexes such as Atlantis Sanya and Mangrove, which have created differentiation in comprehensive vacation. Judging from the data alone, the number of high-end and luxury hotels in Sanya Haitang Bay has exceeded 30 by 2025.
If the rise and fall of Conrad is the first chapter of the history of Haitang Bay hotels, then today's bay area has already entered the era of group portrait dramas.
/ Taking Unconventional Moves, 1 Hotels Once Stood Out From the Crowd
Looking back on the joint choice of Sunshine Insurance and the new Starwood for this hot hotel land six years ago, the strategic positioning of 1 Hotels is still reasonable.
The dense hotel cluster in Haitang Bay means that any new store entering the market does not need to educate the market from scratch, nor does it need to bear the passenger flow cost alone.
However, it cannot be ignored that the cluster effect also brings another side. When more than 30 luxury brands stand on the same starting line, the competition for details has been pushed to the extreme. To get a share of this red ocean, we must make something different from others.
As an insurance capital, Sunshine Insurance naturally values the input-output ratio of the project. When Haitang Bay is already surrounded by well-known international high-end and luxury hotels, it naturally took an unconventional move and chose 1 Hotels of the new Starwood.
As the debut of 1 Hotels in the Asia-Pacific region and the first store of the brand in Chinese Mainland (the fifth in the world), Sunshine Insurance hopes to seize the market opportunity by introducing this pioneering brand with international influence, focusing on "taking an unusual path".
At the same time, the new Starwood is also looking for a good opportunity. In 2016, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide was acquired by Marriott International. This acquisition is one of the largest M&A transactions in the history of the hotel industry, with a transaction value of about 13.6 billion US dollars.
In March 2025, Barry Sternlicht, the founder of the original Starwood, announced that he would rename his hotel management company SH Hotels & Resorts to "Starwood Hotels & Resorts", officially restarting this globally influential brand name.
This move is not a simple nostalgic reproduction, but a strategic transformation that accurately lays out the niche luxury market. The new Starwood takes the "small but beautiful" route, and its core brands include 1 Hotels with sustainable development as its gene, Baccarat Hotels that integrates crystal art, Treehouse Hotels that focuses on parent-child lifestyle, and the soft brand SH Collection.
By the end of 2025, 6 hotels under its 1 Hotels brand are under development. It can be said that 1 Hotels has become a sincere work of the founder team to start a new business. As the most potential market in Asia, it is not surprising that the new Starwood joins hands with domestic capital to lay out a highly potential tourist destination in China.
The "Disruptive" Rebranding Trend Rises, Do Niche Luxury Brands Move Forward With Difficulty?
However, the capital market never believes in tears, and high-concept narratives are not the first choice for property owners.
Today, when we look at the hotel market in the Asia-Pacific region and even the world, this almost "disruptive" hotel rebranding is no longer an isolated case, but a frequent occurrence. Behind the brand replacement, a set of cold and efficient business calculations is being staged repeatedly around the world.
At the end of July this year, the Waldorf Astoria Miami Beach Hotel suddenly announced its signing. After in-depth understanding, people found that this hotel was renovated from a W Hotel, and it only took a year and a half from signing to opening.
On the one hand, it is a traditional and orthodox luxury hotel with Hilton's blue blood genes; on the other hand, W, known as the "hotel trendsetter", boldly adopts a diverse design sense while emphasizing the luxury positioning. From flamboyant avant-garde to classic solemnity, such an identity shift seems to span a great distance, but in fact it points to the same goal: in the game of stock assets, reprice the property with a brand that has more market appeal.
Similar rebranding is not uncommon in China. In the past year, a number of Kempinski hotels in China have almost tacitly rebranded to brands under leading international hotel groups.
The Kempinski All-Suite Hotel Shanghai Jing'an was rebranded to voco, a brand under InterContinental Hotels Group, in February 2026. The Kempinski Hotel Dalian was rebranded to Pullman, a brand under Accor, in early 2026. The Kempinski Hotel Changsha Shuntian was rebranded to Westin, a brand under Marriott International, at the end of 2025...
The most notable one is Beijing Sunrise Kempinski Hotel. This hotel finally chose to be directly delisted and then operated by the property owner itself. These Kempinski hotels that have been rebranded are not marginal projects, but important projects of Kempinski in various regions of Greater China, covering East China, Central China, North China, Northeast China and other regions.
In June last year, three Hyatt hotels under Suning Group located in Wuxi, Xuzhou and Zhenjiang were delisted at the same time, and changed to self-operated Suning Galaxy International Hotel.
It is understood that the delisting is Suning's choice after careful consideration, hoping to save the high brand management fees and firmly grasp the hotel operation rights in its own hands.
But just a few days ago, there was news that the Suning Galaxy Hotel in Zhenjiang is about to be rebranded to Marriott, and the Suning Galaxy Hotel in Wuxi may also be rebranded to JW Marriott.
From delisting for self-operation to re-embracing international chains, this repetition itself shows that in the current market environment, the path of independent operation is far more rugged than imagined.
Similarly, for the landmark hotel in Nanjing, Jiangsu, there is also news that The St. Regis Nanya Hotel next to the Presidential Palace is going to be rebranded. In 2015, the hotel opened magnificently as The Luxury Collection under Marriott, and was once known as the benchmark of luxury hotels in Nanjing. As time goes by, even the former benchmark needs to find a new position in the brand iteration.
Of course, there are also cases of upward upgrading and win-win cooperation. The hotel does not leave the original management group, but is renewed to a better brand. For example, the Peace Hotel Shanghai, which is currently managed and operated by Fairmont, will be renewed and upgraded to Raffles, the top brand under Accor, in 2028.
This kind of brand transition within the same group not only retains the historical heritage and operation tacit understanding, but also injects new premium space into the assets, which can be called an ideal model for stock renewal.
However, whether it is direct rebranding or returning to the embrace of international chains after delisting for self-operation, the end point of this disruptive rebranding is consistent, and the commonality is obvious.
Leading international hotel groups have extremely high global brand awareness. Rebranding can quickly improve the market awareness of hotels and achieve brand premium, so as to support higher average daily rate and revenue per available room. After niche luxury hotels break away from the original brand, they often face the problem of vague market positioning.
In addition, leading groups have a huge global distribution network and tens of millions of active members. After rebranding, they can directly access the group's reservation system and member system, effectively solve the problems of passenger flow loss and difficult drainage of individual hotels, and significantly increase the occupancy rate. International brands have strong attractiveness to high-end customers, especially international customers and large business customers, which helps hotels attract high-net-worth customers and optimize the passenger flow structure.
In the stock market, the endorsement of international brands can significantly improve the asset valuation of hotels, enhance the liquidity and risk resistance of properties, and help obtain higher valuation during asset transactions or financing. For stock properties with aging facilities or outdated positioning, rebranding combined with appropriate renovation can realize the renewal of assets, quickly restore profitability, and maintain and appreciate the value of assets.
When niche luxury hotels operate independently, they need to bear high costs of brand building, marketing and system maintenance, and the effect is slow. Rebranding to a leading group can use its mature operation system to reduce the risks and costs of independent operation.
Most importantly, international giants have rapid renewal and transformation capabilities. In the stock competition where every minute counts, this capability means a shorter vacancy period, faster cash flow return, and more flexible market response speed.
Connecting these clues, a clearer industry picture emerges.
Hotel rebranding is never a simple sign replacement, but an explicit expression of asset repricing in the stock era. When the dividend of incremental development gradually fades, every stock hotel stands at the crossroads of fate.
What property owners are calculating is never just a sum of brand management fees, but the valuation curve and cash flow safety of the entire asset in the next ten years or even longer.
The story of niche brands may be touching, but the system capability, distribution network and member moat of leading groups constitute a more irresistible gravitational force in the current market environment.
The termination of cooperation between a hotel and its management company further reflects the survival dilemma of niche luxury brands in the Chinese market. When the number of luxury hotels in Haitang Bay expands from several to more than 30, and international giants and local capital play games repeatedly on this hot land, the so-called pioneering and differentiated positioning will eventually need to accept the cruel test of the market in the face of realistic occupancy rate and return on investment.
The return of Conrad and the exit of 1 Hotels are just two sides of the same coin, reflecting the in-depth reshuffle that China's high-end hotel market is undergoing. Those that can stay may not be the brands that tell the best stories, but the ones that can best understand the real needs of this land.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Space Insider", written by Wang Xiaoxiong, and published with authorization from 36Kr.