Is it "the next Huazhu" or "the next Fengyue"? The ambitions and hidden worries behind Shangmei's three partnerships with Accor

Recently, Shangmei and Accor announced the introduction of Accor's JO&JOE and greet by Accor to the Chinese market, marking the third collaboration between international hotel groups and local hotel management operators to introduce new brands since the beginning of this year.

Three Collaborations in 4 Years: Accor Launches Two Mid-tier Brands at One Go

On September 17, Shangmei Digital Intelligence and Accor held a new brand strategic cooperation launch event. At the event, Shangmei officially announced the introduction of Accor's mid-tier lifestyle brand JO&JOE and mid-tier light vacation brand greet by Accor into the Chinese market.

Following the familiar cooperation model, Shangmei will take full charge of the development, pre-opening preparation and operation management of the two brands across China — so far, Shangmei and Accor have completed three rounds of in-depth cooperation.

Looking back to July 2022, Shangmei became the exclusive strategic partner of Accor's high-end brand Mövenpick by Accor in China, marking the first cooperation between the two sides.

At that time, the market generally regarded this as a signal that Shangmei was "taking a ride" on international brand resources. As a group that started with economy hotels, Shangmei needed the endorsement of international brands to break into higher price segments.

In September 2025, the two sides joined hands again, and Shangmei obtained the exclusive operation right of Accor's high-end serviced apartment brand The Sebel in Greater China, further expanding its high-end layout and extending its product line to long-stay and serviced apartment scenarios. The two brands received steady market responses during this period: by the end of July, 10 Mövenpick by Accor hotels had been opened, and more than 40 other projects were under active preparation.

A relevant person in charge of Shangmei revealed to Space Scout that Mövenpick by Accor will continue to expand its footprint in the Chinese market at a rate of 10-15 newly opened hotels per year; around the 2027 Spring Festival, the world's tallest Mövenpick by Accor, Changsha Xinjing Mövenpick by Accor, is expected to be put into operation.

Although the cooperation agreement for The Sebel was signed nearly a year ago, no new opening projects have been seen in public information. However, according to Shangmei, 2-3 The Sebel projects are expected to land within this year.

From a digital perspective, the pace of brand introduction, signing and opening is generally stable, but comparing the three cooperations together, it is not difficult to find that this round of cooperation has different upgrades from previous ones.

The first difference lies in brand positioning: in the first two cooperations, Shangmei actively deployed in the high-end market, while this time it focuses on the two tracks of mid-tier lifestyle and light vacation. The second is the development rhythm: Shangmei seems to place higher expectations on the scale growth of the two newly introduced brands.

High-end brands pursue refined operation, while mid-tier brands focus on scale expansion. This dual shift of positioning and rhythm conveys a thought-provoking signal. Ma Yingyao, Chairman of Shangmei Digital Intelligence Hotel Group, said in an interview with Space Scout that among the four brands, Mövenpick by Accor is the highest-end, and Shangmei is committed to optimizing its brand image and quality, targeting core business districts and core tourist destinations in first- and second-tier cities.

From Mövenpick by Accor to The Sebel, then to JO&JOE and greet by Accor, the first two steps of the three cooperations are to move upward to supplement brand strength and establish brand image with high-end brands; the third step is to sink the market to pursue scale and speed with mid-tier brands. Between the pursuit of high quality and rapid expansion, Shangmei's cognition of its own market position is gradually becoming clear...

Hybrid Brands Enter China to Tap Mid-tier Market and Stock Resources

It is noteworthy for the industry that in these three cooperations, Shangmei has been playing the role of introducing brands to the domestic market, the so-called "exclusive operation" for the Greater China region.

This means that most of the design and tonality of the introduced brands will be retained as they are, so we can get a glimpse of their actual status in the global market, and then make reasonable judgments on their future development direction in the local hotel market.

First of all, JO&JOE, whose first store was born in Paris, is one of the mid-tier lifestyle hotel brands under Accor. It integrates multiple scenarios including accommodation, social space, coffee shop, light catering and office, aiming to create a "Paris-style living experience" for the new generation of business and leisure groups.

In the global market, JO&JOE has settled in popular destinations such as Paris, Rome, Auckland and Vienna. Its urban station design that combines social space, bar restaurant and rooftop terrace forms the highly recognizable iconic design language of the brand. With such product foundation, the brand will naturally target the core business districts and destination markets in first- and second-tier cities after entering China.

As for greet by Accor, as a mid-tier light vacation brand, it takes "Feel good" as its core concept, focuses on affordable prices and convenience, and is committed to providing guests with cost-effective pleasant experiences.

At present, the brand has more than 40 hotels around the world, including greet Lyon Confluence, greet Brussels Zaventem Airport and other representative projects. It is clear that this brand under Accor is mainly focused on the rapid expansion of stock and incremental resources. According to the brand's forecast, by the end of this year, greet by Accor will rapidly expand to 50 outlets in mainland China.

Overall, the "exclusive local operation" model, general mid-tier positioning and lifestyle track have always been the main theme of international hotel groups entering the Chinese market this year, along with the simultaneous awakening of the "speed awareness" of all groups.

In fact, before Shangmei and Accor launched their cooperation, international hotel groups have completed a wave of new brand introductions intensively this year.

In mid-July, Hilton officially introduced its lifestyle brand Tempo by Hilton to the Asia-Pacific market, and signed a number of hotel projects in the Greater China region in the first batch.

Earlier in June, Marriott announced the introduction of its soft brand Series by Marriott to Greater China, positioning in the mid-tier market, aiming to allow hotel owners to access the Marriott system while retaining certain product flexibility, with the core goal of tapping the value of existing stock hotels.

In May, Hyatt announced the introduction of Hyatt Select to the Chinese mainland market. This brand focuses on modern minimalist style, and its product design is adapted to both new construction and stock renovation scenarios.

In February this year, Garner, the new mid-to-high-end brand of InterContinental Hotels Group, opened its first store in Greater China in Beijing 798 Art District. This brand is positioned as a stock property-friendly brand, focusing on light asset renovation and rapid rebranding, accurately targeting the mid-tier and mid-to-high-end stock market.

If we only notice the "large number of brands and fast expansion speed", we may still stay on the surface. Further exploration will find that the new brand introduction strategies this year all carry a certain "hybrid" gene, and the cooperation model has also been iterated on the basis of the past.

Take Series by Marriott as an example. In this cooperation, CG Hospitality is responsible for investment and development, BTG WISDOM is responsible for local operation and implementation, and Marriott is mainly responsible for brand standards and membership system. The three parties perform their respective duties and give full play to their respective advantages. Compared with the past dual structure of "international brand + local operator", this arrangement is undoubtedly more complex but also more refined.

Hyatt's choice is also thought-provoking. It has successively deployed two brands within two years: Hyatt Select introduced this year cooperates with Eaton to focus on the mid-to-high-end market, while Hyatt Place introduced last year cooperates with Home Inn to develop mid-to-high-end long-stay business.

An industry insider told Space Scout that Hyatt's brand power in the Chinese market is currently in the second tier of international hotel groups. In this situation, choosing two local groups to cover the two segmented markets of business travel and long-stay respectively is obviously a more precise granularity operation strategy.

It is not difficult to see that the current new brand introduction is no longer a simple brand export, but more like a mutual empowerment between international groups and local groups. This phenomenon has been fully expanded this year, and the cooperation between Shangmei and Accor is also following this trend, which is a well-considered decision based on the current market situation.

International Groups Seek Market, Local Groups Seek Brands: Ten Years of Cooperation Achieve Win-win Results

"Accor has a rich brand portfolio. In addition to Mercure, Novotel and ibis under Accor, the introduction of JO&JOE and greet by Accor is to meet the more distinctive mid-tier segmented market demand with Western brand heritage in China," said Gary Chu, CEO of Accor Greater China, to Space Scout when talking about Accor's local cooperation context in the past decade.

This statement also reveals the cooperation track that international and local hotel groups have been getting closer to each other in the past ten years.

In fact, cooperation with local hotel management groups is no longer a rare thing in the industry. Among numerous cross-border "cooperation marriages", Accor and Huazhu are undoubtedly the pair with the largest scale.

As early as 2014, the two sides signed a strategic alliance agreement. Huazhu became the exclusive general franchisee of Accor's Mercure, ibis and ibis Styles in Chinese mainland and Taiwan, and jointly developed the Grand Mercure and Novotel brands. This cooperation includes both "exclusive local operation" elements and co-creation features, which can be regarded as a classic sample of the dual cooperation model.

According to the current opening data, more than 240 Mercure hotels have been opened, which is expected to reach 300 by the end of the year, and the 2030 target is 500; there are more than 300 ibis hotels and 81 Novotel hotels. The feedback on the quantity is not amazing, and there is still a certain distance from the initial market expectation, but it can be regarded as steady development on the whole.

The underlying value of this cooperation actually lies in the membership system. Huazhu's nearly 290 million members plus Accor's 100 million global members form a huge traffic pool, and the member proportion of ibis hotels has been close to 60%. It can be said that the dual membership system is the core competitive advantage of such "hybrid brands", and neither party can build a member base of such a scale alone.

However, if we talk about the penetration in the sinking market, Hampton by Hilton is undoubtedly a better example.

Industry data shows that Hampton by Hilton has high overall market recognition, and there are even cases where investors continuously reinvest to open the 7th Hampton hotel.

It is worth mentioning that although Jinjiang has increased its shareholding in Plateno several times from 2015 to 2021 and finally achieved full holding, the expansion pace of Hampton by Hilton has never stopped no matter which operator it belongs to. The brand was signed and introduced to China in 2014, opened 400 hotels in 2024, exceeded 500 hotels in 2026, with a total of more than 950 signed projects covering more than 200 cities. The two parties have renewed their cooperation until 2034, with the target of more than 600 hotels in operation.

Why can Hampton by Hilton expand so fast? The answer lies in its cooperation structure.

When Plateno introduced Hampton by Hilton, it already had a mature development network and operation system in the Chinese mid-tier market. After being acquired by Jinjiang, it further obtained the empowerment of Jinjiang's global procurement platform and "one center and three platforms".

In other words, Hilton directly connected to a local operator that already had the ability to achieve large-scale expansion, so the trial and error cost was naturally saved.

Interestingly, in sharp contrast to Hampton by Hilton is Hilton Garden Inn under Hilton itself. The two brands entered China in the same year, but Hilton Garden Inn is operated by Hilton itself. It did not open its 50th hotel until 2023. Even though it signed 30 projects at one go at the investment summit in May 2026, the total number of opened hotels is only around 80 at present.

After sorting out these cases, the logic behind it is very clear: international brands want to develop the Chinese market, but they expand too slowly and are not familiar with local market rules; local groups want brand premium and mature membership system, but building a brand from scratch is too slow. The two sides have their own needs, so they naturally reach a consensus quickly.

Therefore, reviewing the past cases of all parties, we can find that this cooperation model has the potential for sustainable development. Accor is not the first time to cooperate with local hotel management groups in this model, and Shangmei is not the first time to introduce Accor's brands through cooperation. Under the superposition of multiple inevitable factors, this cooperation is not an accidental choice, but a natural outcome that comes with favorable conditions.

Old Partners Launch New Cooperation: Can This Model Achieve Success?

At this point of the article, we might as well go back to the two brands introduced by Shangmei and Accor this time. In fact, JO&JOE is not a "newcomer" entering the Chinese market.

As early as 2022, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts announced that it had joined hands with Accor Group and Ennismore to introduce the JO&JOE brand into the Chinese mainland market.

At that time, the three parties had an extremely ambitious plan for scale expansion: Fairmont would become the exclusive strategic partner of JO&JOE in the Chinese mainland, opening at least 1300 outlets and providing more than 100,000 rooms in the future.

At that time, as the core alliance enterprise of Country Garden Group, Fairmont owned 18 hotel and apartment brands under its name, managing more than 75 billion yuan of hotel assets around the world, and was in a period of vigorous development.

Although the implementation pace was not very fast, Fairmont announced the first batch of 7 signed and intended projects of JO&JOE in August 2022; in 2024, Fairmont's official information showed that the first batch of JO&JOE hotels in China entered the preparation stage, and several hotels in Lhasa and Shaoguan opened in the same year.

However, by September 2026, the "relay baton" was handed over to Shangmei.

We have talked about so many cooperation cases between international and local hotel groups, the original intention is to prove that this path is feasible. But when it comes to specific enterprises, the prospect is inevitably full of uncertainties.

However, Shangmei is obviously full of confidence in this cooperation. Gary Chu told Space Scout that when Accor first started cooperating with Shangmei Digital Intelligence 4 years ago, we only provided one brand. After seeing Shangmei's dedication and capability, we increased our confidence in further cooperation.

This "dedication and capability" largely comes from Shangmei's high attention to the brands. An industry insider said that in Huazhu's brand portfolio, Accor's brands such as Mercure, ibis and ibis Styles have been difficult to become Huazhu's "core priority brands" due to factors such as resource allocation. In other words, compared with Huazhu, Shangmei has paid more attention to the brands provided by Accor in previous cooperations.

Some people say that Accor is betting on "the next Huazhu". But whether Shangmei can expand the two newly introduced brands to such a large scale remains to be tested by time and the market.

Looking at the favorable side, the general mid-tier hotel market is a "rich mine" in the current hotel industry. Data shows that the proportion of mid-tier hotel rooms has reached 22.48% in 2026, compared with 16% in 2019, which is the only price segment that continues to expand; the supply and demand gap in the mid-to-high-end (400-800 yuan) market is significant, and the overall market is evolving from a "pyramid" structure to a "water-drop" structure, with mid-tier hotels becoming the absolute main force of the market.

In addition, the penetration rate of the general mid-tier market still has room for improvement: the penetration rate of mid-tier hotels in China is less than 50%, while the proportion of mid-tier hotel rooms in the United States has exceeded 50%. According to this comparison, the domestic mid-tier market still has the potential to double in the next 3 to 5 years, with broad incremental prospects.

But on the other hand, there are also many obstacles, and Fairmont has provided a lesson from the past.

Fairmont relied heavily on the OEM cooperation with international brands (such as Hilton, Minor Hotels), while the incubation of its own brands (such as Fengyi, Fengyue Light Shang) was relatively slow, and the growth of the number of outlets was limited, resulting in insufficient brand recognition and falling into the dilemma of "large scale but weak competitiveness".

The deeper problem lies in brand hollowing: some self-owned brands lack unique differentiated positioning, and product homogenization is serious, making it difficult to form core barriers in the fierce market competition.

In the process of light asset output, some projects (such as the introduced JO&JOE and other lifestyle hotels) failed to get rid of the operation thinking of traditional business hotels in