I saw this Chinese article about Home Inn and Jin Jiang. The author obviously did a good job here. For those who can not read Chinese, Jin Jiang Star is a competitor of Home Inn (Ru Jia). Jin Jiang Group started this economy hotel chain in 1997 (note Ru Jia started in 2002). From Home Inn’s F-1 Form, I saw Jin Jiang, Home Inn and Motel 168 had 20%, 18% and 16% of the China economy hotel market share, respectively. I stayed at both the Xing Ya Star (2002) and Jin Jiang Star (2004), and they are both comfortable.
It’s interesting to see, although Jin Jiang is the “first mover” in China’s economy hotel market, and they have lots of experience in the industry, they are not the dorminant position or even No. 1 brand. One reason it grew from the Jin Jiang group, whose main focus is the high end market. I think they are serious about this segment now since Home Inn is doing the IPO.
By the way, you can see Home Inn’s road show video from IPO home.