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| Bed & Breakfast News | Summer 2017
The Chinese B & B business model
The business model being used in the Pudong area for the B & Bs we saw( see p14) is quite different from the UK. Rather than being owner-managed and started by entrepreneurs, as in Britain, there the Government licenses B & B development businesses, who purchase leases on rural buildings from their farmer owners.
The company( for example, Suyu( Shanghai) Homestay Ltd., who developed the riverside B & B on our front cover) then refurbish the property – to a very high standard, as you can see in our feature in this issue( p14). They put in trained young managers to run the B & B.
The farmer – why would typically have previously been running the property on a subsistence farming basis, just growing not much more than the family could eat, on a completely uneconomic basis – then receives lease income for 15 years, and also often some income for purchasing his fresh local produce for the B & B guests. After 15 years, the farmer gets back a refurbished property.
So the model seems to be aimed as much at improving neglected villages and creating income for subsistence farmers, as at a commercial return.
And importantly for the big picture, it achieves the Government’ s aim of creating new capacity for domestic tourism outside the crowded cities of China.
So, a Government which recognizes the huge value of B & Bs to its tourism industry and puts in place practical policies to encourage and grow the sector … it made us feel rather wistful!
Pushing such unpatriotic thoughts aside, it was rewarding to be able to‘ fly the flag’ for Britain – and especially of course, British B & Bs, in the world’ s most populous country. Some useful new contacts were made, and the B & B Association may be involved in helping people from the nascent Chinese B & B sector discover British B & Bs in visits to this country in the coming years.
We are also hoping to take part in the next International Conference, which the Shanghai Morning Post has indicated might be held in Japan- or the UK. We are of course trying to persuade them of the benefits of the UK, and will be working with VisitBritain, the tourism department and others to do so. Watch this space!