Most hotels don't have a China problem. They have a conversion problem.
$85 billion of Chinese outbound spend goes to accommodation this year. Whether any of it reaches your property is decided on a Ctrip page most Western commercial teams have never read.
Sources: Skift and China Trading Desk, Future Market Insights, China Trading Desk. Reviewed August 2026.
Four things I read before anyone mentions a campaign
Your Ctrip reviews, as social proof
Where a Chinese guest decides whether you're worth $400 a night, even when they intend to book direct.
The score gap
4.3 on Ctrip against 4.7 on TripAdvisor points to a service gap your English reviews never show you.
Your Ctrip and Fliggy listings
Read the way a Chinese guest reads them, not the way a translation tool renders them.
Your competitive set
How the property two streets away converts the same demand you're seeing.
Your property is being recommended, or not, by an AI you've never used
72% of Chinese travelers now plan with AI tools. Ask Ctrip's assistant and it answers from Ctrip's data. Ask Doubao the same question and we've watched it come back with TripAdvisor ratings instead. Different models, different sources, no published rules, and almost nobody testing it.
We run the queries your guests are running, across the models they're actually using, and show you what comes back for your property next to your competitive set.
Diagnosis first. Execution only where the diagnosis calls for it.
The audit
Fixed scope, fixed fee. A prioritized list of what to fix and in what order. Some properties take it away and run it themselves, which is a fine outcome.
Execution, if you want it
Our Guangzhou team runs Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Ctrip channel work. The difference is that we know what we're building before we start.
How we measure results, and what we will and won't take credit for
Narrow work. It suits some properties and not others.
A good fit
- Independent and owner-operated hotels and resorts, upper-upscale and above
- Destinations with real Chinese demand: Southeast Asia, the Gulf, Europe
- Owners and asset managers unhappy with how their operator performs in China
Not a fit
- Brand-managed properties where the operator runs China and you're happy with it
- Anyone who wants a channel opened this quarter without asking whether it's the right one
- Destinations with no Chinese demand. I can't create a market that isn't there.
Ivan Lam
Nine years in travel technology and consulting, on reviews, inbound FIT demand and paid acquisition for Shangri-La, Accor, Starwood and mid-sized Asian groups. Since then, two years running e-commerce on Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Ctrip, where conversion gets measured daily rather than reported quarterly.
Nine years living in Shanghai. I read your Chinese reviews in Chinese. I work from Hong Kong, with a team in Guangzhou handling execution inside the market. Full background on LinkedIn.
Send me the property. I'll tell you what I see.
The property name and destination is enough to start. Scope and pricing depend on size and how many platforms you're live on.