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You won't have to go to Dubai to enjoy seven-star luxury anymore as the world's second seven star hotel — and China's first — is going to be built in Sanya, Hainan. Construction of the 120m high hotel will begin later this year and will be completed by 2011 to be managed under the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts brand. Shanghai Daily tells us more:
Located in the center of Haitang Bay in Sanya City, the hotel will spread over 150 square kilometers and include a luxury yacht club, a golf course and the biggest ocean park in Asia.A 150 square kilometer hotel?! Good heavens, that's one-seventh the size of Chongming Island and one-fifth of Singapore. And that's not all. According to the Hainan Daily, Sanya's urban planning authority have announced that the city will build not one, but two seven-star hotels.It will be among another 20 five-star hotels in the area and will be a major landmark in Sanya when it is completed.
The hotel will be designed by UK-based W.S Atkins plc which designed the world's first seven-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, in Dubai.
Really, we're just a slight tad disappointed they didn't decide to go one up and build the world's first eight-star hotel instead.
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Pangu Plaza, Beijing. 7 star hotel. Research for this article?
It seems like a 7-star hotel should at least have a non-greyscale Artist's Rendering.
Not to nitpick, but in the world of hotels, this "7-star" ranking is purely a BS marketing gimmick. The Burj is a 7 star hotel because they deemed it so. That said, the level of service there is surely beyond the means of most mainland hoteliers.
On another note, China should work on actually provide 4 star service in their 5 star hotels. Or just through reality overboard and make that enormous stingray or whatever the hell it is an 8 Star Hotel! Maybe install the world's fastest elevators, just to make a point.
This article should give this some perspective:
Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33930
This sounds like a huge money loser.
1) Most of Sanya's visitors (Chinese) won't be able to afford it.
2) Sanya is not nearly as "hot" a destination as other tropical paradises yet. Those with the cash simply still go to Bali, Fiji, Phuket, etc. Sanya may be nice, but it doesn't have the name for itself yet.
3) Dubai has made a "brand" for itself in these kinds of over-the-top products. You expect to look for the luxury hotels and brand-name goods when you go there.
4) Dubai is also a financial centre, meaning there are many rich people going there anyways.
5) A SECOND one? So it would almost instantly have competition in the luxury category.
There are tons of glitzy attempts to rake in the bucks in China. They are rarely successful, and usually are located in central locations (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, etc.)
Am I wrong? Is Sanya just THE place to go for rich tourists (from China or otherwise).... enough that a 150-sq.-km hotel WITH a second one nearby (and competing with 18 other five-star hotels no less) will recoup its investment?
Taihanasie: they are not trying to compete with Dubai or attract foreigners there. It's gonna be mostly for rich Chinese people who don't want to fly abroad because they don't like the hassle / can't speak the language / etc. We all know how many rich Chinese guys there are, and how they usually love to buy the most expensive thing on the menu. I think this will work quite well.
I think more of standard 2-star hotels are badly needed, considering the ever growing population of so-called expats whose number one reason to be in China is to live and travel cheap.
Isn't the hotel that Shui On are building in Xintiandi Chinas first 7-star hostel?
"they are not trying to compete with Dubai or attract foreigners there. "
I did not say they were. I said it would not be economically viable because of the considerations I mentioned, and that this sort of project is more economically viable in a place like Dubai because of the same considerations.
See: 1) Most of Sanya's visitors (Chinese) won't be able to afford it.
Do you really think there are enough Chinese who can afford 6-star accommodation on vacation to fill up two enormous new hotels AND 18 other 5-star ones?
Isn't the hotel that Shui On are building in Xintiandi Chinas first 7-star hostel?