I recently was asked by a client of our video training, “How can I sell a hotel to Chinese buyers?” I asked him to send me his current marketing materials so I could go over them. He sent me a list of the types of hotels he wanted to market in China: Leased hotels, managed hotels, vacant or non-performing hotels in addition to some luxury apartments that he wanted to market to well of private Chinese investors.
Each asset class had a description of his services and he was going to translate this into Chinese to he could contact potential Chinese buyers. At this point, I stopped him and asked, “who was he selling to? and why would they buy it?”
The problem is not knowing how Chinese investors think, who and what they are buying and for what purposes. My client was thinking he could find investors who were looking for ROI and cash flow. However, although these types of clients exist, they would not be the best clients to target. To sell to Chinese you need to think from a Chinese perspective.
Why would a Chinese investor buy a hotel in another country? My experience selling hotels to Chinese came in handy as we marketed several hotels to Chinese in the UK, Japan, the US and Canada. I’ve found that the best clients to target are companies that will use it themselves. Clients who have a need, right now, for a solution. Who would that be? guess…
Chinese travel agencies are my top choice. Especially large state owned ones. We transacted a hotel in the UK in a matter of weeks to a SOE travel agency headquartered in a 3rd tier Chinese city. They had an unusual amount of Chinese tourists going to that area and were having trouble booking accommodation and they wanted their own hotel.
This goes back to a common theme for Chinese investors. They wanted to own the hotel, the restaurant (which they soon changed to a Chinese restaurant) and everything else in the value chain. Essentially they wanted to “own the racecourse” ie send their clients to their hotel and to eat at their restaurant and to go on their tour and to shop at their gift shops. Makes sense right?
They also soon hired Chinese staff and purchased their own buses to take guests around on. If you have a hotel or other big ticket asset that fits the bill, write it up in a way that would be attractive to the Chinese travel agencies. Do some research and find out which Chinese tour companies are sending clients to your area and market directly to them. If they like it, the transaction can move very quickly and likely paid in cash.
Keep the questions coming and if you want to learn more, sign up for our course at http://www.chinacashbuyers.com/
