Budget hotel chain Home Inns says it had 134 hotels in operation in 39 cities, including 94 leased-and-operated hotels and 40 franchised-and-managed hotels, as of the end of 2006.

Home Inns had an additional 48 hotels under contract, of which 28 are leased-and-operated hotels and 20 are franchised-and-managed hotels.

"We are pleased to have added 27 hotels in operation to our hotel chain in the fourth quarter of 2006," said David Sun, Home Inn's Chief Executive Officer. "We believe that the fragmentation in China's hotel market today presents many opportunities for us to expand our network going forward."

The hotel does have a great deal of competition in China though. Budget hotel brands like Motel 168 are GreenTree Inn are competing with dozens of other chains in the lucrative economy hotel sector.