Hanting Hotel Chains has announced that it has been renamed Hanting Hotel Group and will implement a multi-brand strategy.

Currently, Hanting has two brands: Hanting Hotel, targeting the medium business market, and Hanting Express Inn, which is positioned as a budget hotel. Zhang Tuo, COO of Hanting group, said that by the end of 2007, Hanting had established outlets in key domestic business cities, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the areas surrounding of Bohai Bay. The group currently has more outlets with the Hanting Express Inn brand than under the Hanting Hotel brand.

To push its multi-brand strategy, the group will unveil a new brand with rates lower than RMB100 per night, targeting backpackers and students. The first direct-run outlet of this new brand is scheduled to open in Hangzhou this year.

This year, Hanting is focusing on its budget hotels' expansion while its brand "Hanting Hotel" will be developed in first-tier cities. At present, Hanting has a total of approximately 100 properties, and about 200 franchised hotels. It is expected to have more than 200 properties and over 300 franchised hotels by the end of this year.