H World Group Limited (NASDAQ:HTHT) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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In terms of the long-term target, again, similar to other regions, we are targeting 20% of the market share in Southern part of China as well. Actually we are — we have been opening several flagship stores in core cities in Southern part of China like Shenzhen, Guangzhou by using our HanTing JI Hotel as well as Orange and Crystal Orange to provide some of the showcase in that market. So, we are hoping that in the next three to five years we will be achieving a very good development in that particular regions. Thank you.

Ronald Leung: Thank you, Jason.

Operator: Thank you for your question. Our next question comes from the line of Simon Cheung from Goldman Sachs. Please ask your questions Simon.

Simon Cheung: My first question is related to the price of ADL. We have observed that over the last couple of quarters the ADL has been very resilient, in fact actually exceeding the 2019 level? Given the fact that there’s a lot of independent hotels being closed over the last couple of quarters, given COVID, would management see the opportunity for them to raise price upon the COVID — after the COVID is over. Thank you.

Hui Jin: Okay. Thank you. Yes, for the ADR, actually, it has benefited from both external and internal factors. For our internal factors this is actually aligned with our regional management that we have been doing over the last few months. So, internally, we have been using pricing synergy, brand synergy and regional synergy to create a better ADR to assure that for a longer-term healthier and a sustainable in growth, and it becomes a very important part of the long-term revenue management. This is one. And for the external factors, yes, this is due to several factors, like higher inflation, as well as the impact of the continuous closure of the independent hotels that also, from the external sides, to provide some of the room for our further improving the ADRs in the longer term. Thank you.

Simon Cheung: The next question is in relation to the brand strategies observed and also saw in the presentation that now you have three brands, where you have more than 500 stores, including HanTing Hotel and Orange. Wondering whether the company would want to concentrate it in those three brands or several key brands. Or just like other competitors they’re going to be diversified and expanded into a lot more different brands. Thank you.

Hui Jin: Yes, to answer your questions, in terms of our brand strategy our key thing behind this is that in each of the segments. We were trying to build the number one or number two brands in the market. So in terms of our economic segment, we have been successfully established a very strong brand which is HanTing and we are also establishing now the Ni Hao brands for specifically for the lower-tier cities penetration. And in terms of the middle scale segment, our JI Hotel has been very famous in the market and leading top brands in the middle scale segment. And we are seeing a pretty good progress on the development of Orange Hotel. And we hope that it’s going to be creating another one in that particular segment. So basically for each of the segments, we want to have one or two brands which, is on the top list of the brands and which can create a very popular brands that our customers like and make helps our franchisees to make money. Thank you.

Simon Cheung: Thank you.

Operator: Well. Thank you very much for all your questions. We have now reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I’ll now turn the conference back to the management team for closing remarks.

Hui Jin: Thank you everyone for taking your time with us today. And we look forward to see you in the upcoming quarter. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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