IHG swaps alcohol for tea in Chinese hotels IHG is to unveil a key part of its plan to conquer China: a hotel specifically designed by its China-based team for the Chinese. Surprisingly, it is the first international hotel chain to have come up with the idea. The Hualuxe will greet its guests with a late-night noodle bar, a traditional Chinese garden in the lobby, and a team of hosts to greet and fawn over VIP guests to make sure they feel important and get plenty of "face." The Chinese name of the hotel will be "Huayi," suggesting "a place where the Chinese elite gather." The chain will target the high-end of the market, but will expand out into second and third tier Chinese cities, said Richard Solomons, the IHG chief executive. This is a local brand created by our local employees. The idea is a holistically Chinese experience," he said. There will be no bar, for example. The Chinese much prefer to drink tea, so there will be a tea house instead. Hotels are often treated in China as a venue for private business, so IHG will lay on a series of "multi-function suites," rooms where a deal can be thrashed out before the participants go on to have a banquet. Mr Solomons said there may even be karaoke. Government officials, whose spending on food and entertaining is estimated to run to some £60bn, are a key market, he added. The first Hualuxe is due to open next year, and upon launch IHG said it had signed 20 deals with investors to build Hualuxe hotels. "That is unheard of," said Mr Solomons. We did not have that when we launched our new brand in the United States recently. He said there could be 100 Hualuxe properties across China over the next two decades and that the brand could eventually find its way overseas as more Chinese travellers venture abroad. China currently accounts for 10pc of the company's profits but more than a quarter of its rooms in development. IHG plans to have as many hotels in China by 2025 as it does in the US, roughly the time when the economies of the two will be the same size.