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on the eve of the national day, the tourism industry is about to enter its peak season.however, a luxury hotel unexpectedly announced that it would be closed for three months.

on the morning of september 21, the intercontinental huizhou resort hotel, a subsidiary of the international hotel brand intercontinental hotels group, was in chaos, with a group of people surrounding the hotel's general manager and financial director, arguing endlessly. they gathered here to demand their wages and social security that had been owed for nearly a year.

it is understood that the intercontinental huizhou resort hotel, which opened in 2009 and has been in operation for 15 years, claims to be the only resort hotel in guangdong province that is managed by an international five-star hotel and combines hot springs and spas. recently, the hotel announced that it would temporarily close.

according to employees, the hotel currently has more than 100 employees. since a year or two ago, there have been intermittent salary payments or monthly salary payments. up to now, the accumulated salary arrears for employees ranges from 9 to 11 months, plus the unpaid social security and provident fund, the amount exceeds 6 million yuan.

the reporter noticed that the operating entity of huizhou intercontinental resort hotel is huizhou golden goose hot spring industrial co., ltd. intercontinental resort hotel, the hotel brand manager is intercontinental hotels group, and the owner company is huizhou golden goose hot spring industrial co., ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of listed company r&f properties.

zhao huanyan, a senior economist in the tourism and hotel industry, said in an interview with the daily economic news that the fundamental reason for the various phenomena such as transfer and closure in the hotel industry is that there is oversupply in the industry, leading to operational difficulties.

employees claim that their wages have been in arrears for nearly a year

li li (pseudonym), an employee who has worked at the hotel for more than ten years, told the reporter of daily economic news that he received a public notice issued by the hotel on the afternoon of september 19. the notice showed that the management contract between huizhou golden goose hot spring industrial co., ltd. and six continents hotel management (shanghai) co., ltd. for huizhou intercontinental resort hotel will expire on september 20, 2024, and the project will no longer be operated as an intercontinental hotel after the contract expires.starting from october 1, 2024, the intercontinental resort hotel of huizhou golden goose hot spring industrial co., ltd. will temporarily close for business. the project's operating qualifications and hardware facilities will be rectified and reorganized until it meets the conditions for reopening and operation. it is expected to be closed for three months.

on september 21, the reporter called the front desk of intercontinental huizhou resort several times, but no one answered. later, the reporter called the intercontinental hotel's official reservation center to book the intercontinental huizhou resort as a consumer. the staff said that the hotel had been separated from the intercontinental hotel group and closed since september 20, and it was currently unavailable for reservation.

on the afternoon of the 21st, the reporter checked the ota (online travel) platform again and found that the hotel was displayed as an "african intercontinental brand hotel".

image source: ota platform screenshot

according to the official website and ota platform of huizhou intercontinental resort, the hotel opened in 2009, covers an area of ​​over 1,200 acres and has nearly 200 rooms.

li li introduced that the hotel currently has more than 100 employees. since 2023, there have been intermittent salary payments or combined payments for several months. according to the bank account flow provided by li li, his salary for august 2023 was paid at the end of december 2023. since 2024, li li has received a total of 4 months of salary. it was not until august 2024 that he received the salary for december 2023. the salary for january to august 2024 has not been received yet.

regarding the wage arrears, the reporter also received confirmation from other hotel employees that their experiences were similar to li li's, and most of them were owed 9-11 months' salary. a statistical table of the deregistration expenses of the huizhou intercontinental resort hotel provided by the hotel employees showed that as of august 2024, the total amount of wages, social security and provident funds owed to employees was more than 6 million yuan.

it is understood that huizhou intercontinental resort hotel once had a booming business, with a staff of five to six hundred people. but later, business became worse and worse, and the number of employees continued to decrease. li li also thought about the reason. many guests complained that the hotel did not live up to its name after checking in. the fundamental reason was that the hotel had been in operation for a long time. although it was partially renovated in 2017, the hardware and software facilities were too old and did not meet the needs of current consumers.

zhao wei (pseudonym), a supplier owner of the huizhou intercontinental resort hotel, told reporters that after he proposed to terminate the cooperation, the payment for the goods had not yet been settled, and the hotel proposed to offset it with consumption such as stay.

li li estimated that if the hotel is fully renovated, the funds needed may exceed 200 million yuan. "at present, the hotel has said that it will close down, but i don't think the company will spend so much money to continue running the hotel." li li does not have much hope that the hotel will resume business in the future. he just hopes to get the salary that is owed to him as soon as possible.

industry insiders: hotel industry is already oversupplied

tianyancha shows thatthe operating entity of huizhou intercontinental resort hotel is huizhou golden goose hot spring industrial co., ltd. the owner company is huizhou golden goose hot spring industrial co., ltd., which was established in 2004 with a registered capital of 50.1 million yuan.from september 21 to 23, the reporter called the industrial and commercial registration phone numbers and public contact numbers of the hotel operator and owner company many times, but no one answered the calls, and the interview letters sent did not receive a response.

it is worth noting that huizhou golden goose hot spring industry co., ltd. is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the listed company guangzhou r&f properties co., ltd. in december 2014, r&f properties announced that it would acquire the equity interests of huizhou golden goose industry co., ltd. at a total price of 530 million yuan.

r&f group has been in the high-end hotel industry since 2004 and tends to cooperate with international hotel brands. regarding the closure of huizhou intercontinental resort hotel and the payment of employee wages, from september 21 to 23, the reporter called r&f properties' public telephone several times and sent an interview letter to the company's public email address, but no response was received as of press time.

image source: intercontinental huizhou resort official wechat

as of the close of trading on september 23, r&f properties' share price was hk$0.75 per share, with a total market value of hk$2.814 billion. financial data showed that r&f properties' revenue in 2023 would be rmb 36.24 billion, with a net loss of rmb 20.16 billion. in 2019, at its peak, r&f properties achieved a turnover of rmb 90.81 billion and a net profit of rmb 10.09 billion.

the original brand manager of huizhou intercontinental resort hotel, intercontinental hotels group, is a world-renowned international hotel brand listed on the london and new york stock exchanges. as of the close of trading on september 20, intercontinental hotels' us stock price was $108.21 per share, with a total market value of $17.3 billion, which is more than 100 billion yuan when converted into rmb.

as of the first half of 2024, intercontinental hotels group has 6,430 hotels worldwide with a total of 955,000 rooms, ranking top five in the world in terms of total rooms. the reporter noted that after the intercontinental huizhou resort hotel separated from the intercontinental hotels group, intercontinental hotels group also operates the crowne plaza huizhou in huizhou.

in the first half of 2024, intercontinental hotels group's total revenue was us$2.322 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4%, and operating profit increased by 12% year-on-year to us$535 million. in the first half of the year, global revenue per available room (revpar) increased by 3.0%, of which greater china decreased by 2.6%.

zhao huanyan told reporters that the fundamental reason why the hotel industry is now experiencing various phenomena such as transfer and closure is that there is oversupply in the hotel industry, leading to operational difficulties.

on september 21, a reporter from the "daily economic news" contacted the intercontinental hotel, hoping to conduct an in-depth interview on the closure of the huizhou intercontinental resort hotel and the payment of employee wages, but no response was received as of press time.