Ji Qi

"At the time, Ctrip’s online bookings were already in the tens of thousands and we were quite familiar with hotel sales across China. Many clients pointed out that Ctrip did not have enough booking options for budget hotels. And, unlike most hotels that seemed to have limitless room supplies, the most popular budget hotel, Xinya Star Hotel, allocated us only a few rooms. The supply-demand situation told us that there was a market gap in budget hotel supply. Our company decided to test the water by investing in budget hotels and appointed me to explore. This later led to the emergence of Home Inns."

"Our business model was hardly an earth-shattering innovation; we just followed Expedia’s model, by first creating content, then relying on hotel room and ticket bookings to take profit. That was an era when a good business plan was enough to attract financing. Our plan was not as exciting as a web portal but with the impressive qualifications of the four founders we were able to get some venture capital. The first tranche came from IDG, and from this beginning they’ve invested in the three enterprises I participated in founding: Ctrip, Home Inn and Hanting hotels. It just goes to prove that even in a crazy era there are smart people who understand what’s going on."

"After emptying the mind and entering a peaceful state the thoughts of daily irritations can be guided in: Should I marry that person? Should I acquire that company? At that time your first intuition is invariably the right answer. It’s possible that when meditating the brain approaches its natural state, a state where desires are at a minimum. Now when you weigh up desires you can arrive at the correct weighting."

"Our experience with the four BTG hotels convinced me more than ever of the direct management model, making me determined to abandon alliances, which is why Home Inn developed so fast and quickly became profitable. At Home Inn I brought a great deal of IT and internet business style with me, much of which…"

"In the setup stage of Hanting, listing on the stock market was not the objective; rather, it was considered a means of achieving our objectives. Hanting’s vision was to become a leading international hotel chain. I characterized this ideal: a group of like-minded friends happily working together to achieve something great."

"The last tranche of financing for Ctrip was at about the time of the bursting of the dotcom bubble. We were concerned that we had insufficient cash reserves, so we sought even more financing. That’s why when the company began to be profitable, we had a lot of excess cash. The company decided to forge a new direction for investment to make best use of the excess capital – the cost of this capital was extremely expensive, having come from the dilution of the founding shareholders’ shares."

"We were quite lucky with initial financing because most of the investors were close friends who understood us well. That was especially true of IDG when Zhou Quan jokingly said once in Hainan, “Ji Qi, we will definitely invest in your next enterprise, even if you go into trading dog poop.” That was hugely encouraging and left me deeply touched."

"Actually, a company like Huazhu needs both types of people. It needs an entrepreneur like me; a founder and a disrupter, who is a leader. I’m a sensitive person and a laid-back leader with something of an artistic temperament. A company also needs a professional manager of which Jenny Zhang is an outstanding example. She has received formal training, has managerial experience in a large enterprise, is exceptionally smart, and also loves the business with genuine passion."

"This is the third stage of our enterprise as I see it. To generate management cash flow and profit, we not only create new brands, we also purchase and merge with suitable high-end brands, including luxury brands. My eyes are also set on the fourth and the fifth stage of our company. I have successfully seized a large territory in the Chinese hotel market. Now I am aiming for a bigger territory – the global hotel market. We set up our global headquarters in Singapore. The first step of our global expansion is first to enter Asia, then on to Europe and finally the United States. This will constitute the different waves of our company’s future development."