Putonghua television channels. Congee for breakfast. Smoking rooms.
China has become the biggest travel spender in the world, and hotels are taking notice. Across Europe and the United States, back-office planners and front desk clerks are learning Chinese customs to attract the new travellers and keep them returning.
The market is large, and growing. China's economy included US$102 billion spent on travel abroad in 2012, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation. Rising incomes, combined with a relaxation of foreign travel restrictions and the sheer number of citizens, have fuelled the Chinese growth.
Scott Taber, a vice-president at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said his company was updating its employee training and guest offerings to meet the 76 per cent increase in travellers from China over the previous year. Bellmen, reception clerks and telephone operators are being trained to pronounce Chinese names and offer Chinese newspapers, translated welcome materials and green tea in rooms at hotels in Paris, London, Los Angeles and other cities.
"We operate six hotels in mainland China and have learned cultural expectations and preferences from our experience with guests there," Taber said.
At a minimum, hotels that hope to attract and retain Chinese business teach their front desk staff and reservations agents basic cultural information. Guests from China are not assigned to rooms that include the number four, which is considered unlucky because it sounds like the word for death. Chinese business practices and management hierarchy influence room assignments, so managers need to be assigned to a higher floor than their team, or given a higher room number. Some hotel chains formalise these amenities and services under names like JW Marriott's "Li Yu", meaning "To Serve with Courtesy".