Tycoon: I Have an Unlimited Modifier novel Chapter 294

Chapter 294: Chapter 170: The Threshold for Meeting Qi Sheng

After dropping Tao Ronghui and Xu Huifang off at the Ambassador’s Villa, Qi Sheng got down to business.

First, he listened to Zhou Meng’s report.

Regarding the restaurant renovation budget, the quote from Shengxuan Decoration was 13 million.

It was a moderate price.

For a Chinese restaurant in a luxury hotel like this one, the renovation standard is typically over 5,000 per square meter.

Take the West Lake Four Seasons Hotel, for example, which opened around the same time as the Banyan Tree in Xixi Wetland.

Its Chinese restaurant is the incredibly popular Jinsha Hall.

Back then, the 1,680-square-meter restaurant cost 8.88 million for the renovation alone.

That was back in ’09, so you can imagine how extravagant it was.

Now, ten years later, both material and labor costs have risen.

Shengxuan Decoration’s quote came out to about 6,500 per square meter, which was a very high-spec renovation budget.

"We can work with this price."

Qi Sheng asked casually, "What did the property owner say?"

"Xixi Investment is very supportive of us increasing the restaurant’s average customer spend, as long as we ensure our revenue doesn’t drop."

Zhou Meng immediately bowed and explained, "The owner we’re partnered with, Xixi Investment, is actually pretty decent. They’ve already delisted several brands that were performing slightly worse than us."

"Because our hotel has a high price point, our usual occupancy rate is only 24%. It only spikes to 60% for short periods during holidays like the Dragon Boat Festival."

"During the off-season, including the restaurant, our monthly revenue is only about 3.5 million."

"During long holidays like May Day, a single month’s revenue might surge to 5 million."

"But that doesn’t happen often—just May Day and the National Day holiday. On average, our monthly revenue is around 4 million."

"After deducting the rent for the owner and our operating costs, our annual profit is less than ten million."

After hearing this, Qi Sheng couldn’t help but frown. "The revenue is too low."

"You know as well as I do, the Group’s brand positioning for Banyan Tree doesn’t allow individual hotels to adjust prices on their own. We’re only allowed to lower them for special promotions, and even then, the price has to stay above 2,000."

Zhou Meng gave a wry smile. "At that price, there are too many other hotel choices in Hangzhou. Not to mention Aman, which has a huge base of loyal fans and a much more secluded location than ours."

"The hotels along West Lake alone steal seventy to eighty percent of our potential guests."

"Especially tourists from out of town. When they come to Hangzhou, their first choice is definitely a hotel around West Lake."

"The guests who choose our location in Xixi Wetland are almost all local residents. We get very few out-of-town tourists."

Qi Sheng could understand Zhou Meng’s complaints.

If he were visiting Hangzhou, he would also choose a high-end hotel near West Lake first.

"If I gave you a location near West Lake, are you confident you could increase the hotel’s occupancy rate?"

"I’d stake my career on it, but the hotels by West Lake are all spoken for. They’re mostly state-owned enterprises, so there’s no way for us to get a piece of the pie."

Zhou Meng was genuinely frustrated.

Even though he worked his team to the bone running promotions during holidays, the buzz was always temporary.

Once the holiday passed, the occupancy rate would drop below 30% again.

After deducting operating costs and the owner’s cut, there was hardly any profit left to speak of.

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