Extraordinary Genius

“You had also stayed in those five-stars hotels before. Other than having bigger rooms and suites, what else do they have? This hotel is only a place for travelers to sleep. We only need to maintain our customer service will do.”

“After this hotel chain reaches a bigger scale, the running cost and hotel supplies will be lowered, and it will be more profitable than our guest houses.” Zhong Qingxian laughed.

“That’s right. But in the room, we should place some additional items. Hmmm... give Kameda Masao a call later, and he will tell you to want items you should place in the rooms. Remember, these additional items are chargeable, and it will be more expensive than buying outside. It is just like buying food on the trains.”

Feng Yu thought for a while and felt the rooms must be equipped with condoms. In this area, Japan’s hotel industry is more developed than in the US.

“Oh, although the hotel doesn’t have restaurants, what should we do if the guest is hungry at night?”

“Our front desk will have instant noodles.” Zhong Qingxian replied. You are the one who doesn’t want to have restaurants in the hotel.

Feng Yu shook his head. “Do you want to let our guests walk downstairs to the front desk to buy instant noodles? Even if we have elevators, the guests will also feel it is inconvenient. They might become hungry after a shower. That’s why our rooms must have some food, like Lehaha instant noodles, Tai Hua Ham, preserved vegetables, etc. We can also place our Lehaha’s distilled water, beverages, beer, etc., in the room. All these must have their prices stated clearly to let the guest know that they must pay for it.

The guest houses under the holding company do have such services, but most of them don’t. It is mostly the guest house’s managers who do it. Zhong Qingxian thought for a while and felt this is a good idea, as this will be another sales channel for Lehaha products.

“There must be an electric kettle in every room, and the kettles must be our Wind and Rain’s auto electricity power cut-off kettles. All rooms must have air conditioners...”

“Wait. All rooms must have air conditioners?! We will need a lot of air conditioners. Is this necessary?”

“No. This is to differentiate our hotels from others. It is just like TV. If our rooms are not equipped with a TV, it will look like those dirty motels. We can equip our rooms with those ordinary small air conditioners and upgrade to a centralized air conditioning unit when we build new hotels in the future. 24-hours hot water access, cleanliness of the room, bedsheets, etc.... are very important, and you must also take note of it.”

“Alright. I will consolidate whatever you said and make it our Yue Lai Inn’s standard.”

“Not only will it be Yue Lai Inn’s standard. We will become the budget hotel industry standard!”

Zhong Qingxian is speechless. The budget hotel also requires a standard? Industry-standard?!

Feng Yu saw the look on Zhong Qingxian’s face and decided to give him a lesson.

“Old Zhong... How do you differentiate the levels of companies?”

“By their scale or market value?”

Feng Yu shook his head. “Wrong. The best company will set industry standards. For example, Wind and Rain Electronic’s DVD industry standards. Anyone that manufactures DVD players must follow our standards. Our retail prices had become the cost standard for other manufacturers. The manufacturers whose production cost is higher than our retail prices will be eliminated. That’s why we are the biggest.”

“The second-tier companies will focus on brands. Songjiang Motors and Lehaha are brands everyone knows. But we must still follow other people’s standards, and our competitors can introduce new brands. For example, Lenovo, Jianlibao, etc.”

The third-tier companies are selling products and services. For example, XX TV is providing good after-sales services and repairs. What does this mean? It means their TV break down easily. Some products don’t have brands and are still selling well. Companies in this tier have a low resistance to the market forces.”

“The fourth-tier companies, which is also the lowest tier, is selling based on prices. That means they are using cheap products to enter the market. It requires low-cost labor, and the products they produce have no technological elements or need any after-sales services. These companies have worse resistance to the market forces. Any one of its raw material prices increases, their products will not be competitive anymore, and the company might have to close down.”

“Simply put it. Setting the standards is equivalent to a leader or the head of a company. Companies that focus on brands is equivalent to a department head and must follow the standards. Once the leader is changed, the standards will be changed, and they must readapt to the new changes. Those producing products and services are like the workers at the lower levels. They must always follow the instructions from the higher-ups. The ones selling base on prices are like machines. They are controlled by the workers and can only make money if they move fast. But if one day they cannot move fast enough, they will be eliminated from the market!”

“Now, do you think our hotels should set the standards? We must set the service standards, pricing standards, room amenities standards, etc. We must let others copy from us, and this is the only way to maintain our advantages. We can even use these standards as barriers to other competitors. There might be some people out there who want to set up a budget hotel chain like us. But they will not have enough funds to set up one. Just having TV and air conditioners in every room is enough to stop many people from entering this industry!”

Zhong Qingxian is deep in thoughts. Seems like there are standards in every industry. If that’s the case, they must be the ones who set the standard and not the ones who follow them.

“Alright. You can ask Kameda Masao for his opinions on these standards. Japan’s hotel industry is more developed than us, especially the budget hotels. You must take note of the customer service and cleanliness of our hotel... oh... you can also prepare some hourly rate rooms for guests to rest.”

“Hourly rate rooms?”

Feng Yu sighed. Why is Zhong Qingxian so slow?

“Think about the hotels located near the schools. Students will not dare to stay overnights outside of their hostels, right?”

Zhong Qingxian finally understood what Feng Yu meant. He sighed. The kids nowadays... During his time, no students will be this bold.

Suddenly Zhong Qingxian remembered his daughter, and his face changed. He took out his phone and said to Feng Yu. “Sorry, I need to make a call.”

Zhong Qingxian walks out while talking on the phone.

Feng Yu shrugged his shoulders and had a wicked smile on his face. See... these are the cons of having a daughter. You will worry about her all the time. Having a son is so much better as the parents will not worry about him being taken advantage of!