比佛利酒店的服务员展示传统中餐
网易教育讯 据美国侨报网编译报道，于朝亮（Yu ChaoLiang，音译）和她的妻子最近要到圣塔莫妮卡市出差，为了省钱而定了中等价格的连锁酒店。显然，他们得了便宜但并不舒服。
房间里没有拖鞋，没有热水壶，更没有免费牙膏这种在中国酒店里标配的东西。餐厅提供早餐，但是没有任何中国特色的早饭，比如大米粥之类的。“我什么都能吃，但是什么都不想吃，”于称。
据洛杉矶时报网（LA Times）报道，为了吸引像于氏夫妇这样的中国游客，南加州一些高档酒店做出了极大的改变，开始提供中国游客专属的全新菜单，中文报纸、拖鞋、热水壶、印花枕头一应俱全。
识时务者为俊杰。中国游客是全球增长最快的群体，2012年来美访问的中国游客人数达到150万，同比增长35%。此外，中国游客在美每次旅行人均消费为5948美元，比国际游客平均消费高出36%
“我们的策略就是向中国游客提供他们想要的服务，然后一传十十传百，” 比佛利山庄酒店（Montage Beverly Hills）的营销主管查尔斯·布莱克（CharlesBlack）称。该酒店标准间收费为600美元/天。
比佛利酒店是首选酒店集团（PreferredHotel Group）超过650个酒店成员之一。该集团日前启动了一个名为“Chinaready”的项目，如果其成员满足25个条件以上，就能加入该项目。
为了加入这个项目，比佛利酒店今年新增了多项专属服务，比如提供写着中文“欢迎”的枕头，房间中提供拖鞋、热水壶、剃须膏、刮胡刀、牙刷，这些都仅供中国游客预订的房间。
对于初次来美的游客来说，在豪华酒店住宿并不是首选，他们更乐于把钱花在购买礼物和纪念品上。而且，很多中国游客因为随旅游团出行，无法选择酒店，旅行团一般只预订便宜的酒店。
也正是因此，奢华酒店的经理们把推广对象定为多次来美旅游、享受高档酒店服务的“常客”。这些顾客多是来美出差，没必要为了省钱而预订便宜的酒店。
“这些游客很快就会发现高档酒店的好处，”尔湾酒店（HotelIrvine）的新晋经理J·D·谢弗（J.D. Shafer）称。谢弗计划提供中文介绍材料、中文报纸以及传统中餐。
奢华高档酒店希望，能有越来越多的中国游客退出住廉价小旅店、游玩名胜的队伍，开始享受高端酒店带来的奢华享受。
“我们竭尽全力去宠溺中国游客，”位于工业城（City of Industry）的太平洋棕榈大酒店（Pacific Palms Resort）的营销主管称。该酒店把整个8层设为中国游客专属区，该层所有房间都提供热水壶和拖鞋。
全美旅游协会（National Tour Assn）的郝称，高端酒店这种策略确实能吸引中国游客，不过第一次来美的游客仍然会参观主题公园，为了省钱住在便宜旅店。
徐强（Qiang Xu，音译）是从北京来美的游客。他在格兰岱尔市（Glendale）的一家连锁酒店预定了房间，称价格和位置是他挑酒店的主要因素。
不过，徐称，他以后再来美，会考虑预订提供专属服务的酒店，尽管会更贵。“这次住酒店，我只能用咖啡机泡茶，”徐抱怨称。（编译：马柯斯）
Tiffany Li, a guest relations agent at the Montage Beverly Hills, displays a traditional Chinese breakfast in one of the suites.
The hotel is adding services and extras to draw Chinese tourists. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times / November 8, 2013)
Yu Chao Liang and his wife saved a few bucks recently by checking into a mid-price chain hotel in Santa Monica for a two-day business trip from Suzhou, China. But they were not impressed.
In the room, they found no slippers, teakettles or complimentary toothpaste — extras that come standard in Chinese hotels. The hot breakfast bar in the lobby was free but it didn't include any of the traditional Chinese breakfast dishes they get back home, like rice porridge.
"I can eat almost anything," Yu said, referring to the breakfast at his hotel. "But I won't like it."
In hopes of appealing to Chinese travelers like Yu and his wife, some high-end hotels in Southern California are making big changes such as offering new menus, Chinese-language newspapers, slippers, teakettles and even monogrammed pillows in the room.
It makes sense. Chinese travelers are the fastest-growing segment in the world, thanks to the nation's thriving economy and new policies to ease travel restrictions. The number of Chinese travelers visiting the U.S. grew to 1.5 million in 2012, a 35% increase over the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Chinese tourists, on average, spent $5,948 per visit in the U.S. last year, compared with an average of about $4,370 per visit for all overseas visitors, according to the U.S. Travel Assn.
"Our strategy is to provide services that Chinese travelers want and hope they go out and spread the word about the Montage," said Charles Black, director of sales and marketing at the Montage Beverly Hills, where a standard room is about $600 per night.
The Montage is a member of the Preferred Hotel Group, a collection of more than 650 independent hotels. The group launched a program Thursday to designate members as "China ready" if they meet more than 25 criteria, such as employing a Mandarin speaker to take reservations.
As part of its effort to be China-ready, the Montage this year added several extras to appeal to Chinese visitors such as monogrammed pillows with the word "Welcome" emblazoned in Mandarin. Slippers are standard in all rooms, and teakettles, shave cream, razors and toothbrushes are added in those rooms reserved for Chinese travelers.
Staying at luxury hotels hasn't typically been important for first-time Chinese visitors, who usually focus their spending on gifts and souvenirs to take back home. Some Chinese visitors get no choice in hotels because they book with tour operators who reserve cheap rooms to better compete against other tour companies.
"Tour operators have to put them in two- or one-star hotels because they are on a budget," said Haybina Hao, director of international development for the National Tour Assn., the 63-year-old group that represents the country's tour professionals.
For that reason, managers of luxury hotels say they are targeting "seasoned" visitors who are returning to the U.S. for a second, third or fourth visit and want to enjoy the amenities offered at a high-end hotel. Many of those returning visitors travel to the U.S. on business trips and no longer need to book cheap hotels as part of a tour group.
"These travelers will soon discover the finer properties," said J.D. Shafer, the newly hired general manager of the Hotel Irvine, Jamboree Center, who plans to offer translated material, Chinese newspapers and traditional Chinese dishes at the hotel.
The trend of catering to Chinese travelers is spreading across North America.
The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs, the Charles Hotel Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., and the Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon, Canada, are taking part in the "China ready" program with the Preferred Hotel Group.
Other businesses in the travel industry — including theme parks, tour bus operators and shops — have begun to cater to Chinese tourists by hiring translators or posting signs and pamphlets in Mandarin. Even some economy hotels have added extras to appeal to Chinese visitors.
Now luxury hotel owners hope many Chinese visitors are ready to graduate from booking cheap hotels and visiting typical tourist attractions to enjoying the luxuries of high-end U.S. accommodations.
"We try to pamper them as much as we can," said Mark Podolski, director of sales and marketing for Pacific Palms Resort in the City of Industry. The resort has dedicated an entire floor to Chinese visitors — the eighth floor, a lucky number in Chinese culture — where all rooms include teakettles and slippers.
American hotels that offer such extras will appeal to Chinese visitors, said Hao of the National Tour Assn. But she said first-time leisure travelers who visit the U.S. to shop and visit theme parks will continue to stay at cheap hotels to save money.
"Leisure travelers don't want to spend that much, but the business traveler may want to check into a high-end hotel," she said.
Qiang Xu, a Chinese visitor from Beijing, booked a room in a chain hotel in Glendale during a recent trip to shop and see tourist attractions around Hollywood. He said he chose his hotel based on price and location.
But he said he might consider paying more in the future for a hotel room with traditional Chinese amenities.
"I had to make tea with a coffee maker in my hotel," he complained.
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