36Kr reported that shared accommodation brand Islands has secured the Pre-B round of financing, backed by Vision Capital and a Didi investor.
Islands is applying the Uber model to provide branding support for independent hotels in the following aspects:
Operation & management: Islands will train management teams, conduct evaluation and assessment and upgrade amenities for existing non-performing hotels to improve their service quality, customer satisfaction and repurchase rate.
Channel sales: Islands works with OTAs like Meituan and Ctrip through system support and branding initiatives, which enables Islands-branded hotels to access larger traffic volume, professional inventory management system and long-term property management system.
Membership system: Franchised hotels can be booked through an APP with a direct sales system powered by Islands, helping to boost repurchase rates and cross-flow of members.
Information system: Islands offers hotel partners free access to its property management system, helping increase the management efficiency by more than 20%.
Supply chain: Islands has developed a standardized renovation plan to upgrade hotels in 30-60 days, reducing the time required by half.
Islands classifies its properties into three levels, based on quality, comfort level and room rates. Islands Unit denotes economy products, Islands S for mid-end services, and Islands Premier for upscale offerings.
Islands has up to 1,000 guest rooms in more than 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Xi’an. On average, it signs with 100 hotels every single month, and the number of listings signed in July has jumped by 300% month-over-month.
Yizhe Gan, founder and CEO of Islands, said the average monthly occupancy rate of the accommodation in its portfolio is over 80%, and the repurchase rate of paid members is 89%.
