RAINER J. Burkle Regional vice president of China and the general manager of Pudong Ritz-Carlton

As the host of Asian Hotel Forum 2015, Pudong Ritz-Carlton Hotel attracts attendees and guests with its unique overseeing view up 250 meters from the Bund and tea-breaks decorated with seasonal strawberries to interpret the meaning of hospitality.

Being the flagship hotel in Shanghai since 2010, Pudong Ritz-Carlton keeps practicing the sense of personalized service with human touch, and providing fraicheur food and beverages for customers to embrace the hotel.

“It’s important for any hotel that the community supports,” Rainer J. Burkle, regional vice president of China and the general manager of the hotel, told Shanghai Daily. “If you get that support, then you are successful for the guests.”

Living in the city for almost eight years, Burkle saw huge changes and potential over Chinese customers.

“Guests today are well educated and could see the differences between a five star and a luxury hotel. They understand what to pay and what they could expect,” said Burkle.

He told Shanghai Daily that Ritz- Carlton will open another 15 hotels in China in the coming five to six years to embrace a potential demand, with two golf resorts located in Nanyan Bay, Haikou, and another 13 in cities, including Macau, Xi’an, Nanjing, Wuhan and Jiuzhaigou.

With the fast pace of development in technology and social media, Burkle admits that luxury hotels are facing the challenge. But he added that offline experience will remain a priority in Ritz-Carlton's service as their core brand.

“The luxury hotel cannot become a commodity. Commodity is something you just make use of without communications and the interactions. But what you feel in Ritz-Carlton is what one really expects, and we insist spending time on it."

Mark Ma Vice president of James Joyce Coffetel

When you step into James Joyce Coffetel, you might mistake the hotel for a coffee shop when given a welcome drink from the reception desk, or surrounded by antique arrangements made of woods. And that’s exactly what the hotel owner want his guest to feel.

“The word ‘coffetel’ is initiated by us,” Mark Ma, vice president of James Joyce Coffetel, told Shanghai Daily with pride. “It advocates a slow lifestyle with an atmosphere of warmth, harmony and sharing.”

Being a subsidiary of Plateno Hotels Group, James Joyce Coffetel has a unique product positioning from its brother brand, 7 Days Inn, after its establishment.

Ma said guests who stay in Coffetel are well experienced and taste owners who pursue a high quality of life. “We’re lucky to have those guests mainly from their 30s to 50s and are open to welcome more of any age,” Ma said.

With the rapid growth of economy hotels in the world’s second-largest economy, James Joyce Coffetel also plans to tap the boom in the coming years.

James Joyce Coffetel reached its development goal in the first quarter of 2015, and has signed about 100 contracts with property developers for new hotels. Together with cooperation from online booking site Agoda.com and Mangocity.com based in Hong Kong, Coffetel wants to lure domestic customers and overseas clients.

“We’ll soon open in Shanghai around May at Hongqiao International Airport,” said Ma. “Hopefully we can become an inevitable existence for Plateno, and for the industry.”

Lu Hao, Co-founder and President of GOA

As a veteran in the architecture industry for over 25 years, Lu Hao has crystal mind in the implication of company's name -- "DaXiang" --  quoted from the The Scripture of Ethics by Chinese philosopher Lao-Tsu. It is a perfect explanation of the company’s devotion: with open mind and no restraints, always seeking for the natural order rooted in everything and the ideal form of all existence.

After 17-years of development, the Hangzhou-based company is now recognized as one of the most outstanding architecture firms nationwide. GOA believes “to realize the best” is the ultimate goal for all design companies.

GOA has designed over 40 projects in Shanghai, including BUND HOUSE, XIZI UHC COMPLEX, Tongrun Office Complex, SOHO TIANSHAN PLAZA, 1860 A.D. and so on. Though under all sorts of constraints and different needs from every client, GOA is always digging into the unique cultural value of each project and creating the most apposite designs for them. Among them, the project 1860 A.D. shall be a perfect example to explain GOA’s design language.

The design concept is based on of “Shanghai Gate in the garden, old houses by the park”, and respecting history and inheriting culture. It also combines traditional Shanghai style private house culture, modern life and sustainable concept. The plan has compact layout comfortable scale. Daily activities happen in the lane which so called as a “public living room”. Space between landscapes, various outdoor places, supporting facilities and the road network which consists of a 6m wide main lane and many 4.5m wide sub-lanes reflects traditional neighborhood structure and vibrant life.

All buildings inherit traditional architectural texture which adopts grey and red bricks, granitic plaster, and handwork exterior clay brick as façade. The townhouses preserve traditional elements such as gable wall, slope roof, dormer. Glass curtain walls add a modern feeling into the traditional Shanghai Gate style commercial street. Three high-rises hotel apartments and office buildings dominate the entire development by their straight posture and massive volume. Phase I of the residential part was delivered in December 2011, and was named the “Demonstration Project of Shanghai Style Traditional Private House for Shanghai Expo”.

Lu told Shanghai Daily On the 2015 Asia Hotel Forum Annual Meeting and 10th China Hotel Starlight Awards that GOA will focus more on a better customer experience in the future instead of purely fulfilling customer’s needs; consequentially the company will expand its footprint further in the industry and strengthen the collaboration with globally known architecture firms in the coming years. By unstoppably pursuing fineness and creativity in design, Lu believes, GOA will surely incarnate from this award winner today into an all-round top architecture firm in not so distant future.