In 2023 alone, people from China spent US$196.5 billion on travel abroad, a lucrative opportunity for hotels that take advantage of the market. Localization makes your hotel website accessible and appealing, encompassing translation, web performance, cultural adaptation, and design and usability. So naturally, why wouldn’t you not want to attract hotel guests from China?

TL;DR: Localizing your hotel website for China means optimizing for loading speed with tools like Chinafy, localizing text into Simplified Chinese with cultural nuance, adapting to high-context preferences and mobile-first design, and offering guest support via WeChat or +86 lines, boosting bookings from China’s $196.5 billion travel market (2023).

Optimize for China’s internet

China is a mobile-first country, with users expecting their web experiences to load quickly.

If your hotel site doesn’t load as fast as the Ctrip platform does or doesn’t work smoothly, China guests won’t wait. As a result, they’ll continue to prioritise using online travel agencies at best and at worst, going to a competitor.

Some important context to have though is that China’s internet operates in a unique way, so no matter what tools you build your site with, your site will by default likely encounter poor performance issues that stem from:

Code incompatibility

Many hotel sites rely on tools like Google Reviews or Instagram feeds. In China, hundreds of these types of resources are slow or entirely inaccessible due to the country’s internet setup, causing the site to load slowly or not at all.

Infrastructure incompatibility

Hosting your site outside China means that data has to travel a long way to reach Chinese users. Even with best-in-class global CDNs in place, the experience can still be slow even for the simplest of components because the majority of these CDNs do not have Points of Presence (PoPs) by default inside China. Even if they do have PoPs inside of China, they’re not automatically included in your CDN package as you would still have to fulfill certain pre-requisites in order to leverage them.

How to make your site load fast and fully in China

Test your site’s performance in China:

Use tools like Chinafy’s Visual Speed Test to compare load times in China versus elsewhere.

Use a China-compatible CDN:

Use CDNs with PoPs in* or near China, like Tencent Cloud or Akamai, to cache static content (images, scripts) closer to users. Using a CDN with PoPs inside Mainland China requires meeting specific prerequisites, including obtaining an ICP filing or license and establishing a local entity or partnering with a local provider. (Contact Chinafy to learn more about this.)

Note: Adding a CDN can reduce latency, but won’t resolve code or file-based issues due to blocked or slow-performing third-party resources on your website. Without addressing those third party resources, your site may still load slowly or fail to load altogether. These hundreds of resources require separate handling.

Chinafy your site:

Whether your site is hosted offshore or onshore, Chinafy can be bolted onto your existing technical stack to achieve faster loading times, and more functional website experience.

Chinafy tackle both infrastructure and code issues:

Generates a version of your website for China visitors without affecting your current site.

Detects and handles blocked or slow-performant resources (e.g., replacing Google Maps for Baidu Maps for the Chinafy version).

Adds a China-friendly CDN without changing your hosting.

Keeps your China-optimized site synced with your global one.

Read more: Optimizing Your Hotel Website for China

Localize your content into Simplified Chinese

A speedy site won’t book rooms if guests can’t read it. Localizing your content into Simplified Chinese requires an understanding of not only the language but also cultural nuances and resonance. If you’re not looking to translate the entire site, focus on what typically matters most to your audience, like room descriptions, booking policies, dining options, and local attractions.

To streamline localization, you may want to consider creating separate pages (e.g. yourhotel.com/zh-sc) or subdomains for your Chinese audience (e.g., cn.yourhotel.com), allowing tailored content and design while keeping your global site intact. This approach also simplifies maintenance and targeting for tools like Baidu SEO.

It is not recommended to put both Chinese and English (or other languages) onto the same page. Not only is this important for your user experience, but also so that search engines can properly detect and index your content for its appropriate language.

Avoid machine-only translations: AI tools are improving, but errors can look unprofessional on your website. Hire native speakers who understand the necessary approach for the hospitality industry.

Does WPML work in China?

Boost SEO: Translating pages into Simplified Chinese is also beneficial from an SEO point of view if you want your hotel’s website to be visible on China’s search engines. Baidu, China’s dominant search engine, favors Simplified Chinese content, including meta titles, descriptions, and alt tags.

Adapt to cultural preferences

Translation might get guests in the door but a warm, welcoming experience will keep them coming back.

China is identified as a typical high context culture where communication often relies on background understanding, shared experiences, and implicit cues rather than explicit verbal or written language. This is in comparison to the West, particularly the United States and Northern Europe, which is considered a low context culture where communication relies more heavily on the literal meaning of words. For a Chinese audience, therefore, context is more important than content. Chinese advertising, for example, tends to use implicit and tactful words with deep meanings to achieve subtle identification and understanding.

Two key implications of a high-context culture for websites are:

Design: Websites targeting high context cultures like China might benefit from more subtle visual cues, intuitive navigation, and layered information, expecting users to infer deeper meanings and explore further. They might also incorporate storytelling and emphasize the brand's history and values implicitly. This is in contrast to a comparatively more clear and direct information architecture used for Western-facing sites.

Marketing content: Marketing content for high context cultures might focus on building relationships and trust over time, using indirect communication and emphasizing shared values. This compares to the typical Western marketing style of communicating more directly about explicit benefits and features, with a clear call to action.

Keep in mind that every business and industry is different. These are broader observations that may or may not be directly applicable to your hotel.

Refine design and usability

China’s digital style is mobile-first and packed with info—sometimes jarring to Western tastes.

Fonts: Noto Fonts (like Noto Sans and Noto Serif) support both English (Latin characters) and Simplified Chinese (Chinese characters), optimizing for readability in both languages. You can also pair fonts to blend stylistically, such as Roboto (for English) with Noto Sans CJK (for Simplified Chinese).

Layout: Design layouts on Chinese websites can be dense—prioritizing convenience, efficiency and functionality—especially with the use of smaller screens. A whopping 99.7% of Chinese internet users used mobile phones to go online in 2024. This means your site needs to be fast-loading with responsive design and touch-friendly navigation to cater to a mobile-first population.

Color: There are various hypotheses about how colors influence the psychology behind purchase intention, trust and brand prestige in Chinese culture. “Chinese red” (RGB: 230, 0, 0), for example, has been stereotyped as a culturally preferred color, used to increase sales. However, one study showed that blue (typically associated with harmony and growth in Chinese culture) increased consumers’ purchase intention more so than red, concluding that red isn’t universally functional. For hotels, using red and/or gold for promotions could leverage cultural psychology to influence perceptions and elevate prestige. However, the inconclusive studies indicate that color is not the be all and end all when localizing your site for just one segment of your audience, so any nods to Chinese cultural preferences should be done subtly.

Offer localized guest support

A great site seals the deal when guests can reach you easily. Chinese travelers—solo or in groups—value instant, familiar contact options. You may look to add the following communication channels to your site:

A WeChat QR code

China-specific phone number (+86 code)

An email staffed by native speakers with hours aligned with China’s time zone.

Localizing your hotel website for China is a smart play to tap into an audience that spent US$196.5 billion on travel abroad in 2023. Optimize with Chinafy, translate with attention to cultural nuance, refine for mobile-first users, and support guests in their language. For marketing teams, this is about guest loyalty; for developers, it’s about flawless delivery. Localize well and your hotel becomes a top pick for China’s travel boom.