Your website is where most prospective guests, business travelers, and partners first learn about your venue, services, and brand. Unfortunately, like over 90% of global websites, many hospitality sites perform poorly in China and slow loading times or non-functional pages can hurt user experience, leading to lost bookings and a damaged brand image.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through why your hospitality website might not work in China and what you can do to optimize it to attract Chinese travelers.
Disclaimer: This guide is informational and does not constitute legal advice. Chinafy is not a legal or corporate advisory entity, and, given that every business is different, we suggest consulting with your internal legal counsel if you would like advice on any legal or compliance-related concerns, or alternatively we can connect you with one of our partners.
TL;DR
China compatibility: Over 90% of global websites load slowly in China, if at all, and are often missing key functionality like forms, videos, and more.
Primary obstacles: Hospitality websites often fail to load because of third-party booking widgets, mapping services, or marketing trackers that are incompatible with China’s internet ecosystem.
Potential solutions: To resolve code-based and infrastructure-based incompatibilities between your website and China’s internet environment, you need to consider third-party resources on your website, the means by which you’re delivering the content to the end user (i.e. a Content Delivery Network (CDN)). The easiest way to resolve these issues in a cost-effective way is to use Chinafy.
Ongoing maintenance: The Chinese internet environment changes frequently, making regular performance checks and updates essential.
Here are two tools you can try out to see how your site loads in China:
Global speed test - test your site from 18 servers around the world including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Visual speed test - watch and compare your site as it loads in real-time outside of versus within China.
Running these tests helps you spot where bottlenecks occur and sets a benchmark for any improvements you make later.
Chinese travelers represent one of the biggest and fastest-growing tourism segments worldwide. Ensuring a smooth website experience can influence their decision-making and drive direct bookings.
Guests booking a hotel or resort often conduct extensive research. If they can’t access your site for pricing, amenities, or location details, they may simply move on to a competitor. Most likely in the context of China, these will be online travel agencies (OTAs) like Ctrip or Fliggy.
Hospitality businesses frequently seek partnerships for events, conferences, or group travel. A fully accessible website enhances your reputation and instills confidence among corporate clients and travel agencies in China.
Many booking engines rely on scripts or integrations that might be blocked or non-performant in China. If these don’t load correctly, you risk losing direct bookings and revenue.
For returning guests, business travelers, or even extended-stay visitors, a functional site is critical to providing real-time updates about your property, loyalty programs, or in-house promotions.
While some websites are officially blocked in China, most others simply just don’t work well because they’re not optimized for the Chinese internet. Those that suffer from poor performance in China do so due to two primary reasons: code incompatibility and infrastructure limitations.
Many hospitality websites use third-party resources such as Google Maps for location directions, booking widgets from external providers, video tours embedded from YouTube or Vimeo and social media trackers (e.g., Facebook Pixel, Instagram embed).
In China, some of these third-party resources may be blocked altogether, while others perform poorly and lead to long load times or time-outs. When a browser tries to retrieve blocked or restricted content, it gets “stuck,” leading to delays of 30 seconds or more.
Hosting your website outside of China creates additional latency due to the physical distance between your servers and the end users in China.
Even with global CDNs, the majority do not have Points of Presence (PoPs) by default inside China and so the distance still slows down site performance. Even if they do have Points of Presence 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.
If website visitors in China experience incomplete page loads or functionality, it can impact your brand’s credibility and impact potential sales.
Third-party booking systems, social media feeds, and embedded maps or videos can all trigger loading delays if they rely on services that are blocked or non-performant in China.
It would be easy to think that by removing the obvious third-party resources (like Google Maps or YouTube videos) from your hotel or travel website, the site would consequently load fast and fully in China.
However, the nature of China’s internet ecosystem means that the way third-party resources work in China differ and evolve over time so there is no one-off list or means to edit these resources. Changes will likely have to be made on an ongoing basis.
Chinafy is a specialized solution that can identify third-party resources that are causing web performance issues for your site in China.
Chinafy will then replace, remove or optimize incompatible resources on a China-friendly version of your site.
This means you maintain your global site’s functionality everywhere else, while ensuring visitors in China see a version that runs efficiently and fully.
When a user accesses your website from China, the browser usually has to retrieve files from servers located outside of China, sometimes as far away as the US or Europe. This leads to slower load times, higher latency, or even timeouts, despite your site performing just fine in the rest of the world.
Misconceptions around China CDNs tend to fall into two categories. Some people think:
That all global CDNs should make websites run well in China by default.
Many "global CDNs" don't have Points of Presence (PoPs) in China because using a CDN there requires meeting specific prerequisites. As a result, these CDNs often fail to address the infrastructure challenges faced by global websites.
That using only a CDN will make your website compatible with China’s internet environment.
CDNs don’t resolve code- or file-based issues relating to blocked or slow-performing third-party resources that could lead to your site still loading slowly or failing to load altogether.
Using an onshore CDN will store and deliver your website’s content closer to end users in China, but because the servers are within mainland China, there are regulatory prerequisites to using them, including:
Obtaining an ICP filing or ICP license
Establishing a local entity or partnering with a local provider
Registering your website with the Public Security Bureau (PSB)
Remaining compliant with China’s content regulations, such as data localization.
The decision to host your hotel website within China or use a China CDN is an organization-level decision. Irrespectively, it’s important to remember that it is not a silver bullet to a fast-performing website, as third-party resources can remain an issue.
Whether your automotive 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.
Similar to using a China-compatible CDN, physically hosting your site in China can reduce latency on certain parts of your website. Keep in mind that if this is the same website serving global visitors, this may inadvertently worsen load times for users in other regions.
One of the common misconceptions of hosting onshore is that it’s simply a case of replicating the site on a server within China. The reality is that a move to an onshore host typically requires a simplification of the website, in addition to legal and regulatory requirements, as even China-hosted sites face functionality issues when certain files or code conflict with China’s internet.
If it makes sense to do so, hosting your business’s website onshore has certain prerequisites:
ICP License: An ICP license or filing is mandatory if you want to host within China. This usually requires a local entity or an equivalent through partnership with a Chinese company.
Legal structure: Some brands establish a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) or partner with a local Chinese company.
Ongoing compliance: Even with onshore hosting, be prepared to continually monitor changes in policies that may affect your content or domain.
Optimizing your hotel or travel business’s website for China often requires a blend of technical know-how, ongoing optimizations and constant monitoring. This can be resource-intensive, especially if your internal IT team is already stretched thin.
Chinafy often gets compared to CDNs but Chinafy is not a CDN. Chinafy is the only China web compatibility solution able to intelligently identify, replace or remove blocked or slow resources for your visitors in China on an ongoing basis so that your site loads fast, and fully.
Generates a version of your website for China visitors without affecting your current site.
Combines both in-person and platform-level features to detect and replace blocked or slow resources that cause loading delays.
Speeds up content delivery with a China-friendly CDN.
Typically takes only a couple of weeks to implement with minimal IT involvement from your team.
Chinafy is also compatible with most, if not all CMS platforms that you are currently using as our technology sits as a layer above your website.
From boutique hotels to global hospitality chains, Chinafy ensures your guests and travel partners in China can effortlessly explore your offerings, check availability, and make bookings.
Even if your hospitality website is fully optimized today, the Chinese internet environment is dynamic. Regular checks ensure you stay ahead of any new incompatibilities or policy shifts.
Here are two quick tips to stay on top of changes that could impact your site in China:
Periodic testing: Run speed tests - both synthetic and real user monitoring (RUM) - from multiple locations in China (e.g., Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou) on a frequent basis.
Stay informed on policy changes: Subscribe to relevant updates or rely on a trusted partner to keep you compliant with changing regulations.
Optimizing your hospitality website for China is a strategic move to welcome one of the world’s largest and most influential travel markets. By ensuring your site loads quickly and fully, you’ll enhance trust, boost bookings, and stand out from competitors who remain inaccessible.
If you’d like to discuss how Chinafy can help you optimize your site for China, get in touch with us today.