Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Huazhu Group 2021 Q4 and full year earnings conference call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. It is now my pleasure to introduce IR Director, Jason Chen.
Thank you, Andrew. Good morning and good evening, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Welcome to Huazhu Group's 2021 Q4 and full year earnings conference call. Joining us today is our founder and chairman, Mr. Ji Qi, our CEO, Mr. Hui Jin, our president, Ms. Liu Xinxin, our CFO, Ms. Chen Hui, our deputy CFO, Ms. Ye Fei, and our CEO of International Business, Ms. He Jihong. Following their prepared remarks, management will be available to answer your questions. Before we continue, please note that the discussion today will include forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provision of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, our results may be materially different from the views expressed today.
A number of potential risks and uncertainties are outlined in our public filings with the SEC. H World Group does not undertake any obligations to update any forward-looking statements, except as required applicable laws. On the call today, we will also mention adjusted financial measures during the discussion of our performance. Reconciliation of those measures to comparable GAAP information can be found in our earnings release that was distributed yesterday. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. The webcast of this conference call, as well as supplementary slides presentation, is available on H World Group's website at ir.huazhu.com. With that, now I will turn the call over to Mr. Ji Qi. Mr. Ji, please.
Good morning and good evening, everyone. 2021 was another challenging year. Constant variation and the resurgency of COVID-19 had brought many uncertainties to the lodging industry. At the same time, global macro conditions are also becoming increasingly complex. Since China's economic development strategy is changing from high speed growth to high quality development, we also adjusted our strategy from previous mega scale growth to sustainable quality growth, focusing on high quality hotel development. With the new strategy, we should be able to achieve a sustainable and a quality growth, create greater value to our customers, employees and franchisees, and make the industry bigger by leveraging on our unique three-in-one business model, which include brand, traffic, and technology. Under the sustainable quality growth strategy, the growth is still the main theme. However, the growth relies on two critical conditions. One is called precision or accuracy.
By leveraging on Huazhu's strong technology and innovative capability, as well as a people-oriented organization and strong executive ability, we can seek for more precise and accurate operations that achieve high efficiency and quality. Moreover, precision also requires us to benchmark world-class companies on talent cultivation reservation in order to maximize the staff efficiency within the company. In addition, both products and service should also be changed. Not good enough is not good. More precisely for simplicity, concentration, perfection, and focus on core strategy. Success or failure is often determined by tiny details of hotel business. Hence, precision becomes more and more important. Another condition is called value or benefit. It means value creation, long-term focus, and a social benefit. Huazhu will continuously focus on creating greater values to our stakeholders along the value chain of lodging industry.
Also, we would insist on doing difficult but the right things and be long-term focused. Last but not least, we would also focus on ESG development, environmental protection, carbon emission reduction, social welfare, and corporate social responsibility to bring long-term benefits to our customers, employees, franchisees, partners, shareholders, communities, and countries. With that, I will turn the call to Jinhui to discuss our business development and the focus.
谢谢季琦。诚如季琦所言，2021年充满挑战，但是我们依然坚持自己的战略方向，并且取得了一系列的成就。请大家翻到第四页。在合格门店扩张方面，我们重新定义了安心360以及合格门店的标准，酒店数量净增了1,041家，达到了7,830家，持续进入下沉市场。2021年新进城市约200个，成功地将DH的IntercityHotel和MAXX品牌引入中国。通过与融创合作成立合资公司，在2021年新开斯伯格酒店14家，花间堂品牌在休闲旅游市场进一步实现突破。在多渠道直销方面，我们会员数量在2021年达到了1.93亿，同比增长14%。我们推出了华住会3.0版本，将客户服务在线上、线下进行融合。我们的企业会员营业贡献在2021年四季度达到了11%。我们中央预订占比也在第四季度进一步提升到63%。在全球技术平台方面，我们持续推进全球技术平台在DH的应用。
Thank you, Ji Qi. As mentioned by Ji Qi earlier, 2021 was again a challenging year. However, we continuously insist on implementing our strategies and achieved several great achievements for the year. Please turn to slide four.
On the quality hotel expansion front, we defined again our standard of Anxin 360 program and quality hotel. We achieved 7,830 hotels in operation by the end of this year, with net openings of 1,041 hotels. We further penetrated into lower tier cities with roughly 200 new cities of coverage added during the year. We successfully introduced the IntercityHotel and MAXX brand into China market. Moreover, through the joint venture with Sunac, we had opened 14 Steigenberger brand hotels in China in 2021. Lastly, Blossom House to further tap into the booming domestic leisure traveling market. In regards to our multidimensional direct sales, we had achieved another year of solid member growth of 14% to total 193 million members by the end of 2021. We also officially launched our H World App 3.0 version to integrate customer services from online to offline. Our room nights contributed from corporate customers further improved to 11% in the Q4 2021, and CRS contribution further improved to 63% in the same quarter. Lastly, in terms of our global technology platform, we have started gradual roll out of our one global digital platform for DH's hotels.
疫情的反复仍然持续影响着RevPAR的恢复。请大家翻到第五页。因为中国在防疫政策上依然保持动态清零的政策，因此每一次疫情的大规模爆发都伴随出行限制的加强，从而影响RevPAR的恢复。今年两月春节过后，我们观察到的RevPAR的恢复势头是良好的，每周环比持续上升，但因为三月以来的Omicron变异病毒的传播，导致恢复势头被打断。三月截止22日，RevPAR恢复为2019年的64%。
Unfortunately, resurgence of COVID consistently affected our RevPAR recovery. Please turn to slide 5. Since China remains implementing zero COVID policy, every resurgence of COVID in relatively large scale would result in stricter traveling restriction, and hence significantly affected our RevPAR recovery. In February, post the Chinese New Year, we saw our RevPAR recovered steadily on a week-over-week basis. However, since March, the highly infectious Omicron variant has been spreading rapidly in China, which interrupted our RevPAR recovery trend. As of March 22nd, our month-to-date RevPAR recovered to only 64% of the same period of 2019.
请大家翻到第六页。尽管有困难，有挑战，但是华住将坚定坚持经营增长战略不动摇。对于2022年，我们围绕经营增长制定了四个方面的战略重点，分别是增长战略、品牌战略、用户战略和数字化战略。下面我会分别阐释每个战略重点的详细内涵。
Please turn to slide 6. Although we are facing many difficulties and challenges, we will unswervingly implement our sustainable quality growth strategy. We have formulated 4 strategic focuses for 2022, which include growth strategy, brand strategy, membership strategy and digitalization strategy. I will discuss details on each of these strategy in the following slides.
请大家翻到第七页。增长战略主要有三个方面的内容。第一，重仓中国下沉三四线。第二，突破原有的市场的薄弱市场。第三，中高端及高档酒店的进一步发展。
Please turn to slide seven. Growth strategy mainly includes three areas. Firstly, the China focus to penetrate into lower tier cities. Secondly, breakthrough into Huazhu's less penetrated market. Thirdly, further developing in upper mid and upscale hotel segment.
首先，我们将持续渗透低线城市。请大家翻到第八页。截止2021年，我们有40%的在营酒店以及57%的管道酒店位于低线城市。在2021年新签约的2,849个酒店中，低线城市占比55%。2021年我们城市覆盖数量为1,062个，未来目标进入的城市为2,200个，还有一千多个空白城市可以去覆盖。
Firstly, we will continuously penetrating to the lower tier cities. Please turn to slide 8. As of 2021, there are 40% and 57% hotels contributed from lower tier cities for hotel in operations and pipeline, respectively. We totally signed up 2,849 new hotels during 2021, with 50%-55% of them came from lower tier cities. At the end of 2021, we had covered 1,062 cities in total. Our future target is to cover 2,200 cities, which means we still have around over 1,000 empty markets to be penetrated.
请大家翻到第九页。接下来华西、华南市场将作为我们重点市场进行突破。根据中国国家战略的四大经济发展圈，我们酒店在京津冀以及长三角地区的覆盖相对充足，而在粤港澳大湾区以及成渝双圈的经济覆盖相对薄弱。去年我们已经在深圳和成都设立了华南和华西总部，未来将在两个区域进行重点开发，拓展当地加盟商，深耕当地市场，实现全国各区域的均衡发展。
Please turn to slide 9. Our next key focus regions to penetrate are southern and western parts of China. China's national strategy includes 4 economic development zones as shown on the slide. We have good penetration in Jing-Jin-Ji region agglomeration and the Yangtze River Delta area. However, Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are still very much less penetrated for us. Last year, we had established our regional headquarters in Shenzhen and Chengdu to develop these two areas, attract local franchisees and penetrate the local market. By doing so, we can achieve a more balanced development across all regions in China.
最后我们也来讲一下增长战略中，中高端及高端市场，请大家翻到第十页。中高端酒店我们通过多品牌进行突破。在华住目前的酒店品牌中，中高端品牌包括桔子水晶、城际、美伦、漫心、美居和诺富特。在营酒店数量为454家，管道数量264家。我们目标在2023年，在营加管道数量突破一千家。
Lastly, I would like to discuss our upper mid and upscale hotel segment. Please turn to slide ten. In the upper mid segment we insist on using multi-brand strategy to develop the market. Our brands include Crystal Orange, Intercity, Madison, Manxin, Mercure and Novotel. As of 2021, we have 454 upper mid hotels in operation and 264 in pipeline. We are targeting to achieve over 1,000 hotels in operations and pipelines by the end of 2023.
高档市场发展也在有序推进。请大家翻到第十一页。高档市场我们分为三个维度进行发展。首先，我们通过与融创成立的合资公司拓展高档酒店数量。目前我们在营及管道酒店已经超过一百家。其次，我们通过花间堂品牌撬动国内蓬勃发展的休闲旅游市场。在2021年花间堂新签约超过三十五家。最后，我们通过美伦美奂品牌探索中国高档酒店存量市场的翻牌机会。2021年，美伦美奂品牌在上海东方饭店达成合作，进驻外滩最核心的CBD区域。
Our upscale hotel segment is also progressing steadily. Please turn to slide 11. We divided our upscale hotels into three parts. Firstly, we are expanding the number of upscale hotels through the joint venture with Sunac. As of 2021, we achieved our first milestone of total 100 upscale hotels in operations and pipeline. Secondly, we use our Blossom House brands to further tap into the booming domestic leisure traveling market. During 2021, we signed up a total of 35 hotels of Blossom House brand. Lastly, we are using MAXX brands to seek for the conversion opportunities in China, focusing on China's existing market of independent obscure hotels. The best example is we had cooperated with Shanghai Nest Suites Orange Hotels by using MAXX brands to enter the CBD area at the Bund in Shanghai.
对于品牌战略，我们也分为三个内容，三个方面的内容，请大家翻到第十二页。首先是产品升级。我们将持续优化各个品牌的产品，提升产品指标。比如最早的经济型品牌汉庭，我们也仍然对它进行全面的升级换代，焕发品牌新的活力。然后是旗舰店的打造。我们将在核心城市以及核心位置开设旗舰店，树立和塑造品牌影响力，提升品牌形象。比如我们在去年上海长风公园，我们开设了全新的桔子水晶2.0旗舰版本，获得了巨大的成功。最后呢，我们也明确品牌定位，通过塑造不同品牌独有的客户体验差异化，从过去产品功能引领逐步过渡到品牌引领阶段。比如汉庭，十四亿国民的高性价比的首选，橘子酒店，健康、活力、阳光的品牌，你好，中国新青年的首选等等。
In terms of our brand strategy, we also divide it into three parts. Please turn to slide 12. First one is the product upgrade. We constantly upgrade our products for different brands to enhance the brand recognitions and the product quality. For example, our flagship economic brand, HanTing. We continuously upgrade the product and introduce new versions to the market. Second one is on the flagship hotels. We selectively invest and open our flagship hotels in the core cities at core locations to improve our brand awareness. For example, we opened our new version of Crystal Orange 2.0 flagship hotels in Shanghai last year. Lastly, we sharpen our brand positioning. Each Huazhu's brand should have its unique positioning to provide differentiated products and services to its own target customers.
In order to gradually transition from products and function leading in the past to brand leading in the future. For example, HanTing is targeting the mass market and the customers who are seeking for the highest value for money. Orange brand represents healthy, energetic and sunny. NiHao brand should become China new youngest first choice when they choose the hotel.
接下来请大家翻到第十三页，用户战略。我们通过单店销售、企业客户以及第三方流量的合作等直销渠道作为重点进行客户拓展，将用户导入华住汇平台，并且以华住汇为核心，对客户进行深度运营。
Now let's move to the membership strategy. Please turn to slide 13. We remain focusing on our direct sales channels, which mainly through our in-house sales, corporate customers, and cross-industry allies to attract new customers and expand our membership bases. Our Huazhu Hui is the critical core platform on conducting deep customer operations.
请大家翻到第十四页。过去的几年中，华住汇会员数量持续增长，从2015年到2021年，我们会员复合增长率为26%。
Please turn to page 14. Over the last few years, our membership continuously grows steadily. We had achieved a figure of 26% growth from the year of 2015 to year of 2021.
中央预订贡献占比也在持续提升。请大家翻到第十五页。2021年中央预订占比为58%，相较2020年提升了三个百分点。同时我们发展下沉市场过程中，我们的中央预订占比和高线、低线未出现显著的差异。
Our CRS contribution also continuously improved. Please turn to slide 15. For the full year of 2021, the CRS contribution improved by three percentage points year-over-year to 58%. More importantly, our CRS contributions in lower tier cities are only slightly lower than the Tier 1 or Tier 2 cities.
请大家翻到第十六页。我们企业客户贡献占比也在持续增加，2021年企业客户贡献占比为11.9%，相较2020年提升了2.5个百分点。其中中高端及高端酒店中，企业客户经营占比也在持续地提升。
Please turn to slide 16. The contributions from the corporate customers also further improved. For the full year of 2021, the room nights contributed from the corporate customers accounted for roughly 11.9%, 2.5 percentage points improved from 2020. Specifically, the corporate customers' contribution also gradually improved in the mid and upscale segment.
请大家翻到十七页的数字化战略。华住在过去的发展中，已经实现了有限服务酒店的数字化，将酒店的很多业务放在云端，形成了连锁化的管理模式。在今天我们深入回顾这一发展阶段时发现，我们发现还有很多的内容可以进一步地进行数字化的运营和管理。因此，我们将数字化战略的第一条就是实现有限服务酒店门店层面的全面数字化。
Let's now move to the digitalization strategy. Please turn to slide 17. Over the past several years of development, Huazhu had already achieved several digitalization processes for its limited service hotels at the hotel level. Transferring many offline functions to online created the chain management hotel model. Today, when we deeply reviewed our previous development process, we find out that there are still many contents of the functions at hotel level, it can be further operated and managed digitally. Therefore, the first part of our digitalization strategy is to achieve the comprehensive digitalization of our limited service hotels at the offline hotel level.
请大家翻到第十八页。未来包括数字营销、会员全场景体验、质量管理、GOP管理、加盟商生命周期管理在内的一系列内容，都将能够进一步实现全面的数字化，从而提升管理效率，扩大管理能力。
Please turn to slide 18. In the future, we think the comprehensive digitalization can include the digital sales, online guest experiences, quality management, GOP management, lifetime franchisee services and extra. The more digitalizations can further improve the management efficiency and capabilities.
请大家翻到第十九页。对于全服务酒店而言，其业务模式和有限服务不尽相同，对于华住来说也是全新的领域。因此，我们数字化战略的第二点就是实现高端全服务酒店的单店管理模式到云端的连锁化管理模式。我们通过搭建数字化的人财物的共享服务平台，实现全面业务的共享服务。
Please turn to slide 19. In terms of the full service hotel, its business model is different to limited service hotels. It is also a very new area for Huazhu to experiment. Therefore, the second part of our digitalization strategy is to transform the full service hotels from single hotel management to cloud-based digital chain hotel management model. We are experimenting to build up a digital shared platform to move offline functions at hotel level, such as human resources, accounting and finance, and supply chain management to online, in order to achieve an online shared service platform among many full service upscale hotels.
在结束我今天发言之前，我想最后强调一下ESG对于华住的重要性。请大家翻到第二十页。在中国政府提出碳中和以及全球对可持续发展持续关注的大背景下，ESG也将成为华住长远战略规划制定中的重要一环。去年我们也发布了第一份ESG的报告，未来公司将持续披露ESG的相关内容。同时，公司的各个部门也在评估ESG可持续发展的相关议题，寻求在各个领域可持续发展的机会。
Before I finish my prepared remarks, I would like to emphasize again on the importance of ESG for Huazhu. Please turn to slide 20. Under the background of China's carbon utilization target, as well as increasing concern on sustainable growth, globally, Huazhu has already incorporated ESG into our long term strategic planning. Last year, we have released our first ever ESG report since listing, and the release will continue in the future. At the same time, Huazhu has also started a very comprehensive internal assessment among each business divisions to seek the potential of improvements in any ESG related matters.
下面有请叶菲为大家解读二零二一年第四季度以及全年经营的财务的相关数据。有请叶菲。
Thank you, Hui Jin.
With that.
Good morning, all.
With that, I will turn the call to Ye Fei to discuss our Q4 and full year of 2021 operational and financial performance. Miss Ye, please.
Thank you. I jumped the gun a little bit. Good morning and good evening to everyone. Let's move on to our operational and financial review for the Q4 and full year of 2021. As shown on slide 22, our combined hotel networks expanded by 15% in 2021 to 753K rooms of 7,830 hotels. Compared with 652K rooms of 6,789 hotels in 2020. Excluding DH, Legacy Huazhu's hotel network expanded by 16% year-over-year to roughly 728K rooms of 7,706 hotels in 2021. For our hotel turnover in 2021, our total hotel turnover grew at 36% year-over-year to RMB 45 billion in 2021.
This was mainly due to our continuous network expansion in China and the low base of 2020. Excluding DH, Legacy Huazhu hotel turnover grew 38% year-over-year to RMB 42.7 billion in 2021. Turn to page 23. Legacy Huazhu blended RevPAR for Q4 2021 was RMB 163, 14% lower than 2019 level. The ADR in Q4 was up by 3% compared to 2019 level at RMB 239. While the occupancy in Q4 is 14 percentage points lower compared to 2019. This was mainly due to COVID-19 resurgence in November. For the full year 2021, Legacy Huazhu blended RevPAR was RMB 172, a decline by 13% from 2019, but an increase of 16% from 2020.
The ADR was RMB 239, up 2% compared to 2019. While occupancy is 12 percentage point lower compared to 2019. It was mainly due to the several outbreaks of COVID through the years of 2021, especially in the later half. Turn to page 24. Despite the recovery in the Q4 was interrupted by Omicron variant since November, our Legacy DH business saw strong recovery in Q4 2021 on a yearly basis. DH's blended RevPAR for Q4 2021 rebounded by 153% to EUR 43 compared with Q4 2020. The occupancy improved by 24 percentage points compared with Q4 2020, and the ADR improved by 24% to EUR 94, only 3% lower than 2019 level.
For the full year, DH blended RevPAR slightly increased by 4% to 32 EUR compared to 2020, mainly driven by 3% increased ADR. Occupancy rate was roughly flattish at 35% between 2020 and 2021, as the Q11 of 2020 was pre-COVID in Europe. Please see our financial results on slide 25. Total net revenue grew by 9% year-over-year to RMB 3.4 billion in the Q4 2021, mainly driven by 130% increase of DH's revenue in Q4 2021. However, Legacy Huazhu recorded a 2% year-over-year revenue decline to RMB 2.8 billion, in line with our previous guidance.
Due to COVID-19 resurgence in over 20 provinces since November, China's leased and owned hotels saw a 13% year-over-year decline in revenue, offset partially by an 8% year-over-year growth of managed and franchised revenue. For the full year of 2021, total net revenue grew by 25% year-over-year to RMB 12.8 billion. Excluding DH, Legacy Huazhu recorded a 30% year-over-year revenue growth to RMB 11.2 billion, in line with our previous guidance. Breaking down the full year revenue from leased and owned hotels increased by 17% year-over-year to RMB 8.1 billion, and revenue from managed and franchised hotels grew by 40% to RMB 4.4 billion. The asset-light managed and franchised business contributed 34% of total revenue in 2021, compared to 31% in 2020 at group level.
For the moment, this is mainly driven by the Legacy Huazhu's managed and franchised business, whose portion also increased from 36% to 39% in 2021. Now, let's move to the cost and profitability section on slide 26. In Q4 2021, the reported operating income was RMB 39 million, compared to a loss of RMB 134 million last year and positive RMB 72 million a quarter before. The year-over-year improvement was mainly driven by the DH business recovery and the EUR 60 million government subsidy received in Q4, but offset by the weaker China business performance.
Excluding DH, Legacy Huazhu's operating income in Q4 was RMB 60 million, compared to RMB 315 million last year and RMB 239 million a quarter ago. On a full year basis, the reported operating income turned positive to RMB 164 million from a loss of RMB 1.7 billion last year. Despite several resurgences of COVID during 2021, Legacy Huazhu recorded an operating income of RMB 891 million compared to a loss of RMB 100 million last year. Legacy DH narrowed its loss significantly from RMB 1.6 billion in 2020 to RMB 727 million in 2021, thanks to the government subsidy totaling EUR 101 million received in the second and Q4 .
The total hotel operating cost for Q4 2021 was RMB 3.2 billion, increased by 16% year-on-year. The cost increase included a non-cash impairment loss of RMB 257 million, which was mainly related to DH. For Legacy Huazhu, it recorded RMB 2.3 billion in hotel operating cost, indicating a 13% year-on-year growth. The increase was mainly attributable to higher rental costs of new upscale and upper mid hotels, higher personal costs as we're expanding our hotel network rapidly, and higher D&A costs which were related to the upscale and upper mid hotels opening, and also upgrading of existing hotels, as well as the consolidation impact of a recent CitiGO acquisition. For Legacy DH, it recorded RMB 866 million hotel operating cost, indicating a 28% year-on-year growth.
The increase was mainly due to variable costs increased along with business recovery, as well as non-cash impairment loss of RMB 257 million mentioned above. On a full year basis, total hotel operating cost grew 16% year-over-year to RMB 11.3 billion, mainly driven by 20% year-over-year growth of Legacy Huazhu, with similar reasons mentioned above. As we mentioned in previous quarters, our future expansion of upscale hotel will mainly use asset-light model. Therefore, our pre-opening costs declined by 19% year-over-year to only RMB 30 million in Q4. The pre-opening costs declined by 72% year-over-year to only RMB 81 million for the full year of 2021. Our SG&A in Q4 increased by 21% year-over-year to RMB 624 million, driven by the increase in both Legacy Huazhu and the Legacy DH.
Excluding DH, SG&A for Legacy Huazhu increased by 8% year-on-year to RMB 437 million. The increase was mainly attributable to the increase of headcounts for our sales team, IT team, BD team, and last but not least, the upscale business unit, which are the areas we strategically invest in. As you can see from the chart, the increase of SG&A is mainly driven by Legacy Huazhu, while DH side recorded 2% saving from 2020, which also has part of the reclassification impact from the DH side. Turning to page 27, our adjusted EBITDA income was RMB 278 million in Q4, compared to RMB 375 million a year ago.
If we exclude a non-cash impact loss of RMB 257 million, which was mainly related to DH, the adjusted EBITDA would have been RMB 535 million, representing a 43% year-on-year growth. DH EBITDA turned positive in Q4 2021 to RMB 69 million, compared to a loss of RMB 389 million last year, thanks to the business recovery and government subsidy, but offset by the non-cash impairment loss. Excluding DH, Legacy Huazhu recorded an adjusted EBITDA income of RMB 209 million, declined by 73% in Q4 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19's resurgence in the Q4 . Full-year adjusted EBITDA turned positive of RMB 1.6 billion from a loss of RMB 244 million in 2020.
This was mainly driven by the 81% growth of Legacy Huazhu's adjusted EBITDA of RMB 2 billion, as well as a narrowed adjusted EBITDA loss of DH of RMB 461 million. In Q4 2021, we recorded an adjusted net loss of RMB 227 million, enlarged from a loss of RMB 8 million in Q4 2020. Excluding DH, Legacy Huazhu recorded an adjusted loss of RMB 187 million, compared to a net income of RMB 300 million in Q4 2020. Adjusted net loss for the full year narrowed from RMB 1.8 billion in 2020 to RMB 260 million in 2021. Legacy Huazhu turned positive profits of RMB 358 million compared to a loss of RMB 459 million a year ago.
Coming to the cash position. Our net debt remains healthy at RMB 4.7 billion by the end of Q4, and there's no risk of breaching the financial covenants of the remaining amount of $338 million syndication loan. Our cash balance was RMB 5.1 billion and the unutilized bank facilities were RMB 3.3 billion. Given the COVID impact remains uncertain in the foreseeable future, we'll keep cautious on capital spending and discretionary spending to preserve cash. A few more words on DH. Since November last year, DH's recovery trend was again interrupted by Omicron variant. Its occupancy rate dropped by three percentage points to 46% compared to a quarter ago.
However, as German government unfolded the initial opening applying since mid-February, and later applied to lodging since March 4th, it should help to re-accelerate our RevPAR recovery in the future. However, we would remain cautious and still implement the mitigation measures of further emphasis on efficiency improvements, negotiation of lease waiver, personal cost optimization, deferral of major CapEx. Additionally, the short-time worker compensation would continue to be valid until June 30th, 2022. Turn to page 31 on guidance. As you may know, since March 2022, the highly infectious Omicron variant has been spreading rapidly in China, which seriously affected our business performance. China's zero-COVID policy also adds great uncertainty to the business recovery. Moreover, the war between Ukraine and Russia may negatively impact our European business. Therefore, the guidance can be of short-term view and only reflects our current understanding of the situation.
In terms of our hotel opening plan in 2022, after reviewing our existing pipeline hotels under construction, we now expect to open around 1,500 hotels and close around 500-550 hotels for the year. This is built on the presumption that COVID spread will be contained in a reasonable timeframe in China. In terms of revenue guidance, for the Q1 of 2022, we expect revenue growth to be in the range of 11%-15% compared to the Q1 of 2021, or to the range of 1%-5% if excluding DH. For the full year of 2022, we expect the revenue growth to range from 15%-20% compared to the full year of 2021, or to the range from 4%-9% if excluding DH.
Again, above guidance only reflects our current view, which are subject to change. Last but not least, considering current conditions, we may from time to time make repurchase of our securities, including American Depositary Shares and convertible notes in open market transactions, private negotiated transactions, or otherwise, subject to market conditions and other factors. With that, let's open for the Q&A.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. If your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press the pound key. Once again, to ask a question, press star one. Our first question comes from the line of Billy Ng with Bank of America.
Good morning. Hey,
I just wonder, like, in terms of the product upgrade. I think in the PPT, you guys mentioned that it's one of the growth driver. We understand that in the past, like, product upgrade actually can significantly enhance RevPAR. But is that still the case going forward? If that's the case, and also in terms of the plan for doing product upgrades, are we helping the existing franchisees to do a large-scale upgrade?
我先回答第一个问题好吗？那个关于品质升级这个工作，其实是迎合整个消费者消费持续升级的一个很重要的战略。对于华住而言，不光在汉庭、全季，包括桔子，我们全面地做了产品的持续的改进和升级，就是为了更好地贴近消费者持续提升的对品质的消费的升级的这个趋势。这个过程当中应该可以显著地看到，比如像汉庭这样的一个产品提升以后，RevPAR得到了极大的提升。我相信这样的提升对绝大多数加盟商都得到了很好的财务回报。这个财务回报，以目前的RevPAR的提升，不低于新店的投资收益。
The product upgrading is our key strategy to cater into the consumption upgrade trend in China. It's happening not only to HanTing, but also like Orange Hotel and Hi Inn Hotel. I think the RevPAR improvement of HanTing existing hotels upgrade has brought very good return to the franchisees, at least comparable level as the new hotels to the franchisees.
我也很高兴看到，随着像汉庭这些品质的持续提升，华住是在中国经济型市场唯一一家处于持续可增长的这样的一个品牌，我相信通过这样的产品提升，得到了绝大多数中国国民的喜爱。
Arguably, Huazhu is the only one you know pushing the economy product upgrade in China, which is also well received by the customers of us.
请继续第二个问题，谢谢。
第二个问题，也是比较短线一点的，就是我们看到现在中国疫情，相对来说是这两年以来应该是最困难的。你有没有看到这一波的疫情对加盟商的意愿，然后他们开店的速度会有所影响呢？如果大概这一波比方说要再多一两个月才能解决的话，有没有对加盟商的一个加盟的态度有所改变？So my second question is, basically, we notice right now the Omicron outbreak was pretty severe in China.
I just wonder whether this outbreak has impact the incentive of the franchisees and whether their desire to open for this year has changed.
是的，那个疫情，中国由于政府持续在动态清零，疫情必然会对整个经营和加盟商的投资意愿产生一定的影响。我们在三月份已经看到这样的一个状况，但是我想强调几个方面。第一呢，中国地域非常广大，即使在目前的情况下，各个城市其实差异非常大，不少在中西部下低线市场，其实目前经营还是不错的。整个加盟我们还在持续地推进我们下沉市场的这个发展战略。同时呢，加盟商呢，目前由于疫情的影响，我们有超过850个门店处于征用的状态。那么下一步随着政府防疫的调整，我相信征用酒店、疫情防控的酒店也是帮助加盟商渡过这次这个流动性困难的很重要的一种方式。850家门店处于征用，超过了我们整个门店的12%，11%到12%左右。那么对于很多核心城市的这些加盟店来讲，是非常好的这个方式。
Okay. Certainly, you're right. The current COVID-19 situation and also China's zero-COVID policy has the negative impact on our performance and also the franchisees' interest, especially, you know, reflected in the March number. Having said that, I would also mention two factors as a mitigation. First of all, China is very big and large market. Actually our hotels in the lower tier city has been running good, and this further stimulating the signing of the new hotels in those markets. That's number one. Two is the further requisition of our hotels by the current government bureau. Currently, more than 850 hotels are under requisition. It's roughly 12% of our hotel portfolio.
This is very important to help our franchisees to go through current tough time, especially for the franchisees in the Tier 1 or Tier 2 cities.
好，谢谢。
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sijie Lin with CICC.
谢谢管理层。我有两个问题，第一个呢，就是说咱们这个22年全年的收入guide背后隐含的这个RevPAR恢复多少的一个预期。
然后第二个呢，就是我们看到2021年是ADR比OCC先行嘛，那我们应该怎么看未来疫情消退时候的一个ADR的趋势？因为其实一种判断是说ADR还会继续的提升，因为这个品牌化、品质化的这个追求是不可逆的。但是呢，另外也有一种判断是说疫情消退了，其实会有更多这个价格敏感的客群进来，而且呢，现在其实也是消费环境疲软，一些行业也有这个降价的压力。所以想请教一下咱们的判断。 For the full year revenue guidance, what's the implying RevPAR recovery rate?
My second question is that we know that ADR recover faster than OCC in 2021. What's the trend of ADR in the future when we recover from COVID-19? Because some people say ADR may continue to increase because people pursue for better quality and strong brands, but some may not think so considering the soft consumption environment. That's my two questions. Thank you.
好，我先回答第一个问题。关于2022年的指引，我们的RevPAR是以2019年差不多在81%到84%的预测去做的全年的指引。我们考虑了全年这个疫情反复的这些影响，这些因素，我们做了一些数据的详细分析和内部的判断，是基于一些判断做出这样的一个指引。关于整个疫情和整个经济形势带来的整个全局的消费市场的改变，刚才你提到了，是不是会影响一些企业出行的这样的一个，价格的敏感度，或者是整个消费市场的疲软。我们大概是这么判断，第一呢，就是整个其实中国经济的底层，还是不错的，我们在一月份、二月份春节整个展现的这样的一个恢复度其实是不错的，市场的整个出行和这个商旅的需求还是比较多的，包括新兴的旅游和休闲市场都有。这轮疫情里面确实会增加一部分企业对价格的敏感度，我想这正是华住的优势所在。华住的全系列品牌基于这些高性价比和效率的这样的一个能力，我相信在疫情以后，应该能为中国更多的酒店业主带来更高效、低成本的运营的这个模式，应该是我们发展的一个不错的这个机会。那华住也将为中国消费者创造高性价比的这样的一个产品，各系列产品也是我们追求的一个很重要的一个竞争能力吧。
Okay, to answer your question, in terms of revenue guidance, we budgeted for the Legacy Huazhu side 81%-84% RevPAR recovery compared to 2019 level. It is based on our internal assessment and also the evaluation of the impact of COVID. Regarding your second question of the consumer markets and also the corporate markets reaction, yes, we admit there's a challenge of, you know, further sensitivity of the customers, price sensitivity, especially regarding the corporate customers. From our latest number, especially in January and February, Chinese festival, actually, the recovery is pretty decent, both for the, you know, leisure travel and also business travel.
I would say, you know, from Huazhu Group, we have, you know, full spectrum of a product. Actually, this creates a very good opportunity for us to capture all kinds of customers, especially those who become more price sensitive, because we have our own competitive edge in terms of a highly efficient and low cost business model, creating both value for our franchisees and also customers.
Thank you.
Let's wait for the next question.
Our next question comes from the line of Leah Pan with Goldman Sachs.
喂，听到吗？对不起，不是Leah，是Simon，对不起。听到吗？
Simon.
对不起，对不起。我有两个问题，第一个问题就是我看到，刚才也讲过，你们的成本好像有一点点压力，因为看到中国那个EBITDA margin好像有一点，也有一点点下跌的空间下来，那想请教你一下，看2022年的话呢，现在你们看的EBITDA的趋势是怎么样，还有成本这方面的压力是怎么样？这个是第一个问题。那第二个问题，你刚才讲到是全中国，你现在有七千个店，一千个城市，然后也讲过，你现在区域可能在华南跟华西地区比较小嘛，那我想请教一下，有没有说中一线、二线或是三线城市这个concentrations，这方面的数据，然后你们以后比如说要加另外一千个城市，大部分在什么样的城市里面呢？我再用英语再问一次吧。 So, the question was related to your costs and also the margin pressure, because we saw a bit of a margin dilution last year for the China operations.
wondering whether you would have any guidance on the cost as well as the margins. Secondly, in relation to your 7,000 hotels in 1,000 cities and expanding into another 1,000 cities, you know, geographically, we know that you have a huge exposure in, you know, northern and eastern part of China. I'm wondering whether you have any concentrations, guidance or expectation in the first tier, second or even third tier cities. Thank you.
Uh, .
Okay. Let me translate the second question first. First of all, certainly the lower tier city is much less penetrated compared to the up tier cities. The 1,000 incremental cities will mainly coming from third tier city, fourth and fifth even like county, you know. Secondly, we are relatively, you know, we have lower market share in the Southern China and Western China, so there's a lot of further growth area for Huazhu as well. To summary, you know, in our further, you know, in our portfolio, it will be 55% coming from lower tier city and below, and 45% will coming from tier one, tier two cities.
Our strategy is full penetration into all tiers of cities in China through the full spectrum of brands. For example, we're going to enhance our penetration in tier one to tier two by more upscale and mid-upscale products like Steigenberger, Blossom House and etc. At the same time, we will increase our market share by economy and mid-scale brands in lower-tier cities. For example, HanTing and JI Hotel. Yeah, that's the answer to the second question. For the first question, certainly, we admit there's a you know, mounting pressure in terms of EBITDA because the revenue is under pressure due to this sudden change of you know, COVID situation. That's number one.
Too, also, we internally have analyzed, you know, there's a further improvement areas of cost management, even along our key strategy, you know, further penetration, upscale and upper mid-scale and also digitalization. Under the sustainable and quality growth overarching strategy, we'll focus on the key areas and further improve the cost efficiency. We're going to develop more detailed measures in the next, you know, the next period of time. Thank you, Simon.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Lina Yan with HSBC.
I just have one question. Do you have an estimate for the break even revenue, like, the level of break even revenue for Huazhu Legacy and DH? And also, do you have, like, a break even RevPAR level for that?
Sorry, you're asking a break-even RevPAR for Huazhu and DH separately.
Yes，yes，yes，yes。
Historically you know we have a ballpark estimate for China is around RMB 130, and for the DH side is roughly around like EUR 60-EUR 65.
Okay, do you have a breakeven like a revenue for these two?
The one I'm talking about is about, you know, the EBITDA break-even level as we gave to the market before. Certainly it will be subject to the COVID recovery. It's going to be moving very quickly, I think.
Okay, okay, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Maybe。
Internet。
Our next question comes from the line of Bruce Lee with UBS.
各位管理层好，我有两个问题。第一个问题是关于咱们一季度的情况的。虽然三月份现在受到疫情的影响，咱们RevPAR其实恢复受到了很大的拖累，但是一二月份因为没有了这个全国性的就地过年政策，其实看到RevPAR恢复也还可以的。所以想请问一下，今年一季度咱们前两个月的大概的收入的增长或者恢复的情况是怎么样的？这是我第一个问题。那我先把第一个问题翻译一下。 Hi management, I have two questions, and the first question is on the revenue performance for the first two months in Q1 this year. Despite the COVID resurgence disruption in March, we saw that the RevPAR recovery in January and February is relatively better. So can I ask about the revenue performance in January and February this year?
就整体来说，从收入角度，大概从直营店的角度，大概会比去年同期还是有一些增长，大概有个20%以上的增长。然后大概是这么一个情况，我觉得我们可以到时候再交流一些更细的细节。
对，一二月份的整个
好，谢谢。
二月份的整个恢复呢，整体应该是还在预期当中呢，虽然还受到一些疫情的影响。我们二月份同比2019年的RevPAR的恢复大概在83%。
对，是2月15号，对。
对，特别是春节以后的一段时间，恢复其实还是不错的。但是三月受到了新一轮的Omicron的疫情影响，使得整个全国的恢复度下降到大概64%左右，目前是这样一个状况。
好的，谢谢。那我的第二个问题是关于成本端的，就是我看到咱们四季度的整个毛利的情况相比前几个季度有一定的下降，其中像人工和租金，还有一项是其他成本，我看是主要的增长的项目。我想确认一下，就是咱们人工和租金的增长是因为咱们直营店数量的增加吗？所以导致的这个增长，以及咱们这个其他成本中的这个增长项主要是来源于什么的？还有就是咱们CitiGO这个并购的话，对咱们的这个成本的影响会有多少？那我也翻译一下。 My second question is on the cost front. I saw that the gross margin in Q4 declined compared with the previous quarters. I saw that the main reason is due to the increase in rental, personnel and other cost. May I double check that the increase in rental and personnel costs is mainly due to the increase in number of lease and own hotels? And what's the main contributor in the other cost? And how much is the impact on cost increase from the acquisition of CitiGO? Thank you.
Actually, you're right. The impact of the cost increase mainly come from the upscale and upper midscale hotels, upscale hotels in the leased hotels. Certainly as we mentioned later, you know, the continued growth model will be asset light. We're going to, you know, control the further investment in this area. CitiGO has a relatively, you know, the acquisition size is small, so the contribution to the cost side is relatively limited. It's just, you know, more than like RMB 10 million level. It's a limited contribution.
我想补充一个关于人力成本的内容。华住正在做一些关于组织升级和转型的工作，包括我们在华西、华南，我前面有介绍，分别成立了新的区域性的公司。我们非常希望把未来中国市场进一步深耕，把组织结构和管理能力也进一步推进我们的用户和市场。在这个转型过程中可能会有一些人力成本的冗余，在平台和区域公司的转换过程当中，这个工作我们正在实施，所以也会一定程度上导致我们在去年转型过程当中的人力成本的增加。我想这个信息跟大家交流一下，在未来一到两年，整个华住的在有限服务的整个管理的基层的组织结构上面，我们会做一个进一步深耕的这样的一个转型。
行。
好，谢谢各位管理层，我没有其他问题了。
Thank you. I now turn the call back over to IR Director Jason Chen for any closing remarks.
Thank you everyone for taking your time with us today. We look forward to connect with you again in the upcoming quarter. Thank you again. Bye bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.