China Cracks Down on Foreign Hotel Names

Note to hotel companies: be careful what you name your properties in China.

The Chinese government is not a fan of hotels with names that sound too foreign. Think Venice Garden; the Vienna hotel chain and more.

According to an Associated Press report, provinces and cities throughout China have begun issuing notices pressuring private and public officials to rename not only businesses with foreign sounding names but also bridges and neighborhoods.

The crackdown also encompasses non-standard names which are exaggerated or just bizarre. The effort appears to stem from President Xi Jinping’s moves to “sinicize” China.

Vienna Hotel Group, which runs 2,500 properties in the country, wasn’t a fan of the move. Various media outlets have reported that South China’s Hainan Province asked the hotel company to change its name as part of an effort to crack down on a “worship of foreign things.”

The Associated Press reports that the hotel company then took to social media to express its displeasure with the request, after which a variety of other social media users jumped into the fray.

For its part, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs has confirmed to the Associated Press that the campaign is indeed underway. However, some local governments may not necessarily be implementing the rules quite right, the government ministry added.

Still, the Ministry of Civil Affairs underscored that foreign names have an “ugly social influence that needs to be cleaned up.”

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