With three consecutive successful launches, Pagoda is set to become a new ace card for HowToTrip, showcasing its bold yet strategic innovation.

Hangzhou, August 21, 2018 — Art at the core, life moving forward. On August 17, the premium boutique design brand Pagoda Hotels (hereinafter referred to as “Pagoda”), under Zhejiang HowToTrip Hotel Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “HowToTrip”), held a grand launch event for its new brand addition and cooperation signing. This marked the official announcement of the Hangzhou Vanke Future Light Pagoda Hotel, Lianyungang Sunshine International Pagoda Hotel, and Guangxi Biyuan Pagoda Hotel projects.

Hangzhou Vanke Future Light Pagoda Hotel

Lianyungang Sunshine International Pagoda Hotel

Guangxi Biyuan Pagoda Hotel

The light and elegant launch event was held at Pagoda INNO Hotel, Pagoda’s first brand experience store in China, located in Shanghai’s Wujiaochang Chuangzhi Tiandi. This also signifies that, half a year after its debut, Pagoda has garnered significant attention with its pure brand style and steady market performance, now welcoming new members with a “triple-city triumph.”

Embracing youth wholeheartedly, building a new community of “Plant-based Kin”

“The millennial generation represents the future. Whether HowToTrip can create a more modern and artistic brand to meet their needs—that was the backdrop for Pagoda’s birth,” said Mr. Wu Qiyuan, founder and chairman of HowToTrip. After more than half a year of operation, Pagoda’s brand positioning and expansion strategy have become clearer: to create contemporary art hotels within modern architecture, with a passion for both modern structures and contemporary art, blending the sleekness of modern buildings with the warmth of artistic living.

Building on HowToTrip’s uniquely created “Art at the Core” BAS brand model, Pagoda integrates art throughout the entire guest journey. This also represents HowToTrip’s most radical self-innovation since maintaining an Eastern art-centric design philosophy for a decade.

“Curiosity, imagination, creativity”—these core keywords of Pagoda express a highly clear attitude: complete transformation. Pagoda no longer emphasizes the traditional sense of service prestige in hotels. To bridge the gap between guests and staff, its service philosophy has been boldly innovated. Pagoda builds atmosphere and connection through the intimacy of a community, where “Plant-based Kin” is both a distinctive term for its young, elite clientele and a label for Pagoda’s high-quality, youthful service team.

Within the larger “Plant-based Kin” community, intellectually refined, friendly, and laid-back guests interact with Pagoda staff in a more equal, relaxed, and free manner, undoubtedly creating a more unrestrained lodging atmosphere and delivering a brand-new premium hotel experience.

The high quality and increasingly diverse trends of the actual user base may well reflect both the necessity and success of Pagoda’s innovation. After more than six months of operation, the actual user group at Pagoda INNO Hotel in Shanghai’s Chuangzhi district is younger and more layered than initially expected. Age seems not to be the boundary—taste is. This has injected even more confidence into Pagoda’s future operations.

Modern architecture and contemporary art—Pagoda aims for the pinnacle

“This is an era of segmentation and personalization,” said Mr. Wu Qiyuan. Under Pagoda’s philosophy of creating a modern art lifestyle, it is essential to find a suitable framework to carry artistic living and experiences, and modern architecture is an important choice. Modern architecture is the vanguard of the city, a trend indicator, showcasing urban cultural and artistic characteristics, and serving as a hub for cutting-edge lifestyles.

And urban landmarks are naturally the cream of the crop in modern architecture. He also noted that international luxury lifestyle brands such as Park Hyatt, The Temple House, Niccolo, and W occupy landmark buildings within urban complexes, backed by substantial investment and renowned designers.

Different from these, Pagoda leverages its unique pyramid model of high-end boutique design hotels, choosing regionally outstanding, moderately sized landmark buildings with precise concepts and a youthful momentum.

From a hotel design perspective, modern architecture inherently establishes organic connections with the surrounding environment, cultural-commercial atmosphere, indoor spaces, and communities. With its lightweight, luminous exterior designs, it incorporates more facilities and experiences that interact with the outdoor natural world—such as rooftop gardens, terraces, infinity pools, and sightseeing elevators—making them truly precious and rare.

“The sleekness of modern architecture and the warmth of the hotel interiors form a texture that transcends everyday life,” said Mr. Wu Qiyuan. Elements such as architecture, space, interior decoration, furniture, lighting, and contemporary artworks are more easily balanced and integrated within modern architecture, creating a cohesive design language and level of interaction, resulting in a more unified aesthetic value. This is also a key reason why Pagoda is drawn to modern architecture.

As for contemporary art, Mr. Wu believes it is a freely evolving form of artistic creation and outcome, without the boundaries of traditional art. Innovation and change are the very charm of contemporary art. As the line between contemporary art and daily life blurs, hotels are bound to be the best setting for contemporary art—anything is possible.

Mr. Wu explained that in Pagoda, whether it’s modern architecture, interior design, furniture, lighting, music ambiance, or personalized services, art is at the heart of the journey. Exceptional artworks and scene-based living will create more emotionally resonant travel memories.

Meticulously refining every touchpoint, Pagoda presents a fusion of intelligence, fashion, ease, and comfort. Art can infuse life scenes with delightful surprises. Drawing inspiration from art, carefully curated creative living scenes enhance the stay experience. Art also fosters an intimate, genuine atmosphere, breaking traditional barriers and establishing casual yet respectful interactions with guests. Creatively inspired services bring unique experiences, cultivating a photosynthetic ambiance that nourishes the body and mind—this is the essence of Pagoda’s “Zero Pressure Living.”

Advocating comfortable and relaxing “Zero Pressure Living”

Regarding the brand’s products, services, and future development philosophy, Mr. Gan Shenghong, Executive President of HowToTrip, elaborated on Pagoda’s richer brand definition during his speech.

Mr. Gan introduced that in recent years, with consumption upgrading, the trend of “premium consumption” among the middle class has become increasingly evident. Starting from the consumer experience perspective, HowToTrip successfully broke through the red ocean of mid-range hotels, introducing the art-lifestyle-aesthetics-driven Pagoda brand into China’s high-end boutique service accommodation market.

Positioned as a high-end boutique design brand, Pagoda is an iterative product from HowToTrip’s years of refinement, focusing more sharply on the “Urban Lifestyle” of the astute middle class—especially their ever-evolving business and leisure needs. It integrates lifestyle aesthetics and creative interactions into hotel services, offering fast-paced urbanites a “Zero Pressure Living” experience.

On “Zero Pressure Living,” Mr. Gan provided further details. “Pascal” is a unit of pressure measurement, so “Zero Pressure Living” refers to a lifestyle that relieves stress. Enjoying a light and comfortable living space with an unpressured visual field; achieving an unpressured value experience through easy, stress-free consumption and moderate living; integrating into unpressured communities to find a sense of belonging in pleasant, relaxed social circles—these are all part of it.

Pagoda places greater emphasis on community lifestyle taste. In its hotel design, it blends art and lifestyle aesthetics into living room-style lobbies, go-to place composite living spaces, and rooms known as “photosynthetic spaces,” attracting and satisfying the travel aesthetics needs of the astute crowd with openness and inclusiveness.

Finally, Mr. Gan concluded by advocating for the organic value of “less is more,” applying the effect of curation throughout the brand-building process. Pagoda’s definition of high-end boutique focuses on six key aspects: prime location, modern architecture and contemporary art, value configuration, lifestyle aesthetics, plant-inspired service, and community integration. In the future, as Pagoda expands into more first-tier and core cities nationwide, it will help propel HowToTrip closer to its goal of becoming a “leader in mid-to-high-end boutique hotel brands.”