The loneliness of a lone hero
No one is born a CEO, and Luo Jun is no exception. Before this, he spent years in senior executive roles at global giants like Cisco, Oracle, and Avaya, building an enviable résumé that seemed unrelated to Tujia’s founding vision. But precisely because of this, Luo Jun lived a long “frequent flyer” life, naturally forming a deep connection with hotels. He has a hobby: collecting hotel keycards. To this day, he has a thick stack of over a thousand. Whenever he shows these “trophies” to others, he feels a sense of pride—only after staying in so many hotels did he realize what kind of business he truly wanted to build. So his career was quite literally “slept into.”
Reflecting on Tujia’s initial inspiration, Luo Jun still remembers it vividly. On 9/11, he and a few friends were in the U.S. When airports closed, they had to stay put. Luo Jun chose a Hilton for $170 a night, prioritizing star-rated hotels due to his high standards—pillow height, service quality, and the like. His three friends, however, opted for an apartment at just $45 a night. At the time, Luo Jun had no concept of vacation rental apartments, only knowing they had washing machines and allowed guests to cook their own meals. The result? Though staying in a five-star hotel, Luo Jun felt cramped and miserable, with no place to wash clothes and forced to eat Western food daily. Meanwhile, his friends were self-sufficient, leisurely drinking beer and playing cards, splitting the cost to just $80 per person. That experience shook Luo Jun and gave him a vague sense of this model’s viability in China. Back then, apartment rentals in the U.S. were already mature and even had publicly traded companies, while China had barely explored the concept.
It took Luo Jun over a decade to turn that brainstorming session into his life’s work. He first founded Sina Leju, serving as general manager—both staying in his field and venturing into new territory. In 2009, he partnered with E-House China to establish China Real Estate Information Corporation, successfully listing it on NASDAQ as co-CEO. Despite his career success and happy family life, Luo Jun never forgot his U.S. experience. When China’s real estate projects and tourist numbers exploded, Luo Jun made a bold move: he quit his job.
And so, Luo Jun shed his suit, packed a backpack, and headed to Hainan. He says entrepreneurs are lonely, but those pursuing disruptive ventures like his are even lonelier—often misunderstood and even labeled as frauds. He’s grown accustomed to starting work at 7:30 a.m. and leaving at 2 a.m., without exception since founding the company. But compared to that, the hardships of the early days were truly unforgettable.
When Luo Jun first arrived in Hainan, he rented just two villas as offices—one for work, one for staff housing. He still clearly remembers how, when he first approached property owners in Hainan, not a single one was willing to lease to him. Eventually, he met an elderly man with a seaside apartment in Sanya. Just as they were about to sign the contract after reaching an agreement, Luo Jun “scared” the man off. It happened to be lunchtime, and the cooking auntie hired by the company was frying food. The serious, formal signing venue was suddenly filled with sizzling sounds and the aroma of food. The old man put down his pen, saying he didn’t trust the place and wouldn’t sign. But to Luo Jun’s surprise, the man later searched for him on Baidu, read some reports about him, and finally cleared up the misunderstanding—allowing Luo Jun to secure his first property.
But that was just the beginning. To improve service quality, Luo Jun specifically purchased standard service procedures from five-star hotels. Initially following the hotel model, Luo Jun described himself as a typical Shanghainese—meticulous in his work. In Tujia’s early days, he personally handled everything, from furnishing to toiletries, from bathroom to living room cleaning. After setting up and cleaning, Luo Jun would personally stay in the rooms and quickly noticed issues: for example, cleaning with the door open led to too many mosquitoes at night, or cooking downstairs caused smoke to waft back in, or the bathrooms had odors. To solve these problems, the rigid hotel model had to be adapted into one suitable for Tujia. Today, this has become a cornerstone of Tujia’s premium service.
Tujia has grown rapidly to this day, but Luo Jun says he didn’t start this business to prove himself. Instead, he wanted to do something meaningful—something that brings happiness to ordinary people. He calls Tujia’s current model a “five-win” scenario: developers win because Tujia’s property management services help sell more homes; homeowners win by earning income from their vacant properties; travelers win with comfortable, hassle-free, and affordable vacations; the government wins as developers continue buying land, solving the issue of idle properties; and finally, Tujia wins by boosting revenue and earning a great reputation.