Sun Jian, chief executive officer of Home Inns, one of the largest budget hotel groups in China, said on recently that because of the global financial crisis, Home Inns will slow down its expansion in 2009, but it will still retain its goal of opening 1,000 hotels in China by the end of 2011.

Sun said that Home Inns would keep on expanding in 2009 but it would not grow as rapidly as in 2008. Sun disclosed that Home Inns opened 205 hotels in 2008, making the number of properties in the group about 470. Sun predicted that Home Inns' revenue would increase at the expected rate of 70%-80%.

Last week, Home Inns lowered its revenue expectation for the fourth quarter of 2008 to about CNY535 million as a result of the current economic depression.