If Starwood will not play, there are other choices: Hyatt in America, Accor in France, or Granada's Posthouse and Le Meridien chains in Britain.

ECONOMIST: Room for reservations

Colony has had greater success with Accor, a hotel group in which it holds a 17.5% stake jointly with Eurazeo, a private-equity fund.

ECONOMIST: Business in France

Accor has tried to gain a foothold in the Chinese market with its Grand Mercure brand, known locally as Mei Jue, and Marriott plans to more than double the number of its hotels in China in the next three years.

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Patrick Basset of Accor says his firm's 15 hotels in Vietnam already employ 3, 000 people and he expects the staff to double in the next three years.

ECONOMIST: Tourism could do a lot of good if Vietnam handles it properly

France's Accor launched its first budget hotel, a 154-room, three-star Ibis in Tianjin in northern China in 2003.

ECONOMIST: There is a huge opportunity for budget hotels in China

Accor's Ms Yiu says that Chinese tourists making return trips to Europe want to stay in nicer, four- and five-star hotels.

ECONOMIST: Chinese tourism