Chinese hotel chain Home Inns & Hotels Management has announced plans to open a total of 260 to 280 new hotels in 2011, of which 100 to 110 will be leased-and-operated hotels and 160 to 170 will be franchised-and-managed hotels.

Home Inns also has revealed it plans to enter into the midscale hotel segment in China with three to four new hotels in 2011 under the Yitel brand name.

The target plan for 2011 represents a record pace for new hotel openings in a single year in the Chinese economy hotel industry.  It will take the total number of Home Inns' hotels to approximately 1,100 by the end of 2011.

"The time is right for us to enter into a new era of growth," said David Sun, Home Inns' CEO. "Throughout the recovery from the recent economic slowdown, we rebuilt a strong development team and implemented effective development processes. With a fundamentally sound economic outlook and our financial strength and execution capability, we believe Home Inns is well positioned to invest in our future and achieve sustainable long-term growth."

Home Inns opened 208 new hotels in 2010, adding 67 new leased-and-operated hotels and 141 new franchised-and-managed hotels, and ended the year with a total of 818 hotels in operation.

As of end September 2010, Home Inns operated a total of 728 hotels in 134 different cities across China and covered 143 cities including hotels contracted.