Beijing’s consumer authority has formally challenged the dispute-resolution clause in the membership terms of Huazhu’s hotel loyalty programme, ordering the group’s operator to carry out a full review and rectify the policy within a deadline. The Beijing Consumers Association said the clause in the Huazhu membership agreement unreasonably restricted consumers’ principal rights by mandating arbitration through the Shanghai Arbitration Commission and thereby depriving customers of the option to sue in people’s courts under China’s Civil Procedure Law.
The operator named in the notice is Hanting Xingkong (Shanghai) Hotel Management Co., Ltd., which manages Huazhu’s membership services. Beijing’s consumer body characterised the clause as a standard-form contract term that amounts to excluding or limiting key consumer rights and harming legitimate interests. It warned that failure to complete timely rectification could prompt measures including public criticism, referrals to administrative regulators, or public-interest litigation.
The move is notable because Huazhu is one of China’s biggest hotel groups. Company disclosures show more than 30 brands and some 12,000 hotels across over 1,500 cities as of September 30, 2025, encompassing familiar names such as All Seasons, Hanting, Orange Hotel and others. The scale of Huazhu’s membership base means the contractual practice challenged by Beijing could affect a large cohort of consumers and set a precedent for the broader accommodation sector.
This action fits into a broader regulatory trajectory: Chinese authorities have increasingly scrutinised unfair contract terms, data-handling practices and consumer protections across tech and service sectors. Local consumer associations and market regulators have grown more assertive about contractual clauses that push disputes into arbitration or otherwise limit statutory rights, reflecting a tightening compliance environment for companies operating consumer-facing platforms and loyalty schemes.
For Huazhu the practical implications are immediate and material. The company will need to amend its membership terms, reassess legal and compliance controls for its loyalty programme, and manage reputational fallout among customers. For investors and industry peers the episode underscores operational and regulatory risk: even widely used standard contracts are subject to scrutiny and can attract enforcement and litigation if judged to curtail consumers’ statutory entitlements.
The Beijing Consumers Association said it will monitor Huazhu’s remediation and press for genuine compliance, signalling that this is not a one-off advisory but part of sustained oversight. If companies do not adjust, consumer bodies have shown willingness to escalate to administrative channels and courts, making early remedial action the lower-cost path for large service providers that rely on standardised membership agreements.