Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc. (Nasdaq: HMIN), a leading economy hotel chain in China, 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.

In addition, as previously announced, Home Inns has set plans to enter into the midscale hotel segment in China with three to four new hotels in 2011 under a second brand, Yitel.

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, net of closures of three leased-and-operated hotels and three franchised-and-managed hotels mainly due to local rezoning.

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 Home Inns' chief executive officer, Mr. David Sun. "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."

Similar to the growth momentum it achieved in 2007 and 2008 before a temporary slow-down in response to the overall economic environment, Home Inns plans to reaccelerate growth to capitalize on China's favorable overall economic conditions and continued growth in domestic business and leisure travel.