The two largest economy hotel brands Home Inns and 7 Days Inn maintained their high growth rate in 2011 with a special attention on store expansions, according to their newly released annual reports. However, statistics showed that Home Inns felt more financial burden after its acquisition of Motel 168.

According to their reports, the industry kept its rapid expansion last year. Home Inns opened 316 new locations in 2011, including ten new Motel 168 hotels. It had a total of 1,426 hotels in operation ending on December 31, 2011 while there were 198 hotels that were under the pipeline.

7 Days Inn had 376 new openings in 2011, far more than 290 in its plan early last year. Ending on December 31, 2011, it had 32 direct-selling stores that were under construction and 202 stores that it had already signed on but did not open yet. Statistics showed that 7 Days Inn had more than 1,000 locations in February 2012, making it the second economy hotel brand after Home Inns that reached the mark.