Revealed: Most searched luxury hotels

According to the survey, Sheraton, a Starwood brand, came on the top of the list with almost 14 percent of the overall searches. The report attributes the success of the brand to the fact that Sheraton was the first western hotel brand to arrive in China. Check out the full list.

Sheraton is the most popular luxury hotel brand on the internet in China, followed by Hilton and Shangri-la, according to a survey carried out between January and March this year.

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According to the survey, Sheraton, a Starwood brand, came on the top of the list with almost 14 percent of the overall searches. The report attributes the success of the brand to the fact that Sheraton was the first western hotel brand to arrive in China.

The brand arrived in 1985 right after the economic opening of the country. Sheraton has plans to open 12 new hotels across China in 2012 and expand its portfolio to 80 properties by 2015.

Among the non-western brands, Hong-Kong based Shangri-la comes in third position followed by The Peninsula, also based in Hong Kong, in seventh position. The Nikko Hotels brand, based in Japan and originally owned by Japan Airlines, came in ninth position.

Under the name "The world luxury index China: Hotels," the report carried out by Digital Luxury Group, analyzed more than 170 million online searches during the first trimester of 2012.

The searches covered over 68 brand names in more than 75 domestic and international destinations that were generated in mainland China in either Chinese or English. Over 91 pe cent came from Chinese search engine Baidu and around 9 percent came from Google.

Top 10 list

1. Sheraton
2. Hilton
3. Shangri-La
4. InterContinental
5. Westin
6. Four Seasons
7. The Peninsula
8. Kempinski
9. Nikko
10. Ritz-Carlton