BANGKOK-based Absolute Hotel Services (AHS), which established operations in the Middle East last month, is now looking to expand in China. AHS started its overseas expansion last year, when it went into joint ventures in Indochina and Mumbai.

AHS CEO, Jonathan Wigley, said he was in talks with potential partners in China to form more joint venture agreements, similar to its current deals in Doha, Hanoi and Mumbai, which it intends to use as platforms for expansion in the Middle East, Indochina and India.

Established in 2008, the hotel management company has 52 properties and 5,000 rooms in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Qatar and Oman under its management portfolio.

Twenty-six properties are branded under AHS’s deluxe boutique brands U Hotels and Resorts, 24 are branded under mid-scale Eastin Hotels, Eastin Residences and Eastin Easy, and two are unbranded properties.

Of these properties, six – in Thailand, Vietnam and India – are operational. By the end of the year, 14 will be operational; by end-next year, 41 properties will be online.

In supporting inventory growth, Wigley said AHS had invested “substantially” on marketing infrastructure, supplying both B2C and B2B distribution capabilities to properties under its network.