About Atour Lifestyle Holdings Ltd
Setting out as an upper midscale hotel chain group, we are now a leading lifestyle brand in China. We are the largest upper midscale hotel chain in China in terms of room number as of the end of 2020, according to Frost & Sullivan. Through our hotel network, loyalty program and data and technology capabilities, we have been tirelessly exploring new possible ways to set the new trends for China's hospitality industry and expand our offerings beyond our hotels. We distinguish ourselves from our peers in the following aspects: • Hotel network with a distinct portfolio of lifestyle brands. We offer our guests a diversified collection of lifestyle hotel brands, each created with a unique personality under the unified ethos of inclusivity and presence of humanness. As of March 31, 2021, our hotel network covered 608 hotels spanning 131 cities in China, with a total of 71,121 hotel rooms, including 575 manachised hotels with a total of 66,267 manachised hotel rooms, in addition to a pipeline of 299 hotels with a total of 32,825 rooms under development. Our guests can book a stay with us and access our rich product and service offerings through offline and online channels, including our mobile app and Weixin/WeChat mini program. • "A-Card" loyalty program with strong customer stickiness. We built our A-Card loyalty program to enhance our engagement with guests and provide them with a unique and personalized experience. As of March 31, 2021, our A-Card loyalty program had amassed more than 25 million registered individual members. In 2020, approximately 44.7% of our room-nights were sold to our A-Card members. • Proprietary data and technology capabilities. To provide our customers with personalized services and products, we have developed a comprehensive digital management system, which improves customer experience and operational efficiency in room reservation, room management, pricing and membership benefits. We use our data technology to identify market trends and inform our hotel management and strategic decisions, and make our hotel services and retail products more relatable to customers through seamless integration into our rooms and other consumption scenarios throughout our hotels. In addition, we are the first hotel chain in China to develop a scenario-based retail business, according to Frost & Sullivan.
We design our guest room amenities, work closely with manufacturers to deliver top-quality products, and carefully place the relevant products in guest rooms. Each of our guest rooms incorporates a fully immersive shopping destination, enabling us to further strengthen our brand elasticity with our guests. As of March 31, 2021, we had developed a total of 1,136 SKUs for scenario-based retail. The GMV generated from our retail business was RMB82.8 million and RMB107.2 million for 2019 and 2020, respectively, representing a year-over-year increase of 29.5%, and reached RMB32.6 million in the three months ended March 31, 2021. In 2020, the average transaction value per room reservation reached RMB517.5 for our scenario-based retail business. We mainly use the manachise model to expand our hotel network in a less capital-intensive manner. We also lease the properties of the hotels we operate. As of March 31, 2021, we had 33 leased hotels and 575 manachised hotels. The number of our manachised hotels grew at a CAGR of 86.2% between 2015 and 2020. We primarily derive our revenues from (i) franchise and management fees from our manachised hotels and sales of hotel supplies to manachised hotels, (ii) operations of our leased hotels, and (iii) sales of our retail products in connection with our scenario-based retail business. Our principal executive offices are located at 18th floor, Wuzhong Building, 618 Wuzhong Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Our registered office in the Cayman Islands is located at P.O. Box 309, Ugland House, Grand Cayman, KY1-1104, Cayman Islands. Our agent for service of process in the United States is located at 122 East 42nd Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY.
ATAT operates in the Retail Trade | Restaurants, Hotels, Motels | approximately 3,180 employees | led by CEO Hai J. Wang.
The $11.1B question: What happens when a company this good becomes this expensive?
The American consumer has always been a fickle beast — spending freely in good times and retreating in bad. Atour Lifestyle Holdings Ltd has spent decades learning to read those moods, and right now, the reading is surprisingly sanguine.
At $11.1B in market capitalization, Atour Lifestyle Holdings Ltd (ATAT) currently ranks #227 in our quantitative model, with a composite score of 76.0/100. That places it firmly in "Strong Buy" territory — our highest conviction rating.
But here's the thing about stocks priced for perfection: They leave no room for error.
The Numbers That Matter
Let's start with what's undeniably true. Our 6-factor model gives ATAT the following scores:
| Factor | Score | Weight | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | 95/100 | 30% | Exceptional |
| Value | 73/100 | 15% | Fair |
| Momentum | 87/100 | 25% | Accelerating |
| Investment | 77/100 | 10% | Growing |
| Stability | 29/100 | 10% | Volatile |
| Short Interest | 10/100 | 10% | High shorts |
The quality score of 95/100 is the headline here. It reflects profitability metrics that would make most CFOs weep with envy:
- ROE: 50.3%
- Net Margin: 17.6%
- Gross Margin: 41.5%
These aren't just good numbers. They're the kind of numbers that make ATAT a "must-own" stock for institutional portfolios.
The Bull Case
"If you could design a business in a laboratory, it would look something like ATAT."
The bull case writes itself:
- Quality is persistent. Academic research shows high-quality stocks outperform by 4-6% annually over long periods. ATAT is quality defined.
- Momentum is real. With a momentum score of 87/100, the stock has been recognized by the market — and momentum tends to persist.
- The moat is deep. Companies with these margins don't lose them easily. The competitive position is entrenched.
The Bear Case
But here's what keeps value investors up at night:
- Valuation compression risk. At current levels, the stock is priced for continued perfection. Any stumble — a missed quarter, a competitive threat, a macro slowdown — could compress the multiple from N/Ax to the low 20s. That's a 20-30% decline without anything fundamentally "wrong."
- The crowded trade problem. When everyone owns a stock, who's left to buy? Momentum works until it doesn't.
- Mean reversion. Trees don't grow to the sky. At some point, growth decelerates.
The Valuation Framework
| Scenario | Assumption | Fair Value | Upside/Downside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bear | Multiple compression to 20x | -20% | Downside |
| Base | Current trajectory continues | +10-15% | Modest upside |
| Bull | Momentum accelerates | +30-40% | Significant upside |
The risk-reward is ... fine. Not exceptional. Not terrible. Just fine.
The Bottom Line
Atour Lifestyle Holdings Ltd is exactly what it appears to be: a high-quality business with strong momentum trading at a premium price. Whether that's attractive depends entirely on what kind of investor you are.
For long-term, buy-and-hold investors, ATAT is a core holding. For value investors or short-term traders, look elsewhere.
The company is priced for perfection — and in markets, as in life, perfection is a fragile thing.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5-Star Strong Buy
Score: 76.0/100 | Rank: #227 of 3,571 stocks
Sector: Consumer Discretionary
This analysis reflects the views of Blank Capital Research as of February 16, 2026. It is not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.