Although hotel research has developed in China for more than thirty years, few studies have investigated the knowledge development process or the current status of Chinese hotel research. This paper conducts a chronological analysis of hotel-related papers published in two leading Chinese tourism journals, namely Tourism Tribune and Tourism Science. The total number of articles included in the analysis was 598. Network analysis was used to examine the key contributors and institutes contributing to the Chinese hotel literature across different time periods. The research area, research design, and methods for data collection and data analysis were identified for each sampled hotel article by adopting a manual coding approach. Results show that the paradigm of Chinese hotel research shifted between the years 2001 and 2005, characterized by distinct foci and methodological preferences. The majority of hotel articles published before 2000 were conceptual and atheoretical; empirical research following a hypothesis-testing approach has grown rapidly since 2000 and now has become the dominant paradigm of Chinese hotel research. Regarding the topics of Chinese hotel research, there has been an increased interest in the attitudes and behaviors of hotel employees and customers, and a declining interest in understanding the practical aspects of hotel management. Correspondingly, surveys targeting hotel customers and employees have become the most widely used data collection tool; also, data analysis methods have become more sophisticated, with techniques suitable for latent variable analysis, including factor analysis and structural equation modeling, gaining popularity.