A complete guide to grabbing the best deals on Meituan homestays, it’s really mind-boggling

Some time ago, Meituan held an event called "Free Homestay", providing users with blind box lottery opportunities. It was originally intended to provide benefits to users, but ended up being targeted by the wool party, and even formed various communities for resource exchange. However, this event was exploited by these "interested" users and changed its nature.

Where there is free stuff, there will be people who exploit loopholes.

Meituan recently launched a "free homestay" event, providing users with a blind box lottery opportunity, allowing users to experience being a "homestay tester". This event quickly became a new front for the wool party, and even formed various communities for resource exchange.

Meituan Homestay has previously launched this type of free trial stay activities, and the recent free accommodation activities seem to have a greater chance of winning. Many netizens wait for the draw every day to see how their luck will be today.

However, although the benefits are good, the restrictions make this activity difficult to implement, and most netizens call it "just for fun". With the mentality of not wasting, netizens cannot enjoy the free housing themselves, so they come up with the idea of ​​sharing it with others. Although the platform explicitly prohibits it and there is resistance from merchants, there are still people who want to make a small profit by using the platform resources.

1. Free B&B with a high winning rate

If you search for the keyword "free homestay" on Meituan, the event page will pop up and you can directly participate in the lottery. The threshold for the lottery is low and the probability of winning is high.

Lin Lin accidentally saw this event on Xiaohongshu, so she tried her hand on Meituan. "I didn't expect to win the first try." After discovering the new world, Lin Lin told her friends about it, and they also won the first try. The houses they drew were from all over the country.

During the event, users can participate in the lucky draw every day, with a maximum of one chance per day. However, each user can place a maximum of 10 activity orders, and can only continue to place orders after completing at least one order.

Many users actively participated in the event after learning about it. Although the National Day holiday has passed, their enthusiasm for the lottery has not diminished. They have set up mutual aid groups on platforms such as Xiaohongshu to exchange or transfer free houses. Some mutual aid groups have reached more than 400 people, and the group is very active, with people constantly posting information about the houses they have won. At 1 a.m., many people were still sharing in the group.

There are also a wide variety of room types available. One netizen was so amused after winning a youth hostel that he said, "It's better not to have this blessing." At the same time, some netizens won homestays in resorts such as Shanghai Disneyland and Beijing Universal Studios, and even a single-family villa by the sea with a four-digit price tag.

This activity is very powerful. In addition to the free housing, users can also book 30 other houses at a 50% discount, and can give away the houses they have drawn. However, if you choose to give away the houses, the recipients will need to place an order at half the price, instead of staying for free, and the rush purchase time is limited to 30 minutes.

If the user is a creator, that is, has an account on a social platform and has published more than 3 pieces of content, the probability of winning can be increased by 60% after the creator identity is certified on the platform, but the number of creator certifications is currently full.

In addition, other users can increase their chances of winning by 20% by completing real-name authentication before the prize draw. You can also make a wish to the B&B recommendation officer to more accurately match the location, time, style and other factors of the B&B, and increase your chances of winning by collecting the intended B&B.

Although users who won the free homestay are eager to try and go on a spontaneous trip, the random location and time make it difficult for them to arrange their itinerary. In the early stage of the event, they could choose the city where the house is located, but now the location they won can only be randomly assigned by the platform.

Many free check-in times are on the same night, so users who want to experience free accommodation are unable to afford it. Even if the room is local, it seems unnecessary to stay overnight. It can be seen that if free homestays want to perfectly adapt to user needs, it is still difficult.

2. It takes patience to get the wool

The randomness of housing information and the unknown resistance at the merchant level make it difficult to grab this wool that is right at hand.

The confirmation time for free stay is limited to 10 minutes. If it is not confirmed within the time limit, it will be invalid. Xiao Xiao complained on the social platform that after participating in the event, she won a homestay in a nearby city. She excitedly told her friends and checked the train tickets. When she returned to the interface, she found that the stay qualification had expired, and she was happy for nothing.

Although the room rate is reduced, users are required to pay a certain amount of security deposit before checking in. The security deposit is set up to protect the interests of merchants. The amount is not high and is far lower than the room rate. If the user causes losses to the merchant, a certain amount of the security deposit will be deducted to subsidize the merchant.

But for users, the deposit also makes them hesitate. According to the activity rules, the free accommodation activity order cannot be cancelled after the order is successfully placed, otherwise the deposit will not be refunded and can only be refunded after checking in and evaluating. Unless the itinerary has been confirmed, if users hesitate for more than 10 minutes whether to pay the deposit, they will miss the opportunity.

However, if users have to change their itinerary due to unexpected circumstances after paying the deposit, resulting in being unable to check in, the platform also has corresponding solutions.

Xiaofeng encountered such a situation. After contacting customer service, he was told that he needed to check in first and the deposit would be returned after completing the evaluation task. Similarly, Mumu followed the above process and successfully received the deposit.

In the free accommodation activity description, there is a detailed rule that says: "After placing an order for the activity, if you cancel the order for personal reasons or do not actually stay, you will not be able to participate in Meituan's free accommodation activities in the future." In this regard, Xiaofeng said: "If you pay the deposit but do not stay, it will not affect your participation in subsequent activities."

If you happen to win a B&B of your choice and successfully make a reservation, can you just sit back and wait for your check-in?

In actual activities, some consumers placed orders but were rejected by landlords, who said that they did not participate in the activity.

Dai Ying placed an order directly after winning the B&B on October 7, and made corresponding adjustments and arrangements for her itinerary. Two days later, she received a call from the merchant saying that she had booked it for 0 yuan and could not stay there, which puzzled Dai Ying.

When she called Meituan customer service, the customer service said that she could check in if she had an order. But after communicating with the merchant, the customer service told her that the merchant did not allow her to stay. After three feedbacks, Dai Ying got a no-threshold voucher for a homestay worth three times the deposit, which was valid for six months.

Although the experience was not pleasant, Dai Ying said that the platform responded quickly when solving the problem and it only took a few hours to resolve it.

3. Who benefits from the free wool?

Most users failed to successfully stay in the free homestays, and those who wanted to resell them also found it difficult to do so. In the mutual aid group, even if someone wants to receive a house, it is difficult to make a successful transaction. After finally seeing a house you like, when you contact the other party, you will be told that the order has expired, and most of the sharing in the group has become invalid.

In order to improve transaction efficiency and success rate, many people changed their nicknames in the mutual aid group to the name of the region, so that others can tag them in time after they draw a house in the corresponding location. Some mutual aid groups also discussed that group members will draw the lottery on time at the specified time to facilitate transactions and avoid wasting opportunities. Someone else suggested in the group, "You can book directly without paying, and this will lock the house for half an hour."

Since it is difficult for them to enjoy the property, some people have started to think about making a profit from it and want to sell the property at a low price, while others have tried to split the profits 50-50 with the merchants directly.

Most of the B&B merchants participating in the event have few reviews and hope to increase store traffic through this event. After launching the event, some merchants were immediately discouraged by users who wanted to share the profits. After all, they didn't make a penny, so how could they have to pay half of the room fee?

Tan Yong, a Shandong B&B owner, had just started running his B&B for more than a month. After participating in a free accommodation event, a user won his room. The user asked, "Boss, can I add a V?" and said he had questions. When Tan Yong replied that he could ask questions online, the user said bluntly, "If I place an order but don't stay, can your profit be 55%?" Tan Yong was a little confused. There were too many promotions on Meituan and he couldn't figure it out.

Later, after consulting customer service, he learned that "the benefits of trial living are mainly promotional red envelopes, trial room fees in cash, and trial stay evaluations." The former is the benefit that must be obtained if the trial live is successful, and the latter two are benefits that can be obtained with chance.

The trial room fee is paid in cash, that is, when the platform recruits trial room experience officers, it will flexibly recruit some paid trial room experience officers according to market dynamics and distribute 50% of the income to the landlord.

As for whether it is possible to buy other people's free rooms at a low price, Tan Yong said, "It is best not to buy this, and you still have to pay a deposit. It will be troublesome if the merchant does not agree to let you stay. It is not expensive to stay in a B&B after the peak season."

Xiaoyu runs a homestay in Yunnan. She posted a screenshot of her homestay being selected on a social media platform. The screenshot shows that after the order is completed, she will receive a promotion red envelope of more than 100 yuan. However, the red envelope cannot be withdrawn and can only be used to purchase traffic through the promotion.

In the comments section, some homestay merchants said that they would rather leave their rooms empty than participate in the event, at least there would be no waste costs such as cleaning, electricity and water bills. In response, Xiaoyu replied: "The traffic provided by the platform is still good, and some guests may stay for more than one night."

Regarding the official ban on the secondary sale of properties, Xiaoyu also said that as a merchant, it is not allowed to transfer free properties.

When searching for Meituan's free homestays on second-hand platforms, you can see a large number of posts selling at low prices. Some sellers' homepages have links to homestays in different locations. The selling prices vary depending on the original prices of the homestays, and most are sold at a 10% discount. Some sales posts are marked with "After placing an order, you will be given the room and password, and you can check in directly." As for the deposit required for check-in, some sellers have paid it in advance, while others require the buyer to bear the deposit amount.

When asked whether a seller would confirm the identity before moving in, the seller said, "Just move in directly, and I'll talk to the landlord later. I've sold a lot of properties, and they're all moved in this way. Don't worry, there's no problem."

However, relevant prohibition clauses can be clearly seen in the official activity rules. Despite this, some people still make profits from it.

This activity of Meituan Homestay may be an innovative move made in response to the ever-increasing consumer demand and the rapid recovery of the cultural and tourism industry, trying to gain attention and traffic by revitalizing the housing supply. Now, this activity has been used by these "interested" users and has changed its nature.

Author: Zhao Bei, Producer: Daman, Layout: Yuqi

Source public account: IQ Tax Research Center (ID: gh_c55b3561ece1), the world is full of tricks, I will step into the trap for you!