Escape from the hotel "assassin": young people robbed the bath center for 50 yuan to spend the night, and went to the surrounding cities of the scenic spot to book a room

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays overlapped, and the 8-day holiday also gave the public more travel options. The tourism market has skyrocketed, and the prices of tourist accommodation have skyrocketed. In order to save money on travel, what efforts have young people made?

"I watched as hotel prices rose from 190 to thousands of yuan." In order to avoid popular tourist attractions, Xiaoyu specially chose a niche city, but still could not escape the hotel "assassin" and finally booked a hotel far away from the scenic spot.

Like Xiaoyu, young people on social platforms have started comparing hotel prices on various OTAs (online travel platforms) this year instead of looking at travel route guides, in order to carefully calculate their travel expenses.

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays overlap, and the 8-day long holiday gives the public more options for travel. The tourism market has ushered in a blowout, and hotel bookings have skyrocketed.

Data from Qunar.com shows that this year's National Day tourism data has exceeded that of 2019. As of September 15, domestic popular hotel bookings increased by 514% year-on-year compared with 2019. As of September 21, advance bookings for homestays in popular cities for the National Day holiday doubled year-on-year compared with the same period in 2019, with the average nightly price reaching 565 yuan, a 20% increase year-on-year compared with 2019.

"Don't worry about the price, just grab the hotel first," said a hotel staff member in Wuyuan, Jiangxi, when Tech Planet consulted about hotel prices. The price of this newly opened hotel from September 30 to October 5 has increased by 3.5 times, and the price of a "deluxe view king room" has soared from 392 yuan to 1,393 yuan. On the National Day, the price increased to 2,326 yuan, an increase of nearly 6 times.

In order to save money, some young people who want to travel on a budget have started looking for tips on staying at bathing centers. A clerk at a bathing center in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, told Tech Planet, "There are already hundreds of people who have come to inquire about the holiday 'overnight in the lobby' package, and the lobby seats are on a first-come, first-served basis."

1. Hotel prices increased by up to 7 times, and some B&Bs disclosed details of the price increase

Although the price increase of holiday hotels fluctuates with market demand, the extent of the price increase still exceeds the psychological expectations of many tourists.

According to people in the tourism industry, during the peak tourist season, the number of tourists increases dramatically, and hotels in some popular areas are even in short supply. In addition, due to the increase in manpower, services, various security guarantees and procurement costs during holidays, hotel prices will fluctuate to a certain extent.

Xiaoyu said that she understood the price increase of hotels, but she could not accept a price increase of more than 2 times. Especially for college students, the budget is small. What's more, the service demand behind some high-priced hotels has not increased to the same extent.

Tech Planet found that during the National Day holiday this year, hotel prices near many popular tourist attractions generally increased by 2-3 times, and 5-6 times was not uncommon. Economy hotels such as Home Inn, Huazhu, and Four Seasons in popular tourist areas, a 350 yuan double bed room will basically increase to 850-1,000 yuan during the National Day holiday.

During the May Day holiday this year, the price increase of economy hotels attracted much attention. For example, the price of Super 8 Hotel in Beijing exceeded 2,000 yuan per night during the May Day holiday, which caused heated discussions. "I can't afford to stay at Home Inn Hanting with a monthly salary of 20,000 yuan" and "I can't afford to pay for one day's room fee after working for three days" caused heated discussions on social platforms.

In addition, in some areas with obvious tourist peak and off-seasons, or in some popular tourist attractions that have emerged in recent years, hotel pricing is even more chaotic, with hotel prices in some areas even rising by nearly 7 times.

Tech Planet checked a hotel in Jingdezhen, and its price during the National Day holiday increased from 160 yuan to 1,104 yuan. The hotel staff said that the hotel was newly built in September this year and is now almost fully booked. Another Home Inn in Jingdezhen increased its price by nearly five times, from 140 yuan to 611 yuan.

Note: Jingdezhen

Compared with the two hotels during the National Day holiday, some luxury hotels have seen smaller price increases. From the Ctrip platform, we can see that the price of a deluxe king-size bed room at the Mandarin Oriental Wangfujing Hotel in Beijing during the National Day holiday is 5,699 yuan, which is the same as usual. The only price increase is for a 125-square-meter superior suite, which was 22,956 yuan on September 24. According to its employees, since other rooms were sold out, the only remaining room was more expensive than usual. The "standard room" at the Beijing Hotel has increased from the daily 866 yuan to a maximum of 1,859 yuan, a price increase of 114%.

In addition to hotels, homestay prices have also skyrocketed. Li Yuan, the head of a homestay in Weihai, said that some sea view rooms in homestays have increased from 500 to 600 yuan per night to 2,000 yuan per night. "As long as there is a sea view, the price will increase. In fact, the effect varies greatly. Before checking in, users must ask the host to take a video of the scene to avoid falling into the trap of fake pictures."

Some B&Bs have also proactively disclosed their price increase rules. Tech Planet read the information released by a B&B that has been operating for 6 years, and found that its price increase rules are 900-1500 yuan on weekdays, 100-200 yuan on three-day holidays, 80-100 yuan on summer vacations, and no more than 50% on May Day, National Day, and Spring Festival. They also reminded people to "be thrifty and be careful when buying a house."

2. Behind the skyrocketing accommodation prices: no orders in the off-season, hotels focus on mid- to high-end

Regarding the price increase, Li Yuan introduced that Weihai's tourism has obvious peak and off-peak seasons. June and July are fully booked, and there are often no orders at other times. The "National Day" holiday is a critical moment for B&Bs to prepare for the second half of the year.

During the peak season, if you only rely on renting out your own houses, you can only make money from one house, after all, the number of customers is limited. Therefore, the B&B owner will choose to rent a few more houses as a supplement, and rent out as many houses as possible to guests. "The cost of renting a house to run a B&B is very high. In July and August, I got an ordinary three-bedroom apartment, which cost 9,000 yuan a month. Adding the cost of employees, the price must not be low," said Li Yuan.

Wang Hai is the head of a homestay in Wuzhen. He rented a room in mid-March this year and had already made back his investment by the end of July. During the May Day holiday, the homestay made over 10,000 yuan a day. Wang Hai said that many orders came in on the day of the holiday, and he could sell it to customers at 1,500 yuan a day if he persisted.

After the boom in tourism during the May Day holiday, Wuzhen added many new homestays and hotels. According to Wang Hai’s research, more than 500 rooms were added, and the industry became more inward-looking.

However, B&Bs seem to have not yet found an effective method for the off-season. A person in charge of a Yunnan B&B said that the current popular "weekly and monthly packages" model is not as good as imagined to seek certain growth space in the off-season. He rented a house for 700 yuan/month, plus various soft furnishings, and the final monthly rent was 1,500 yuan, but it was beyond the budget of many customers who came to consult. In contrast, some villagers rented out their houses after simple decoration for only 600-800 yuan/month.

In Li Yuan's opinion, long-term rental in the off-season will increase the room damage rate, so she still hopes to earn as much as possible during the peak tourist season.

In addition to the impact of off-season and peak-season, there may also be anti-bidding prices. Li Yuan introduced, "For example, if all my rooms are booked, the platform will not give me traffic. If I want to continue to get traffic, I have to ensure that there are rooms. Then I have to change the price to a very high level so that others will not bid and I still have traffic. Sometimes the misunderstanding of sky-high room rates comes from this."

In any case, when it comes to pricing, both hotels and B&Bs have a complex system, and the price increase rules are also different.

As for hotel pricing, the National Business Daily reported that market demand is the fundamental determining factor, and geographical location and time are two important indicators. From the perspective of geographical location, some areas may have only one or two prices throughout the year, which are relatively stable, while the price fluctuations in the city center or around scenic spots will be more obvious, with different prices at different times.

Hotels with geographical advantages, especially those that can affect the subsequent travel experience, will see a more severe price increase. Miao Tian, ​​a veteran travel enthusiast, has a deep understanding of this. In June this year, during the peak season, he traveled to Xinjiang and witnessed hotel prices rising from two or three hundred to six or seven hundred overnight. "The hotel conditions are actually very simple, but you can rent horses to enter the scenic spot. The horses are limited and first come first served. Since you can't drive in, if you live far away from the scenic spot, you can only walk in. In his opinion, this part of the excess price is actually paid for the travel experience the next day."

The fierce price increases of some economy hotels may also be related to their strategy of focusing on mid- to high-end hotels. In 2022, Huazhu and BTG Home Inns Group closed 142 and 298 economy stores respectively, and added 363 and 133 mid- to high-end stores respectively. According to the "China Hotel Industry Development Report" released by the China Hotel Association, from the perspective of the entire market, the economy hotels saw the largest reduction in the number of guest rooms from 2020 to 2022, with a total reduction of 3.559 million rooms.

According to Huazhu's latest second-quarter financial report, the average daily room rate of its domestic hotels in the second quarter was 305 yuan/day, up 10% from 277 yuan/day in the first quarter and up 40% year-on-year. At the same time, Huazhu also turned losses into profits, achieving a net profit of 1 billion yuan, compared with a net loss of 350 million yuan in the same period last year. As the impact of the epidemic gradually subsides, hotels are also accelerating their "recovery".

In addition, some tourist attractions in niche cities have suddenly become popular, and local hotels and B&Bs are prone to being in short supply and are also prone to price increases.

3. Young people who are careful with their budgets: book a room in a city near the scenic spot and stay overnight in a bathing center

The upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday may become the most popular "Golden Week" in history. According to the forecast data of the China Tourism Academy, the number of tourists every day during the Golden Week will exceed 100 million, far exceeding the level of the same period last year and 2019.

Faced with skyrocketing hotel prices, holiday travelers made different choices. Xiaofei changed her travel route because the original Dongshan Island accommodation prices had generally skyrocketed six or seven times, and she was unable to find a bargain on Xianyu. A room priced at 355 yuan was sold for more than 1,000 yuan on Xianyu. In the end, Xiaofei chose Pingtan Island as her travel destination, which was more in line with her expected budget.

Some people choose to rent houses in cities closer to scenic spots. Wang Hai, the owner of a Wuzhen B&B, said that during holidays, tourism is booming and accommodation rooms are in short supply. Many tourists who come to Wuzhen will stay in Nanxun, which is only a 20-minute drive from Wuzhen to Nanxun Ancient Town. This has led to an increase in the prices of hotels and B&Bs in Nanxun.

Some young people have also begun to look for guides to bathing centers in various places. After youth hostels, bathing centers have become a new choice for young people to "travel on a budget". Meituan data shows that since the summer vacation, the scale of online consumption in bathing centers has increased by 150% compared with 2019, and consumers aged 20-35 account for nearly 70%. The hottest searches for bathing centers are in Shenyang, Beijing, Harbin, Shanghai, Tianjin and other cities.

At present, some bath centers in some cities have launched packages that include "overnight stay in the lobby". Most bath center tickets are valid for 16 hours. If you want to stay overnight in the bath center, you need to pay an additional "overnight fee", which is generally around 50 yuan.

In addition, many people who experienced a surge in hotel prices during the May Day holiday had already booked hotels at low prices half a year ago. However, on social platforms, many users still claimed that their contracts were breached. One user said that he booked a homestay for 175 yuan, but the hotel told him that he could no longer stay there. Later, he saw that the hotel price had risen to 1,060 yuan, and he finally realized the "refund one for one" policy.

Behind the breach of contract, a hotel staff member revealed that users can contact the platform to negotiate compensation, but for the hotel, it can ultimately make more profit by selling at a higher price.

In any case, when the busiest long holidays and rising accommodation costs meet young people with limited budgets, they are carefully calculating more cost-effective travel packages.

(Note: Xiaoyu, Xiaofei, Li Yuan and Wang Hai are pseudonyms in this article)

Author: Lin Jing

Source public account: Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618) focuses on cutting-edge Internet technology and new business.