99 yuan to sleep in a hall, prices doubled, homestays broke contracts, how fierce are the "accommodation assassins" this May Day?

The May Day holiday is approaching, but we have discovered the emergence of "accommodation assassins" - many hotels and B&Bs have raised their accommodation prices several times during the May Day holiday. This wave of price increases and breaches of contract is outrageous and requires the attention of relevant departments. Let's take a look.

The May Day holiday is approaching, and many people who are planning to travel have been hit hard.

When they excitedly opened their mobile phones and computers to book a room, they found that an "accommodation assassin" had appeared.

Many hotels and B&Bs have raised their accommodation prices several times during the May Day holiday.

This incident sparked heated discussions among netizens, and the topic #May Day homestay price increases and contract cancellations# also became a hot search.

So how outrageous is this wave of price increases and contract cancellations?

1. The price is over 10,000 yuan and the rooms are full. The courtyard is more than 100,000 yuan a night. The sofa in the hall is 99 yuan.

Screenshots posted by netizens show that the price of a village guesthouse in a hotel in Hangzhou was as high as 7,475 yuan per night on May 1st; the price of a village suite was as high as 8,620 yuan per night on May 1st; and the price of Qishi Villa was as high as 60,000 yuan on May 1st. And all of them were in the "booked out" status.

The author found that the hotel still had rooms available for booking on May 1st, but the lowest price was 9,775 yuan per night.

According to the hotel’s “low price calendar”, the lowest price is 5,750 yuan per night.

Screenshots posted by netizens showed that a hotel in Taizhou actually had the option of "sleeping on the sofa in the lobby" for 99 yuan.

The author found that the hotel had booked rooms for May Day, with prices ranging from 353 yuan to 759 yuan. However, there was no option to "sleep on the sofa in the lobby".

Judging from the low-price calendar, the hotel's lowest price during the May Day holiday is the same as at other times, at 159 yuan, which is not expensive.

As for the "sleeping on the sofa in the lobby" option mentioned above, according to China Business News, the hotel's customer service responded that "it has been removed from the shelves."

Some netizens also posted screenshots showing that the accommodation price of a courtyard house in Beijing has reached 135,388 yuan.

The author found that only one "Siheyuan Villa" in the courtyard was available for reservation on May 1st, with a price of 142,938 yuan per night. The other seven or eight thousand rooms were all booked.

According to the "low price calendar", during the May Day holiday, the courtyard house only has rooms available for booking at 8,139 yuan on May 3. For the remaining four days, only rooms above 100,000 yuan are available.

However, judging from user reviews, perhaps because it is really luxurious, this courtyard house is usually not cheap.

A user who moved in in July 2022 said that the only two-bedroom suite in the west courtyard of the courtyard cost more than 6,000 yuan.

Screenshots posted by netizens show that the same room in a hotel in Xishuangbanna costs more than 200 yuan if you choose to check in on April 25, but the price becomes more than 1,000 yuan if you choose to check in on May 1.

Recently, a "2023 National Hotel [May Day] Price Comparison Table" has been posted on the Internet. According to the table, many hotels across the country have more than doubled their prices during the May Day period, and some have even increased by nearly 6 times.

For example, a hotel in Qinhuangdao charges 159 yuan on weekdays and 1,099 yuan on May 1st, a price increase of 591%.

2. B&Bs have all sorts of reasons for breaking contracts, including "threatening" cancellations. Some B&Bs have been fined for raising prices during the May Day holiday.

In addition to hotel price increases during the May Day holiday, there was also a wave of "contract cancellations" among hotels and B&Bs.

As for the reasons for breaching the contract, they were all kinds of weird, including "the hotel closed down", "the water pipe burst", "renovation", "relatives and friends came during the May Day holiday"...

According to Chao News, Ms. Deng from Hangzhou booked a homestay in Chengdu on March 16 for 345 yuan for 3 nights. But on March 27, Ms. Deng received a call from the homestay saying that it was under renovation and asked her to cancel the reservation. Ms. Deng found that the homestay was selling the same room for the same date on other platforms, and the price had risen to more than 500 yuan per night.

According to the Workers' Daily, Ms. Lu, a consumer from Dongcheng District, Beijing, booked a homestay in Changdao Scenic Area, Yantai, Shandong Province, for 576 yuan per night on an online travel platform during the May Day holiday on April 16. Not long after booking, the owner of the homestay called her to cancel the order, and if she wanted to stay, she had to order three meals, and the price was the same for adults and children, 500 yuan per person per day.

After the B&B owner "threatened" to cancel the order, Ms. Lu had no choice but to cancel it.

On social platforms, many netizens also expressed similar experiences.

According to Southeast Net, recently, tourists in Fujian complained that some businesses were suspected of raising prices in disguise. In February, a consumer placed an order with the operator Lin and paid for 4 days of accommodation. Later, Lin saw that the price of the homestay had increased during the "May Day" holiday, and felt that the price of this order was too low, so he wanted to increase the price but was rejected.

In the end, law enforcement officers determined that Lin should compensate the tourists 1,000 yuan and bear administrative liability of a fine of 3,000 yuan.

According to the Daily Economic News, in response to the phenomenon of B&B breaching contracts, on April 24, Fliggy and Xiaozhu Homestay gave a unified reply that they would strictly implement the platform rules. If a B&B merchant "breached the contract", they would communicate with the guests as soon as possible to verify the situation, and arrange for the guests to stay in nearby B&Bs of the same level or higher-level B&B rooms. The platform or merchant would bear the price difference, which would be up to 3 times the first night's room rate.

If the guest decides not to stay, we will negotiate with him/her to refund the full amount up to the first night's room rate.

3. Zibo "lowered prices on the spot" and some tourists booked rooms for 1 yuan. 42 hotels in Jingdezhen promised not to blindly follow the trend and raise prices

There are some exceptions to this wave of "price increases and contract cancellations" in hotels and B&Bs.

Zibo, which has recently become popular for its barbecue, has become popular again because of this incident.

The Zibo Municipal Market Supervision Administration issued a document stating that from April 23, Zibo will implement price increase control measures on hotel room prices across the city.

The relevant pricing policy is that based on the average actual transaction price of all types of hotel rooms from March 1 to March 31, any increase of more than 50% will be investigated and punished as price gouging.

On April 25, Mr. Zhou from Suzhou, Jiangsu, booked a room at a hotel in Zibo for 1,341 yuan a night, but was later notified by phone that he only had to pay 735 yuan. Mr. Zhou said that during the peak May Day holiday, some places would ask you to check out and raise the price, but this time Zibo gave you a 50% discount, which was unheard of.

Today, the topic #Zibo B&B sells May Day rooms for 1 yuan# became a hot search.

It is reported that a Beijing tourist booked a room in Zibo for only 1 yuan, on May 1. After the surprise, she immediately suspected that it was a routine hype, and the landlord responded that the room was indeed available.

Tujia platform also responded to this matter and said that the platform had verified the authenticity of the 1 yuan house and the price, and the landlord said it was true and wanted to do charity work for the 1 yuan house.

Thanks to this "on-the-spot price reduction", Zibo has received a wave of praise from netizens.

Zibo is also one of the cities with the highest occupancy rate during the May Day holiday this year.

According to Meituan statistics, as of April 23, Zibo, Weihai, Nanjing, Dali, Wuhan, Yanji, Changsha, Lijiang, Jingdezhen and Jinan became the top ten cities with the highest occupancy rates in the country.

According to a report by Cailianshe on the 22nd, the Jingdezhen Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, the Municipal Development and Reform Commission, and the Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau held a reminder meeting on price behavior in the hotel industry. 42 hotel operators in the urban area signed a price integrity commitment on the spot, publicly promising not to blindly follow the trend of price increases and not to charge excessive fees.

4. It will take more efforts from all sides to crack down on "hotel assassins"

It is no longer uncommon for hotels and homestays to increase their prices during the May Day holiday.

Over the years, during the peak tourist season, many hotels and B&Bs would raise their prices.

However, the extent of the price increase this year is somewhat daunting.

On April 25, Dajiang.com published an article commenting on this "wave of price increases and breaches of contracts", saying that this kind of exorbitant prices during holidays not only causes trouble for tourists and brings discredit to the city, but is also a disruption to the entire tourism market order.

If hotels want to be "price assassins", then the law and relevant regulatory authorities should "draw the sword" in a timely manner to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

Relevant departments should strengthen price monitoring of market entities such as hotels and establish a platform complaint resolution guarantee mechanism; consumers should also enhance their awareness of rights protection and have the courage to complain and report any price violations by merchants; merchants should also adhere to the concept of honest operation.

In fact, hotel price increases should be a form of market regulation to balance supply and demand and ensure the economic benefits of the hotel. It is the legitimate right of hotel operators.

However, issues such as excessive price increases, lack of improvement in service quality and breach of contract also need to be taken seriously.

Author: Sanyan Pro

Source: WeChat public account: "Sanyan Pro (ID:sycaijing)"