This article from the micro-channel public number: “Space secret probe” (ID: MESPACE007), Author: Lee Nymphoides, the original title: “Economy rooms sold for 1000 Yuan, is the hotel’s “long vacation sickness” still cured? ! “, the head picture comes from: Visual China
According to the data center of the Ministry of Culture, Culture and Tourism, during the Ching Ming Festival holiday, 102 million people traveled nationwide, returning to 94.5% of the same period before the epidemic. The cultural and tourism-related industries have also recovered in response to the prevailing market trend, and the signs of hotel recovery are particularly obvious. Data released by Fliggy Travel in mid-March showed that during the Qingming period, the number of hotel bookings nationwide increased by more than 140% in two weeks, and a seller’s market was quietly taking shape.
It is precisely during the holiday period when supply and demand are imbalanced, some hotels have doubled or even increased the price of rooms by 10 times, which has triggered criticism from the public. Looking back on the past years, there have been many occurrences of this situation. So, why do hotels fall into a “morbid state” and become the target of attacks and criticism when they arrive on holidays? How can we break this unfavorable situation? This article discusses briefly.
From Yangzhou to Mount Tai, no place has escaped the price increase
“Any ordinary hotel in downtown Yangzhou during the Ching Ming Festival costs 500+, which is more expensive than Shanghai”, “Recent hotel accommodation prices in Yangzhou are ridiculously expensive”, “Yangzhou has become a new generation of Internet celebrities in Qingming , 700 hotels will sell for 1,700″…On social media, hotel prices in Yangzhou became a hot topic during the Qingming period.
The consumer’s perception is accurate, because during this holiday, hotels in Yangzhou are really hot. At the Cuiyuan City Hotel in Yangzhou, the booking rate for the first two days of the Ching Ming holiday reached 92%, and all standard rooms were booked, with only a few suites remaining; at the Changle Inn, it was not only during the Ching Ming holiday but also during the weekend of April. There are no rooms.
In the Yangzhou hotel market where demand exceeds supply, room prices are also rising. According to the “Yangtze Evening News”, through consulting with many hotels, it was learned that the overall room price during the Qingming Dynasty rose by 20% to 40%, and the price of individual hotels was even two or three times the usual.
At the Sovereign Hotel in Yangzhou’s old town, which is close to the scenic spot, the staff stated that “(room rate) is indeed more expensive than usual.Doubled, but our grade is still ok. Prices are increasing throughout Yangzhou, and prices are transparent. Some express hotels have risen to 1000, usually the lowest is only one or two hundred. “In the Sovereign Pavilion, a double room is 1,300 yuan a day, and a double room with two 1.5-meter-wide beds is at least 2,100 yuan.
Price rises are not only happening in mid-to-high-end hotels, but budget hotels are also uncommon. At Home Inn Yangzhou Slender West Lake Wenchang Pavilion, the basic room price is about 500 yuan. The staff said that now is the peak tourist season and price increases are normal. The peak season usually costs two to three hundred, and the low season is more than 100. “Our prices are relatively low.”
Because of this, this year’s Ching Ming holiday, there was a strange phenomenon of “living in Zhenjiang and playing in Yangzhou”. Even some bathrooms and hot springs in Yangzhou were full of tourists, but the overnight price also increased.
Not only in Yangzhou, but Mount Tai is also popular in public opinion because of rising hotel prices. Some travelers choose to squeeze in the toilets overnight. Suddenly, Taishan Scenic Area issued an announcement stating that for the purpose of environmental protection, the planning of the Peak Hotel was limited, because the original low-season room price ranged from 200 to 1,200 yuan for accommodation, due to certain fluctuations in the supply and demand relationship during the peak season, and said Daily supervision and management will be strengthened. This announcement cools down the public opinion incident of Taishan Accommodation.
However, it was also in Mount Tai. In 2014, some media reported that the original price of some hotels on Mount Tai was 400 yuan a night. During May 1st, the price rose to about 1,200 yuan, which is a three-fold premium. Tourists said, “Rising like Mount Tai “.
“Prices must be increased every holiday season” has gradually become a market “label” in the hotel industry in recent years. Taking the National Day in 2020 as an example, while self-driving tours are sought after by tourists, the “Great Northwest Loop”, a popular self-driving route across Qinghai and Gansu provinces, has also become popular. Ctrip data shows that the “Greater Northwest” National Day heat surged 475%. According to media reports, on the eve of the National Day, the price of a single room in the hotels near the scenic spots on the route exceeded 500 yuan or even increased to thousands of yuan, and most of the hotel rooms have been sold out, and there are no vacancies. Taking check-in on October 2 and check-out on October 3 as an example, there are only double-bed rooms in Dunhuang Huaxia International Hotel with a price of 1271 yuan per night, but the hotel only costs 138 yuan during the off-season in November. For reservations, the unit price has risen nearly 10 times.
When traveling on holidays, hotel prices have risen, which is understandable. However, prices have frequently doubled, or even increased by 10 times…This kind of performance is really hard to be called a normal performance in a market economy, and it can be said to be a little “pathological.”
What is the cause of the hotel’s “long vacation sickness”?
In fact, the performance of hotels during long holidays is not only in the area of excessive price fluctuations, but also exposed to the decline in service standards and the intensification of the contradiction between supply and demand.
Take the service standard as an example. Some travelers complained to a space secret agent. In a hotel where he stayed, the waiter refused his request to deliver fried eggs to the guest room on the grounds of “too many guests and too tired to receive” . In addition, there are also problems with the cleaning of hotel rooms, and there are still some cigarette butts and garbage in the rooms that have not been cleaned up. In terms of supply and demand, as some popular attractions or hotel markets in cities are mostly in the seller’s market during holidays, hotels have the initiative, and it is inevitable that there will be negative hospitality. And these three substandard hospitality, over time, become the main “symptoms” of the hotel’s “long vacation sickness”.
Why do hotels suffer from “long vacation sickness” and what are the main reasons behind it?
The first thing to bear the brunt is the changes in market supply and demand. According to the data center of the Ministry of Culture, Culture and Tourism, domestic tourism revenue was 27.168 billion yuan, an increase of 228.9% year-on-year, and recovered to 56.7% of the same period before the epidemic. The overall trend of an orderly recovery of the domestic tourism market has become more apparent. Coupled with the influence of changes in tourism elements such as transportation and scenic spots, the long-standing tourists’ willingness to travel has been further strengthened, which in turn has stimulated consumer demand for accommodation products.
The Yangzhou mentioned in the above article is an example. After entering the high-speed rail era in December last year, a series of tourism promotion conferences were launched in Beijing, Shandong, Hefei and other provinces and cities to fully release the tourism dividends brought by the high-speed rail. According to reports, during the Ching Ming holiday, many passengers chose to take the high-speed rail “Xia Yangzhou”, and the number of passengers at Yangzhou East Railway Station reached more than 100,000 in only three days. The number of passengers that blow out and the amount of accommodation consumption demand brought by it is still unknown, but the existence of these increases is also inevitable.
The second is the stacking effect of the off-peak season. The demand for hotels is to adapt to the ups and downs of the tourism market. In other words, for most hotels that are based on scenic spots, there are obvious seasonal differences in income, especially for resort hotels. This is mainly related to the climate and the distribution of legal holidays. On the one hand, most parts of China are in the subtropical zone, and the climatic characteristics in winter and summer are very obvious. April to May and October to November are the seasons with suitable weather for travel and are classified as peak tourist seasons. In the rest of the month, because of the heat and cold, people will reduce the frequency of travel and become the off-season. On the other hand, during the peak season, there are two holidays, namely the May Day holiday and the 11th holiday. And paleThere are only “New Year’s Day” and “Chinese New Year” holidays during the season, and the number of travelers will be reduced.
Finally, there is an uneven regional distribution. As an important cultural and tourism facility in cities, hotels are not very evenly distributed in some cities. From a national perspective, in 2019, the number of hotel facilities in my country’s first-tier cities, sub-provincial cities, provincial capital cities, and other cities were 27,000, 88,000, and 223,000, respectively, accounting for 8 %, 26%, 66%.
Focusing on the city perspective, taking Chengdu as an example. Qunar data shows that the top 5 local hotels on National Day in 2020 will be concentrated in the high-tech zone, and the scenic spots will also drive the price of surrounding hotels to rise. Some popular hotels in Qingcheng Mountain are priced for one night. Even more than 3000 yuan. The reason is that most of the hotels in the high-tech zone are renovated after 2017, and are located near the global center and other commercial areas. The theme design and distinctive services attract young travelers born in the 80s and 90s to check in. Correspondingly, the number of popular hotels in Kuanzhai Alley and Chunxi Road has declined. With such a change, it is not difficult to see that the distribution of newly-built hotels in Chengdu is slightly out of balance. Some veteran tourist attractions need younger and more vibrant hotel brands to enter, bringing new accommodation needs.
To sum up, behind the hotel’s “long vacation sickness” is not just the hotel itself, but is closely related to the overall tourism market and changes in the distribution of local tourism resources.
Why are budget hotels the hardest hit area?
So far, the hotel’s price increase during the long holiday has become an established fact, and the reasons behind it have also been preliminarily clarified. However, among the voices complaining about hotel price increases, budget hotels have become a frequent word for routines. In contrast, mid-to-high-end hotels and high-end luxury hotels are rarely seen. Why have budget hotels become the hardest hit areas of “long vacation sickness”? The space secret investigation found that the following 3 points may be the main reasons for its formation.
Price-sensitive customer groups behind budget hotels
During the short and long holidays, the overall price of hotel rooms has indeed risen sharply than usual. In some cities, there has been a phenomenon that the price of some hotel rooms has nearly doubled between the two days before and after the Ching Ming holiday. Such a change is not a small impact for budget hotels that are based on the market with high cost performance.
There is no other reason, mostlyFor consumer groups who choose budget hotels, the acceptable room price ranges from 100 to 200 yuan. For this type of price-sensitive customer group, the price increase will be more obvious. Relatively speaking, the mainstream consumption of mid-to-high-end hotels and high-luxury hotels is not as sensitive as the former in terms of price, and more stringent considerations of other dimensions of accommodation products, such as safety, experience, and so on.
Mainstream status of budget hotels in the market
Despite the continuous rise of mid-to-high-end hotels in recent years, it is undeniable that budget hotels still occupy an important position in the hotel market in my country, and their number scale and total number of guest rooms still far exceed other types of hotels.
According to statistics from the China Hotel Association, as of January 2020, the number of budget hotels in the country has reached 287,000, accounting for 84.9% of the total number of hotels in the country; the total number of guest rooms is 11.496 million, accounting for the total number of hotel rooms in the country Of 65.2%.
Such a large market volume means that the coverage area is broader, bringing unlimited development opportunities, but also magnifying some existing problems. Not only is the price increase during the long vacation, homogenization is also one of the bottlenecks restricting the development of budget hotels in recent years.
The service quality of individual hotels is uneven
According to the “2020 China Hotel Industry Development Report” of the China Hotel Association, as of January 1, 2020, the chain rate of China’s hotels was 26%, and single hotels accounted for 74%. Among these individual hotels, most of the products are similar to budget hotels and operate daily in the mode of mom-and-pop stores. This type of hotel has significant category characteristics: small size, unstable customer base, poor anti-risk ability, neglect of its own hotel characteristics, and lack of relatively independent thinking.
Based on this, some individual hotels were closed during the epidemic. According to data released by Ctrip, it is conservatively estimated that the number of closed stores will reach 150,000 in 2020. For some single hotels that barely survived, because they did not establish a fixed and standardized process, the hotel’s occupancy rate, revenue, and user reputation could not be guaranteed, which eventually led to uneven passenger experience and affected subsequent operations.
Of course, we cannot deny the outstanding performance of some budget hotel top brands in the long vacation. After all, they represent the future development trend of budget hotels in the entire accommodation market. However, some problems must be corrected before the bright prospects come.
How to break the “long vacation sickness” of the hotel?
The Ching Ming Festival is like a mock test, to get the bottom line of the recovery of the cultural and tourism market after the epidemic, and at the same time reveal the operating conditions of market players one by one. Obviously, due to the existence of “long vacation sickness”, the performance of the hotel is not perfect, but there is still room for improvement. How to break the “long vacation sickness” and usher in a more formal May Day holiday exam? The space secret agent believes that a breakthrough can be sought from the following 4 points.
Highly value the business card of city accommodation
Hotels, in recent years, have become a yardstick to measure the level of urban economic development and the level of cultural tourism development. Take the international high-star hotel as an example. In recent years, it has become a favorite of many local governments. The reason is that the introduction of international five-star hotels can help local governments achieve urban planning while empowering local cities, which is conducive to enhancing the city’s cultural and tourism brand awareness. Just like the “luxury hotel rivers and lakes” by the surging Suzhou Jinji Lake, the city’s economic and cultural temperament is fully displayed in the hotel.
However, the local government cannot only attach importance to the “face” of luxury hotels to its own city, nor can it ignore the negative impact of random price increases of some individual hotels and economic chain hotels on the city. The large accommodation industry in a city will be divided into three types, high, medium and low, to meet the needs of different customer groups, and each link can be handled properly to truly make all kinds of hotels become the city’s business card. You can’t just grab one head. When problems arise, they need to be resolved in time. They can’t be considered to be market behaviors letting go. If this continues, it will inevitably affect the city’s tourism reputation. Because of accommodation problems, there will be a storm of public opinion, and it may be even more difficult to get “repeat customers”. .
Make a good plan for accommodation products, build a hotel cluster/complex of cultural tourism
The intensification of the contradiction between supply and demand is also one of the reasons for the “long vacation sickness” of hotels. Therefore, cities need to do a good job in the category and regional planning of accommodation products, and hotel clusters and cultural and tourism complexes are good options.
Take hotel clusters as an example. Yangzhou has already built high-, middle- and low-level hotel clusters in cities and regions such as the Slender West Lake Resort, the Heart of Beijing-Hangzhou, Mingyue Lake, and Sanwan. At the same time, (cities, districts) are arranged in all counties to ease the pressure of travel and accommodation during peak seasons. And the textThe construction of the tourism complex is mainly to coordinate the distribution of accommodation products in the area and relieve the pressure on the few accommodation facilities around the scenic area.
Price increase cannot be arbitrary, the market supervision department must be in place
In some cities, hotels need to file prices with the industry and commerce regulatory authorities, and there is also a limit for price increases not exceeding 30%. However, there are also areas where the limit for increase is not expressly stipulated.
Although Yangzhou has implemented an urban hotel room price filing system in the early years, the relevant person in charge of the local price department stated that the collection of hotel room rent is a market price behavior, not a government price. As long as there is no price fraud, the price department will not interfere.
In fact, this kind of supervision is a bit “tolerant”, and price increases cannot be pushed into market behavior blindly, but should have more binding supervision. Fortunately, the relevant person in charge of the tourism department of Yangzhou also stated that irregularities must be resolutely investigated and dealt with. Such an attitude is necessary to prevent the hotel’s “long vacation sickness” from getting worse.
Hotel operation cannot rely solely on “increasing in every season”
“‘Every season must rise’ has become a common phenomenon in the Yangcheng hotel industry.” An industry insider said. In fact, it is not only Yangzhou, but even more so in some tourist cities. But this kind of business adjustment is tantamount to “drinking poison to quench thirst” for hotels and even urban tourism.
A holiday can make up for nearly half a year’s revenue. This kind of “one-ticket” type of business can only make many tourists “freak the price” and affect not only the reputation of the hotel, but also the purpose. The sustainable development of tourism economy in the future. Who would like to come again after experiencing the baptism of a budget hotel with more than 1,000 yuan of services? Price adjustments are of course also necessary, but reasonable adjustments are needed on a basis.
To sum up, with the rise of new customer groups, hotels pay more and more attention to their own brands, and can no longer have the speculative psychology of “no opening for one year, one year after opening”. For local governments, service The reputation of the industry is also the best display of a city’s image. To get rid of the situation of random price hikes and backward short-sightedness, the relevant functional departments and the hotel itself need to work together to have a long-term vision to have a big future.
There are only more than 20 days left before the May Day holiday, and another big exam for the cultural, tourism and accommodation industry in 2021 is about to come. How many hotels will be defeated in the face of “long holiday sickness” is unknown. butWe look forward to more and more hotels and accommodation products that will come back with a smile after the big exam, and come to life!