Hotel Prices Surge Up to 10 Times in Popular Tourist Destinations in May Day Holidays

BEIJING, April 30 (TMTPOST) -- China is probably seeing the most expensive hotels during the ongoing May Day holidays upon the release of pent-up demand after three years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to the May Day holidays, the tourism demand across the country surged, leading to a significant increase in hotel bookings and sky-high hotel room prices. 

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Data from platforms such as Ctrip, Meituan, Fliggy, and Qunar, as collected by TiPost App, show that hotel prices in popular tourist cities during the May Day holiday have generally increased by three to six times, with some hotels even seeing their prices increase by 10 times. The related topic of "hotel price hikes" has recently been trending, attracting widespread attention.

From April 23 to April 24, TiPost App selected the top 10 popular tourist cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xi"an, Changsha, Zibo, Sanya, and Chongqing. The study focused on three national chain hotel brands: Home Inn, HanTing, and Jinjiang Inn, and compared the prices of king rooms in these hotels on May 1. The study aimed to answer the following three questions:

1. How much have hotel prices increased during the May Day holiday?

2. How much price difference is there between hotels of the same brand in the same city?

3. How much price difference is there between hotels of the same brand in different cities?

Below are some of the data we have collected and sorted.

Among the top 10 popular tourist cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xi"an, Changsha, Zibo, Sanya, and Chongqing, we selected the top two hotels with the highest and lowest prices for each brand in each city on May 1. We found that:

Compared with the highest-priced Home Inn branch in each city on Ctrip, the Dayanta Datang City store in Xi"an saw the largest price increase, with a surge of 263.0%. Compared with the lowest-priced Home Inn branch in each city on Ctrip, the Jianxiang Road Furong Square Subway store in Changsha saw the largest price increase, with a surge of 197.6%. Compared with the highest-priced Home Inn branch in each city on Fliggy, the Qian Dao Lake Plaza store in Hangzhou saw the largest price increase, with a surge of 493.4%. Compared with the lowest-priced Home Inn branch in each city on Fliggy, the Train Station Zhonglu Railway Station Subway store in Changsha saw the largest price increase, with a surge of 181.3%.

Compared with the highest-priced Jinjiang Inn branch in each city on the Ctrip platform, the Wanda Plaza branch in Yangjiaping Pedestrian Street, Chongqing, has the highest price increase, reaching 416.7%. Compared with the lowest-priced Jinjiang Inn branch in each city on the Ctrip platform, the Nanhulu Subway Station branch in Changsha has the highest price increase, which is 204.1%. Compared with the highest-priced Jinjiang Inn branch in each city on the Fliggy platform, the Wanda Plaza Hotel in Yangjiaping Light Rail Station, Chongqing, has the highest price increase, reaching 407.3%. Compared with the lowest-priced Jinjiang Inn branch in each city on the Fliggy platform, the Jinjiang Inn Fengjie New Century Department Store is the hotel branch with the highest price increase, which is 167.2%.

Compared with the highest-priced HanTing branch in each city on the Ctrip platform, the Bell Tower Square branch in Xi"an has the highest price increase, reaching 270.9%. Compared with the lowest-priced HanTing branch in each city on the Ctrip platform, the Yong"an branch in Liuyang, Changsha has the highest price increase, which is 110.8%. Compared with the highest-priced HanTing branch in each city on the Fliggy platform, the Thousand Island Lake Intime Plaza Hotel has the highest price increase, which is 309.8%. Compared with the lowest-priced HanTing branch in each city on the Fliggy platform, the Rose Mansion Hotel in Xi"an Software Park HanTing has the highest price increase, which is 130.8%.

Price Increases of Hotels during May Day

Among the top 10 popular tourist cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xi"an, Changsha, Zibo, Sanya, and Chongqing, the price difference between different branches of the same hotel brand in the same city during the May Day holiday can reach up to thousands of yuan.

According to the Ctrip platform, the largest price difference for Home Inn during the May Day holiday is in Shanghai, with the highest price being 1,232 yuan at the National Exhibition and Convention Center store near Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station and the lowest price being 172 yuan at the Luogong Road store in Meilan Lake. The price difference is as high as 1,060 yuan. According to the Fliggy platform, the largest price difference for Home Inn during the May Day holiday is in Guangzhou, with the highest price being 1,498 yuan at the Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Center store and the lowest price being at the Baiyun Avenue store at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and Trade, with a price difference of 1,194 yuan.

According to Ctrip, the largest price difference for Jinjiang Inn during the May Day holiday is in Xi"an, with the highest price being 1096 yuan at the Xi"an Dayanta Subway Station branch and the lowest price being 232 yuan at the Yanliang Qianjin Road City Plaza branch, with a price difference of up to 864 yuan. According to Fliggy, the largest price difference for Jinjiang Inn during the May Day holiday is also in Xi"an, with the highest price being 1498 yuan at the Xi"an Dayanta Subway Station hotel and the lowest price being 220 yuan at the Yanliang Qianjin Road City Plaza branch, with a price difference of 826 yuan.

According to Ctrip, the largest price difference for Hanting during the May Day holiday is in Shanghai, with the highest price being 1021 yuan at the Shanghai Bund Jiulian Road branch and the lowest price being 236 yuan at the Shanghai Jiading Waigang Business College branch, with a price difference of up to 785 yuan. According to Fliggy, the largest price difference for Hanting during the May Day holiday is in Beijing, with the highest price being 1272 yuan at the Hanting Beijing Niu Street hotel and the lowest price being 220 yuan at the Hanting Beijing Shunyi Center hotel, with a price difference of 832 yuan.

Price differences of the same brand hotel in the same city

The prices of three hotel brands, Home Inn, Hanting and Jinjiang Inn, vary greatly in different cities, even on May Day. Among the top 10 popular tourist cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xi’an, Changsha, Zibo, Sanya and Chongqing, the highest-priced branch of each brand was selected as the research object. According to data from Ctrip platform, the highest price of Home Inn was found at the National Exhibition and Convention Center branch near Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai, reaching 1232 yuan, while the lowest price was found at the Yuyal Road Dadonghai branch in Sanya, at 352 yuan, with a price difference of up to 881 yuan. The highest price of Jinjiang Inn was found at the Wangfujing Pedestrian Street branch in Beijing, at 1189 yuan, and the lowest price was found at the Li Quan Road People"s Park branch in Zibo, Shandong, at 317 yuan, with a price difference of up to 872 yuan. The highest price of Hanting Hotel was found at the Military Museum branch in Beijing, at 1187 yuan, while the lowest price was found at the Jinjing Avenue Municipal Government branch in Zibo, at 352 yuan, with a price difference of up to 835 yuan. It is worth mentioning that by browsing different platforms, it was found that multiple hotels in Zibo were all showing full occupancy.

On the Fliggy platform, the highest price of Home Inn was found at the Pazhou Convention and Exhibition Center branch in Guangzhou, at 1498 yuan, while the lowest price was found at the Yuyal Road Dadonghai branch in Sanya, at 227 yuan, with a price difference of up to 1271 yuan. The highest price of Jinjiang Inn was found at the Wangfujing Pedestrian Street branch in Beijing, at 1189 yuan, while the lowest price was found at the Duty-free Shopping Park branch on Jiefang Road in Sanya, at 304 yuan, with a price difference of up to 885 yuan. The highest price of Hanting Hotel was found at the Niujie branch in Beijing, at 1272 yuan, while the lowest price was found at the Yishan Road branch in Yiyuan, Zibo, at 273 yuan, with a price difference of up to 999 yuan.

Price difference for the same brand hotel in different cities