Has the price of the hotel you booked increased on October 1? This year's National Day Golden Week can be described as the "luxury version of Golden Week". The National Day holiday is superimposed on the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which lasts for 8 days, which further stimulates the public's willingness to travel. Hotel prices near tourist attractions in many popular cities will generally increase by more than 2 to 3 times. However, despite the price increase, hotel bookings are still skyrocketing, and many people are still struggling to find a hotel room.
In fact, since this year, with the great recovery of the tourism industry, the hotel industry, as an important part of the tourism industry chain, has already made a lot of money!
According to the semi-annual report, the revenue of Huazhu Group, Jinjiang Hotels, and BTG Hotels has increased by at least 30%, with ADR (average room rate of rooms sold) and OCC (occupancy rate) exceeding the same period in 2019, and turning losses into profits. Atour Group's performance in the first half of the year also increased significantly, with net profit reaching 256 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 270.86%.
With the start of the National Day Golden Week in the second half of the year, the hotel industry will still be in a rapid growth lane.
Hotel prices generally rose during the National Day holiday, but bookings were still hot
The popularity of travel during the National Day Golden Week continues to rise, and hotel booking prices in popular cities have also increased. According to Ctrip data, hotel booking prices in some cities are even higher than during the summer and May Day holidays.
Xia Jingyu, who plans to travel to Fujian during the National Day, told Lieyun.com that the price of a twin room at Hanting Hotel in Fuzhou that he booked in advance on September 14 has soared to 410 yuan, and the price is still rising, and has now risen to 501 yuan.
Source: Lieyun.com
Li Siqi told Lieyun.com that the price of a double bed room in Changsha Yijian Hotel that he booked on October 1, 2021 was 411 yuan, while the price of the same room type in the hotel this year was 678 yuan.
Source: Lieyun.com
Lieyun.com randomly selected a number of hotels around popular urban scenic spots. During the National Day period, the room prices were at least four times higher than usual, and many room types were displayed as "tight".
According to reports, in many popular tourist cities, National Day room rates in budget hotels are close to those in high-end resort hotels. The room rate of a hotel in Qingdao on weekdays is 61 yuan, but during the National Day period it rose to 721 yuan/night, a 10-fold increase.
Not only is domestic travel hot on October 1st, but outbound travel is also hot.
The price of many hotels in Macau has risen to more than 1,000 yuan a night, three times higher than usual. Among them, the basic room price of many two-star and three-star hotels has increased from around 400 yuan in normal times to as high as 1,500 yuan on the night of October 1.
Data released by multiple platforms also supports the popularity of hotels during this year’s National Day Golden Week.
As of September 15, the booking volume of popular domestic hotels on the Qunar platform increased by 514% year-on-year in 2019. The advance booking volume of Eleven Hotels in popular cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Changsha increased by more than three times year-on-year in 2019. Among them, Beijing increased by 5.4 times, ranking first, and Hangzhou and Wuhan increased by 4.8 times and 4.5 times respectively.
Source: Qunar Big Data Research Institute
Data from Fliggy's "National Day Holiday Travel Vane" released on September 13 also showed that domestic travel product bookings during the National Day holiday increased nearly six times year-on-year, and hotel bookings far exceeded the same period in 2019.
Behind the general rise in hotel prices, on the one hand, market supply and demand have reached the extreme end of supply, and hotel supply cannot meet all travel needs in a short period of time, showing a state of growth.
On the other hand, in recent years, the product structure of many hotel groups has been upgrading. Although the number of budget hotels is still growing, their proportion has gradually declined, and the proportion of mid-to-high-end hotels has continued to rise.
According to financial reports, in the first half of this year, Jin Jiang Hotels, Huazhu Group, and Beijing Tourism Hotel closed 204, 431, and 348 stores respectively.
Among them, most are budget and low-quality development stores. Take Huazhu Group as an example. In the second quarter, of the 216 stores it closed, 130 were low-quality economical soft brands and Hanting 1.0 products.
In 2020, Huazhu Group’s low-quality economical soft brands and Hanting 1.0 products accounted for 25.9%. By the first half of this year, that number had fallen below 10%.
Jin Jiang Hotels and BTG Hotels are also focusing on the mid- to high-end hotel market. In the first half of this year, in the brand matrix of Jinjiang Hotels, mid-range and mid-to-high-end brands accounted for 80%, covering business travel, vacation, personalized and other business formats. BTG Hotels has also publicly stated that it will increase its focus on the mid-to-high-end hotel market, promote the construction of high-end and luxury hotels, and create a high-luxury brand matrix.
Tourism recovers, hotel industry surges
The hotel craze during the National Day Golden Week is not the first wave of this year.
According to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in the first half of this year, the total number of domestic tourists was 2.384 billion, a year-on-year increase of 63.9%. Domestic tourism revenue (total tourism expenditure) was 2.3 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 95.9%.
With the great recovery of the tourism industry, the performance of the hotel industry, an important part of the tourism industry chain, has also generally increased.
According to the semi-annual report, in the first half of this year, the revenue and net profit of Jinjiang Hotels, Huazhu Group, BTG Hotels and Atour Group all experienced substantial growth.
Among them, Huazhu Group became the only domestic hotel industry listed company with a half-year revenue of more than 10 billion yuan, with a revenue of 10.01 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 65.10%. Jin Jiang Hotel, BTG Hotel, and Atour Group achieved revenue of 6.806 billion yuan, 3.608 billion yuan, and 1.867 billion yuan respectively in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 32.15%, 54.76%, and 93.10%.
In terms of profitability, Beijing Tourism Hotel, Huazhu Group, and Jinjiang Hotels all turned losses into profits, with net profits of 280 million yuan, 2.005 billion yuan, and 523 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 172.87%, 304.59%, and 550.76%.
It is worth mentioning that Huazhu Group’s profit of 2.005 billion yuan in the first half of this year has exceeded the 1.8 billion yuan in the whole of 2019, and was nearly three times the 719 million yuan in the same period of 2019, an increase of 178.86%.
In addition, Atour Group's profit in the first half of the year also increased significantly, achieving a net profit of 256 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 270.86%.
Source: Lieyun.com
In addition to outstanding financial indicators, judging from the three key indicators of hotel operations, RevPAR (average revenue per available room), ADR (average daily room rate), and OCC (occupancy rate), the above four listed hotels have also achieved substantial growth, especially in the second quarter.
Among them, the RevPAR of Jinjiang Hotels' domestic hotels increased by 56.63% year-on-year in the second quarter, reaching 109.30% of the same period in 2019; the RevPAR of Atour Group was 384 yuan, returning to 114.8% of the same period of 2019; Huazhu Group Group RevPAR was 250 yuan, returning to 121% of the second quarter of 2019; BTG Hotels’ financial report showed that excluding light-management hotels, the RevPAR of all hotels was 181 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 85.5%, exceeding the same period in 2019 by 9.1%.
Source: Lieyun.com
In terms of ADR (average daily room rate) and OCC (occupancy rate), the above four hotels also exceeded the same period in 2019, especially Atour Group. In the second quarter, its ADR and OCC were 475 yuan and 77.1% respectively.
Regarding this wave of performance growth, in addition to the positive effects of the macroeconomic stability and improvement and the continued recovery of domestic business travel and leisure travel demand, hotels are also showing their own unique strategies to continue to deepen their business transformation in this environment.
Jin Jiang Hotels is stepping up its efforts in digital transformation and plans to establish a business model that relies on digital platforms. According to the semi-annual report, during the reporting period, Jin Jiang Hotel launched the digital transformation of direct sales, and the membership direct sales booking rate continued to increase. In the first half of the year, its total number of effective members reached 189.72 million.
BTG Hotels has put a lot of effort into its brand matrix. On the one hand, it is exploring mid-to-high-end and even high-luxury brands; on the other hand, it is exploring the sinking market and promoting younger and more fashionable iterations.
Huazhu Group has also been adjusting its stock structure and product structure, including product upgrades at Hanting stores, further increasing the concentration of high-quality brands and products.
Atour Group has been deepening the moat of its scene retail business, and this business has gradually become its second growth curve. In the second quarter of this year, Atour scene retail GMV reached 267 million yuan, an increase of nearly three times year-on-year. Atour co-CFO Wu Jianfeng attributed the performance growth mainly to the simultaneous growth of hotel business and scene retail business.
"Double growth" in revenue and net profit has become the main theme of the hotel industry in the first half of the year. In the second half of the year, with the opening of the National Day Golden Week and the continuous upgrading of the hotel industry's products and services, the hotel industry will still be in a rapid growth lane.