The front desk of the hotel has put up a sign saying "minors are not allowed", but there are still e-sports hotels that allow minors to stay... On September 9, coinciding with the full month of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security issuing the Notice on Strengthening the Protection of Minors in the Management of E-sports Hotels (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), a reporter from Beijing Business Daily visited a number of Beijing e-sports hotels, many of which operate in accordance with the new regulations in all aspects of room reservation, check-in, and room rounds. However, there are still some e-sports hotels that are "playing a game of marginalization" and allow minors accompanied by guardians to stay in e-sports rooms.
Most esports hotels are already operating under the new regulations
"In fact, before the Notice was issued, we had already banned minors from staying alone in e-sports rooms." Guo Lina, general manager of Love E-sports Hotel, said.
Guo Lina told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that when the "Notice" was not issued, adults could lead minors to stay in e-sports rooms, but the E-sports Hotel strictly followed the "five musts", verified the identity of minors staying and registered truthfully, asked minors for the contact information of their parents or other guardians and recorded them, and also inquired about the identity relationship of the co-occupants and recorded them. At the same time, security inspections and visitor management have been strengthened.
After the issuance of the "Notice", iE-sports Hotel has listed "adults leading minors to stay in e-sports rooms" as a prohibited item, and in accordance with the requirements of the "Notice", the "five musts" content is implemented when adults accompany minors to stay in non-e-sports rooms.
In addition to the love of e-sports hotels, when searching on the booking platform, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that some e-sports hotels such as Leku Lemeng E-sports Theme Hotel located in Qingnian Road Xili and Xinjingjie E-sports Theme Hotel on Tonghui Road have also indicated "minors are prohibited from staying" on the booking page of e-sports room types in accordance with the "Notice".
In addition, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily consulted a number of e-sports hotels by phone on the question of "whether minors can be brought into e-sports rooms". The staff of an e-sports-themed hotel near Happy Valley in Beijing told reporters that minors under the age of 18 can only be led by adults to stay in non-e-sports rooms, and there will be special rounds. An e-sports hotel in Changping District said that its rooms are all e-sports rooms, and there are no ordinary rooms, so minors are not accepted, and adults cannot stay with them.
During the investigation, a number of e-sports hotel staff also revealed that the supervision of minors entering e-sports rooms has been strengthened in recent times, and "police often come to the hotel at night to check."
Individual hotels have violations
Although the implementation of the new regulations has been quite effective, some hotels have not implemented the requirements of the new regulations.
The staff of an e-sports hotel in Chaoyang District said by phone that if they are under 10 years old, minors can be accompanied by adults to stay in e-sports rooms, and over 10 years old need to be accompanied by adults to stay in video rooms without e-sports equipment. This is obviously inconsistent with the provisions of the Notice that "e-sports hotels are strictly prohibited from accepting minors in violation of regulations".
A reporter from Beijing Business Daily also visited two e-sports hotels in Chaoyang District and Tongzhou District. Before check-in, the front desk staff of the above-mentioned e-sports hotel in Chaoyang District told reporters that minors are not allowed to stay in e-sports rooms, and can only be accompanied by guardians to stay in business rooms. However, the staff of the e-sports hotel in Tongzhou District said that if accompanied by a guardian, only the ID card (household registration booklet) of the guardian and the minor can be presented to stay in the e-sports room; The conditions for non-guardian check-in are similar to those mentioned above at Chaoyang E-sports Hotel.
Regarding the problems that still exist in the above-mentioned e-sports hotels, Gu Huimin, a professor at the School of Tourism Science of Beijing Second University of Foreign Chinese, pointed out that the main reason affecting the implementation effect of the new regulations lies in the deviation of individuals' understanding of the content of the new regulations. "Individual e-sports hoteliers, staff and consumers may not have a deep understanding or misunderstanding of the content of the new regulations, so it is inevitable that there will be omissions in the process of responding to rectification or actual implementation."
Talking about how to further reduce the "fish that slipped through the net", Gu Huimin said that it is necessary to strengthen the publicity of the Notice so that hotel operators, law enforcement regulators and consumers have a clearer and more accurate understanding of the new regulations; At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen the training of operation and supervision personnel separately, so as to avoid deviations in understanding and be more accurate in the actual implementation of the new regulations.
According to Zhao Huanyan, Chief Knowledge Officer of East West Hotel Consulting Agency, local cultural and tourism administrative departments and public security organs at all levels should work with relevant departments to establish a coordinated supervision mechanism for the protection of minors in e-sports hotels, and strengthen information notification, lead transfer, law enforcement linkage, etc.
The number of contracts increased by 1.5 times
Although there are still some problems, the Notice is like a "compass", guiding e-sports hotels towards standardized development, and more and more e-sports hotels are standardizing their operations.
However, some people also questioned, will e-sports hotels that cannot do business for minors still be blue ocean in the future?
"At present, the introduction of the new regulations has not had much impact on investors." Guo Lina pointed out that the new regulations mainly affect stores in some tourist cities, such as Xi'an and Chengdu. "In the past, when the traffic was large, the multi-person rooms in these urban e-sports hotels could be used as family rooms, but after August 8, these rooms could not accommodate parent-child families, and some customers were missing. Some 'shop-in-shops' (hotels where e-sports rooms coexist with traditional rooms) will also be affected slightly. ”
Overall, esports hotel signings and franchises are still growing. Guo Lina revealed to the Beijing Business Daily reporter that in the first half of this year, the number of monthly contracts of iE-sports was about 8, and in the second half of the year, it increased to 12-15. In the first month after the release of the new regulations, iE-sports signed about 20 hotels, an increase of about 1.5 times compared with the number of monthly contracts signed in the first half of the year. "After the introduction of the policy, franchisees feel that this market is more formal, more rigorous, and has a certain development direction."
"The Notice also clarifies the determination of franchisees to invest, and the development of the e-sports hotel market this year will enter a stable period." Hu Yang, general manager of GreenGaming Hotel Group, said that the release of the new policy has made the brand of e-sports hotels more competitive. Previously, franchisees generally believed that the existence of e-sports hotels was relatively "chicken ribs". However, with the rapid recovery of the hotel market, the customer base of e-sports hotels tends to be more local young customers.
Talking about the future market potential of e-sports hotels, Hu Yang said, "With the development of recent years, e-sports hotels have become a relatively mature industry, with relatively complete control functions in software and hardware, along with the emergence of investment models such as cloud servers and cloud computers to reduce costs and increase efficiency, while investment costs continue to decline, the overall supporting facilities of the industry are also gradually improving, and the market potential of e-sports hotels will continue to show." (Beijing Business Daily reporter Wu Qiyun, Niu Qingyan)