On September 9, a news that "26 yuan homestay was quietly adjusted to 680 yuan on National Day by the platform" rushed to the hot search. According to the news, after opening the price page of his own homestay on an online travel platform, a homestay owner in Lishui, Zhejiang Province, found that without knowing it, the price of his own room of 2780 yuan / night was raised to 680 yuan / night during the National Day, an increase of about 2780 times.
No rooms are available for this rate
The owner of the homestay, "Jinjin Boss Lady", told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that its homestay has been open on the platform for 5 years, adding up to less than 10 orders, and the state of closing the house is more, because this year's customer source is less than expected, so I plan to open the platform to attract traffic, and found that the price is "ridiculously high".
"Probably because the price is too high, so the guests run out." Mrs. Jin said that no rooms have been booked for this price, and the listing has been closed on the platform. "Even if he orders it, I will definitely return it to him, our family is not worth the price."
The Paper saw on another short video platform that Jinjin's lady emphasized in her introduction that her homestay "has the same price throughout the year, and the price does not increase on holidays." Jinjin's lady told The Paper that her homestay is small, with 6 rooms, fixed prices throughout the year, daily prices include one dinner and breakfast, and only breakfast is included on statutory holidays.
The surging news search found that the homestay has a total of 4 room types available on another platform, with nightly prices of 479 yuan, 579 yuan, 679 yuan and 779 yuan respectively, and the price remains unchanged during the National Day period, and 9 room types have been booked on the evening of September 29.
Merchants "self-directing and acting"?
In the comments, many netizens believed that it was the platform that raised prices to collect money, and some netizens said that it was the business that "directed and acted by itself".
The president of a regional homestay association told The Paper that the platform has no right to change the price of merchants: "This kind of general theory will not exist, because the platform's interest angle will hope that the lower the price, the better, and will not hope to be high, so different platforms will chase each other's prices, and they all hope that the lower the price of the listings on their platform, the better." ”
A number of relevant people on homestay platforms said that only the homestay owner's own interface can adjust the price, and the platform cannot adjust the price.
Jinjin's wife recalled that the most recent order sold by her homestay on the platform was during May Day this year, and one room was exchanged for points from a bank, and the other room was slightly more expensive than usual. "May Day, I also looked at the system to know that at that time, I should have had not had time to close the house, and the order had already been placed, but the platform was not allowed to refuse orders."
Industry unspoken rules? What is the holiday protection price
However, The Paper also noticed that a netizen who claimed to be a homestay commented: "It is estimated that the boss set the holiday price or the long-term protection price." ”
An online travel platform insider gave an example to The Paper: "For example, a hotel usually sells 500 yuan / night, and the National Day sells 1000,500 yuan / night, but forget to change the price, someone booked at a price of 1000 yuan two months in advance, and when the National Day boss regrets it, others sell <>,<> yuan, which is easy to confirm and overturn." In order to prevent this, the system will automatically set a relatively high price, and the store can set it according to the actual situation when it is close. ”
"This is the mechanism of automatic protection of the system, and no one touches the price." The person said, "The platform has always only hoped that the price of merchants is low, where there is a higher profile, and the platform does not have the authority to adjust the price." ”
There is also a relevant person in charge of tourism enterprises said that the platform will charge a certain percentage of the service fee according to the order turnover of the access merchant, "not to mention that the platform does not have pricing power, even if the platform adjusts a very high price by itself, the platform cannot get the service fee if no one lives." ”
An insider of a homestay platform said that for homestay pricing, the system will use the platform's big data to guide housing pricing, such as telling the host the current average price of the homestay around the host in the background, and what price is easier to transact. If an abnormal price is detected, the platform will reduce the current and actively patrol, and if it is found, it will close the house and warn.
For homestays that default on price increases, some platforms have introduced relevant measures.
In July this year, Tujia B&B announced that it would upgrade its host system, include integrity scores in ratings for the first time, and focus on supervising service defects such as no room in the store, price increases, false transactions, false reviews, and other issues. Hu Yang, senior vice president of Tujia B&B, said that the homestay industry recovered rapidly this year, and during the festival, some landlords defaulted and increased prices, and the platform ensured users' occupancy and made up for user losses by coordinating vacancy and upgrading room types. In the future, we hope to continuously improve the rules of the platform through the introduction of integrity points.
(Surging News Reporter Tang Yingying)