Living in a hotel takes off as lifestyle choice

Bailout for hotels

Offering people rooms for rent is not a decision taken on a whim by hotels, but a long-term campaign due to shocks brought by the COVID-19 epidemic.

A recent report by the China Hospitality Association, a group set up by operators of accommodation and the catering industry, shows that the nation's accommodation facilities, including hotels, homestays and other forms of lodging businesses, were reduced by 26.5 percent to 447,178 in early 2021 from the previous 608,146 in early 2020 due to the effects of the pandemic.

The number of hotels declined by 17.4 percent over the year — falling from 338,021 to 279,174 in early 2021.

Hu Chunyan, shop manager of Hangzhou Bokai Westlake Hotel in Zhejiang province, said that the hotel experienced a tough time during the epidemic.

"Many other hotels shut down. We are the lucky one as my boss owns the hotel so we don't worry about the hotel's rents. What we needed to do in the toughest period was to make enough money to pay the employees' salary," she said.

"It's not an easy job to run the hotel amid the epidemic."

She said that so far around 40 percent of the hotel's rooms — roughly 20 rooms — are for short-term or long-term lease. "The rents and payment are quite flexible. We have rooms priced at 3,900 yuan per month and also those around 4,200 or 4,500 yuan per month.

"They can pay the rent every 10 days or every week without any rental deposit. Young people take the majority of the rooms. We also have some regular customers like business travelers who usually stay at the hotel for three or five days," she added.

She said the hotel has a shared kitchen and washing machines free of charge for the customers.

Li Bowen, a professor from the Tourism College of Beijing Union University, said in an interview with China Tourism News that rental business is a new and promising sector worthy of exploration by the hotels.

Li said hotels can plan a long-term campaign and find a balance of living comfort and price for the customers. The rental business can also help hotels efficiently use their vacant rooms and improve the current rental market.