Hosting conferences made easier after emergency level lowered

Beijing lowered its emergency response level for the novel coronavirus on July 19, sending an uplifting message to hotels.

Many Beijing-based hotels told Beijing Business Today newspaper they can now take conference reservations on a bigger scale－but they must be fewer than 500 people.

There are some preliminary steps going on behind the scenes. Hotels need to file for approval before big events, said executives from Sunrise Kempinski Hotel and Yanqi Hotel managed by Kempinski. They said they must report to local police stations if they want to hold conferences with more than 100 people.

For safety reasons, partitions should be set up in banquet halls to separate attendees. Chairs would be placed at least 1 meter away from each other, they added.

Gehua New Century Hotel said guests need to have temperature checks, show their health codes and travel history and fill in a registration form.

Zhao Huanyan, a hospitality industry insider, said that restrictions on meetings hosting up to 500 people have been relaxed, which can stimulate recovery in the industry.

"The resumption of conference services has helped hotels' cash flow," said Gu Huimin from Beijing International Studies University. "Though hotels can only arrange small meetings and bear higher costs, it is better than leaving all venues idle and making no money."

The recovery is becoming more evident. According to Tongcheng-Elong, an online travel agency, the room night bookings of domestic hotels on its platform increased by more than 30 percent year-on-year on July 15. It marks a new high since the beginning of the epidemic. That figure steadily grew last week, up more than 20 percent year-on-year.

Even though conference services are picking up, insiders said the industry is still in the off-peak season and it will take time for the conference market to fully recover.

Guo Chuan, general manager of Riverside Hotel Beijing, said: "The peak season for the conference market is usually in the fall or even the fourth quarter.

"Interprovincial travel has resumed, but business travel in many areas has not. The conference market should go back to normal at least by September or October."

Another worry is the fact that some companies have cut their spending on business trips and meetings in hotels. It will lead to a shrinking market, an expert told Beijing Business Today.

"But I think this change is not an entirely bad thing for hotels," Gu said. "It forces them to reinvent themselves."