[Economic Observation] Is it reasonable to increase the prices of holiday hotels?

　　With the stability of the epidemic prevention situation and the increase in vaccination rates, the domestic tourism industry is picking up. The upcoming "May Day" holiday is considered by the industry to be expected to become the "hottest golden week in history."

　　Due to the high tourist enthusiasm for travel, the prices of hotels in some popular areas have also risen, and the average price of hotels in some areas has even exceeded the level before the epidemic.

　　The "Report on Resident Travel Forecast for the May 1st Holiday in 2021" recently released by Tongcheng Travel shows that price increases are one of the most prominent characteristics of travel consumption during the May 1st holiday this year.

Among them, Qinhuangdao (a year-on-year increase of 222.2%), Zhuhai (a year-on-year increase of 183.2%), Qingdao (a year-on-year increase of 163.9%), Shantou (a year-on-year increase of 147.1%), Yangzhou (a year-on-year increase of 87.1%), Shanghai (a year-on-year increase of 77.6%), Guangzhou (up 76.8% year-on-year), Xiamen (up 67.2% year-on-year), Jiaxing (up 49.5% year-on-year), Sanya (up 37.3% year-on-year).

It is the 10 tourist cities with the highest year-on-year increase in hotel prices so far.

　　In this context, some tourists are calling for expensive hotel reservations.

In fact, not only this year's "May Day", every holiday, hotel prices will rise to a certain extent.

So, is the hotel's steep price increase reasonable?

　　From a legal perspective, there are three types of prices stipulated by my country's price law: market-adjusted prices, government-guided prices, and government-set prices.

　　Generally speaking, hotels implement market-adjusted prices, and as long as the prices are clearly marked, they are not suspected of violations of laws and regulations.

However, in some places, government-guided prices are also applied to hotels during special periods.

For example, during this year's Consumer Expo, all tourist hotel rooms in Haikou will implement government-guided prices.

During the implementation of the government-guided price period, the actual transaction price of guest rooms in all tourist hotels in Haikou shall not be higher than the highest transaction price of rooms of the same room type and service conditions of the tourist hotel from March 1 to May 31, 2019.

During the Spring Festival this year, Haikou also implemented government-guided price management for hotel rooms.

　　From an economic perspective, the relationship between supply and demand determines prices.

During the holidays, tourists from some popular cities and popular attractions blow out. The demand for hotels in these cities and the surrounding areas will increase significantly, and hotel prices will inevitably rise.

In addition, if hotel practitioners insist on working during holidays, the hotel’s labor costs will also increase, and there are reasonable reasons for the hotel’s price increase.

　　However, some consumers pointed out that the hotel's moderate price increase is understandable, but it seems unreasonable to double, or even several times, at every turn.

Some consumers said that besides price, quality is also very important. As long as the hotel clearly marked the price and can provide services that meet the price, the high price is acceptable.

　　The reporter found on the Sina Black Cat complaint platform that some consumers complained about the actual environment and sanitation of the hotel they booked seriously inconsistent with the promotional pictures; some consumers reported that they were told that the room was full when they arrived at the hotel after the reservation was successful; some Consumers reported that the price paid on a travel platform was much higher than the price quoted at the front desk of the hotel; some consumers complained about the hidden safety hazard in the hotel, and the glass door exploded and caused injuries.

　　Therefore, to resolve the dilemma of sharp price increases in holiday hotels requires joint efforts by regulatory authorities and hotels.

Regulatory authorities should strengthen supervision and severely crack down on illegal behaviors such as unclear price tagging, sitting on the ground, price collusion, false propaganda, etc., to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and not allow individual unscrupulous businesses to damage the image of the city.

The hotel should also understand that it is okay to raise prices appropriately during holidays, but not to do it arbitrarily. While raising prices, they must also provide good services, otherwise they may lose their good reputation.

In fact, high-quality services and good reputation are becoming more and more important for a city's tourism industry.

　　In the long run, we need to divert the crowd in terms of space and time to alleviate the shortage of hotels in some places.

For example, increase the supply of high-quality tourism resources, develop more characteristic tourism projects, and increase the supply of hotels and homestays in popular areas; government departments and online tourism platforms can take advantage of big data to provide tourism market forecasts and public announcements for popular tourist destinations , Divert the tourist crowd and avoid tourists from gathering together in a few popular attractions.

In addition, the policy of paid vacation is implemented, and tourists are guided to travel off peaks and so on.

　　Our reporter Yang Zhaokui