It is the graduation season and internship season, and the demand for rental housing among college students has been heating up rapidly recently. Yicai learned that homestays are gaining favor from college students due to their advantages of low financial pressure and flexible renting. Meituan data shows that in the past week, the search volume of "monthly rental" keywords surged by 331% compared with the same period last year. As of mid-May, the number of bookings for "weekly homestay rentals" (stays of more than 5 consecutive days) during the graduation season increased by 7 times compared with last year.
Compared with traditional renting, homestays are more in line with the needs of college students for short-term rental. Xu Yue (pseudonym), a junior student from Sun Yat-sen University, told First Financial Reporter that she will intern in Beijing for three months from the end of May to August, and renting a house has become a problem, "I paid attention to direct rental or short-term rental information on various online platforms and social media sites, and finally chose my current homestay after considering factors such as transportation and price." Xu Yue said that compared with renting a house through an agency, a homestay is more suitable for a short-term internship college student like her. On the one hand, there is no intermediary fee for this type of homestay, and it takes the form of one payment for one, and students cannot afford to rent a house and pay three for three houses. On the other hand, the rental period and check-out policy of the homestay are more flexible. Landlords accept short-term rentals, and no fees will be deducted as long as they are not early departures. In terms of lease period, my roommates did not agree on the rental period, some needed to rent for two and a half months, and some only rented for one month, and the landlord accepted it. In addition, during the rental process, Xu Yue and the landlord directly communicated online, and viewed the house through video, which she thought was very convenient.
Xu Yue said that like her, more and more friends choose homestays as a transition during the internship or job search, "I have friends who have just graduated and are anxious to join, but they are not optimistic about the house, choose a short-term homestay to transition first, and then live while looking at other houses." ”
In addition to college students like Xu Yue who choose homestays for short-term rentals, there are also college students who consider long-term homestays. Wang Ming (pseudonym), a junior student at Chongqing University of Technology, told the first financial reporter that he is currently interning while planning to start a business, and has been living in a homestay for two months. Wang Ming believes that the price of homestays is cheaper than that of hotels, and it is more liberal than renting, and public areas are regularly cleaned. At the same time, there will be certain discounts for long-term rental of homestays. Wang Ming said that considering the cost performance, he will also choose homestays in the follow-up entrepreneurial process.
Han, who has been living in Chongqing B&B for a year, believes that choosing which rental method to choose needs to be based on his own rental time and payment method. "Many B&Bs on the platform can be booked on a weekly basis, paid weekly and cancelled flexibly. We can also communicate directly with the host online, eliminating the middleman. In times when the work is not very stable, it will be more convenient to have a homestay". Han said that rental expenses such as "one payment and three payments" and "service fees" in intermediary rental have become a major burden for young people, especially fresh graduates.
Mu Yong, the person in charge of Chongqing Mu Hut Apartment, told the first financial reporter that the apartment was previously mainly long-term rental, and during the epidemic, in order to expand the service model, it cooperated with Meituan Homestay. As a homestay practitioner, Mu Yong recently felt the demand of college students for homestays. "After the May Day holiday, the industry entered the off-season, and there was still some vacancy during this time. However, judging from the booking situation, by June, many students will move in because of internships or part-time jobs, and the occupancy rate will reach about 6%, and the room will be full in July and August. When it comes to the advantages of homestays, Mu Yong believes that the main thing is the cost performance, "Our kind of convenient apartments are not expensive, and the main group is these graduates or people who have just joined the work." ”
According to the estimated data released by the Ministry of Education, the scale of ordinary college graduates in the class of 2023 will be about 1158.82 million, an increase of about 00,357 year-on-year, and the total number of graduates will reach a new high. Since the beginning of this year, the proportion of "post-<>s" who book homestays on a weekly or monthly basis on Meituan has exceeded <>%. Meituan data shows that young people in Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chongqing have the most popular bookings for "weekly monthly rent of homestays". In order to ensure short-term housing needs such as graduation season, short-term internship, and work trips, Meituan B&B has launched "weekly monthly rental" products in <> cities across the country.
For homestay landlords, there are also benefits to renting in the medium and long term. Ah Zhang, who runs a homestay in Chengdu, received an order consultation on Meituan in 2022 for a month, and at first she didn't understand why someone would place medium- and long-term orders on the platform. Later, Zhang found that such demand was not low on Meituan, and the more convenient the transportation, the more popular the house for cooking and office. She said that being willing to receive guests with a stay "can reduce cleaning costs and reduce reception friction." A Zhang told the first financial reporter that it is currently the off-season of the homestay industry, but orders from the post-00s are increasing recently.
Under the strong demand, the weekly rental supply continues to emerge. As of May 5, 22,57 houses nationwide have opened Meituan's weekly monthly rental service. Yang Wei, the person in charge of Meituan B&B, said that the off-peak season of domestic homestays is very obvious, but in recent years, homestays have also begun to undertake immediate needs such as internship rental, work trips, and off-peak travel. "The launch of the weekly monthly rental product is to use technology to concentrate the new demand for homestays scattered in daily life, and guide them to suitable listings, helping landlords find ways out of operation in the off-season, and injecting new impetus into urban consumption." (CBN)