Membership-based homestay card, should "plant grass" or "pulling grass"?

  In recent years, some companies have aimed at the homestay market and launched a membership-based homestay card program, “you can stay in a homestay for ten nights with a few hundred dollars” and “unlimited stays within a year”.

This year's epidemic has brought an impact on the homestay card market, and the difficulty of booking rooms and deposits also worry tourists.

Industry insiders pointed out that in the future, the profit model of membership-based homestay cards can't just stop at the card selling stage. Homestay card projects still have a long way to go on the road to "stableness".

  There is fog and birds passing by the window in the early morning, the midday air is smelling of lush green trees, dinner is accompanied by the smell of sunset and fireworks... In the hearts of many tourists, homestays are sentimental, poetic, and belong to the "healing system" .

After a brief break from the life of steel and concrete, tourists are looking for a balance between life and work in the forest and mountains.

With the upgrading of consumption, tourists are increasingly pursuing the personalization and quality of tourism, and the consumption demand for homestays is increasing unabated.

  For tourists, high-quality homestays are expensive; for some homestay operators, the occupancy rate is still an open question.

In recent years, some companies have aimed at the homestay market and launched a membership-based homestay card program, “you can stay in a homestay for ten nights with a few hundred dollars” and “unlimited stays within a year”.

  It’s a "heartbeat feeling"

  "Join a member and stay in national specialty resort hotels for free throughout the year." In 2019, Zhang Haijia (pseudonym) was moved by seeing such an advertisement on social networks.

Living in Nanjing, she, like many young people, has become an early adopter of membership-based homestay cards. “Buying homestay cards is equivalent to paying for future travel itineraries in advance.”

  The membership-based homestay card, that is, consumers pay a certain fee to the platform, and they can stay in the homestay cooperating with the platform for free within a certain period of time (usually one year).

Industry insiders believe that the homestay card builds a "bridge" between the lodging end and consumers in need, and can also increase the frequency of consumer travel.

  At the end of 2018, the "Half Side Mountain" B&B platform launched a black gold card.

With a fee of several hundred yuan, you can stay in a chain hotel for 10 nights for free within a year.

Thanks to this homestay card, the occupancy rate of homestays with “non-weekend and off-season traffic pain points” has increased significantly in the “half of the mountain”.

  Since then, many platforms, including Cheng, Hermit Crab, He Suoyi, Shou Mai, etc., have launched membership-based homestay cards with different rules.

The reporter learned that the price of homestay cards ranges from several hundred to several thousand yuan, and different platforms have different regulations on housing types, deposits, and consecutive stays.

Take Rucheng with a membership fee of 1280 yuan as an example, card members can book two consecutive nights at a time each time, which is only used when the member stays in. The room fee must be prepaid as a deposit when booking. The amount of the deposit is based on the market of the room booked. Price calculation.

  In 2019, the "jianghu" of the membership-based homestay card has just become lively, and the sudden outbreak of the new crown pneumonia has brought a huge impact to the tourism industry, including homestays.

Although there are data showing that during the "October" Golden Week in 2020, the overall domestic homestay bookings have recovered to 91% of the same period last year, but the nascent homestay card market has shown both sides of ice and fire.

  Some homestays suffered heavy losses.

On October 17, "Banbianshanxia" issued the "Notice on the Refund of the Deposit Refund", stating that "the enterprise has encountered great economic difficulties and cannot raise enough funds to refund the deposit for a while."

Also, it is expanding.

Rucheng’s membership price has risen from 688 yuan/year to 1,280 yuan/year, and the platform claims that 100 new hotels have been opened in October and November.

  "Planting grass" or "pulling weeds"

  On social networking platforms, there are many tourists who share their homestay card "check-in experience".

“The best experience is a school-themed homestay, which makes people feel like they have returned to the pure student days and feels very relaxed.” Tang Li (pseudonym) said that he had used homestays to stay in 4 hotels in Chengdu, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places. Homestays, "I hope there will be more new ones, now it is getting harder and harder to book online celebrity homestays."

  Some tourists said that the homestay card makes travel more convenient and saves a lot of money on accommodation.

Many tourists also pointed out that the membership-based homestay card has many problems.

  "There are many homestays in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. I originally wanted to go out to play this year, but I haven't been there once." Zhang Haijia has not stayed in a homestay after opening his card during the National Day last year.

As of December 4 this year, her membership rights will expire soon.

As a logistics worker, she has booked a homestay 3 times, but all of them failed to make the trip due to work and other reasons.

"Previously, they were booked two or three months in advance. Now, most of the rooms in the homestay are full on weekends. It is impossible to book a room for the weekend one or two months in advance.

  "The'grass' of the homestay card, I have pulled it out, and it is too unfriendly to office workers." Zhang Haijia said that some homestays have particularly inconvenient transportation, and it is difficult to book better quality homestays. "It is better to stay in a hotel. It really costs money to buy lessons."

She tried to contact the customer service, but the customer service said that "the rules are clearly written."

  In addition to the difficulty of booking rooms, high deposits have also become a concern for members.

On the Black Cat Complaint Platform, there are more than 200 complaints about homestay cards, most of which are related to the hard-to-refund deposit.

  "It was said that the refund was possible within 7 working days before the reservation, and then it became 20 to 25 days, and then there was no news." Some tourists said that after booking through "Half Side Mountain", the 1080 yuan deposit was not returned. .

Some people pointed out that because of the long booking period and other reasons, deposits of thousands of yuan would often "lie" on the platform for several months, forming a deposit pool.

  The membership-based homestay card project needs to be more stable

  On the WeChat public account of Hangzhou Shoumai Network Technology Co., Ltd., the tweet time stayed on June 8.

The article stated that "Shoumai membership card users are automatically listed as creditors, and will be published on this official account after the liquidation team verifies the bonds." Earlier, Shoumai published an article saying that the outbreak of the epidemic has caused severe damage to the platform business and is facing cash flow With the question on the homestay side, "I have never accepted any refund request since the epidemic. I hope everyone can treat it rationally and don't make the platform worse."

  Zhao Zhanzhan, a lawyer at Beijing Zhilin Law Firm, said, “Merchants should return the reservation deposit in full and in time within the time limit stipulated in the contract. If it is overdue or under-refunded, it will violate the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Consumers can The supervisory authority makes reports and complaints."

  Zhao Zhanzhu pointed out that when consumers purchase membership-based homestay cards, they have established a contractual relationship with the merchant.

If the merchant arbitrarily and unilaterally changes the rules for using the homestay card, it is a breach of contract, and consumers can still request the service in accordance with the previously agreed rules.

  "Some companies do not have the advantages of brand, capital and channels. The launch of homestay card projects can easily become speculative." Wei Xiang, a researcher at the Tourism Science Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from Workers’ Daily that tourists are spending For homestay card projects, choose products developed by large companies with outstanding brands and strong capabilities, and do not buy products launched by companies that do not have fixed channels and years of operating experience.

  In addition, “For small and medium-sized enterprises with weak bearing and carrying capacity, credit supervision should be strengthened. It is necessary to strengthen supervision of small and medium-sized homestays, single homestays, and newly emerging homestay management networks and systems in the market, and improve the standards of homestay card projects. Entry threshold." Wei Xiang suggested using quality guarantee funds to provide credit guarantees and credit pledges to companies that have launched membership-based homestay cards.

  Industry insiders pointed out that the homestay card project still has a long way to go on the "stable" road.

In the future, the profit model of membership-based homestay cards should not only stay at the stage of selling cards, but after gathering member traffic, more diversified consumption needs of tourists on the journey should be tapped.

  Zhao Chen