“Press 1 in the comment area for those with financial difficulties, and press 2 for those with turnover.”
The interactive comment area in the live broadcast room soon became lively – in just one minute, there were 64 “1” and 11 “2”, among which there was a comment different from everyone: “in debt”P align = “center” screenshot of live broadcast room on April 20
This is an interactive scene seen by the reporter of “daily economic news” in a public welfare live broadcast room related to small and medium-sized hotels on April 20.
It is understood that the first public welfare course launched by the “new traveler public welfare plan” launched by the same journey has been broadcast for five times since April 18, and two more will be launched soon. The topic focuses on “how to break the situation of small and medium-sized hotels under the epidemic”. The number of viewers on the first day of live broadcasting has exceeded 10000.
“We thought it was difficult for small and medium-sized hotels. We didn’t expect it to be so difficult. The content of public welfare courses has been too popular in recent days.” Chai Yinghui, vice president of Tongcheng travel and executive director of Tongcheng Research Institute, sighed to reporters.
Zhou Rong, founder of texueyuan, the keynote speaker of the live studio on April 18, explained the severity of the current cash flow shortage of small and medium-sized enterprises with a set of data: 34% of small and medium-sized enterprises can only last for one month, 33.1% can last for two months, 17.91% can last for three months, and only 9.96% can last for more than six months.
The reporter squatted in the live broadcast room for two consecutive days to see the message in the comment area, and there were many cries of “there is no cash flow”.
Obviously, behind the influx of small and medium-sized hotel practitioners into the live broadcasting room is their anxiety to seek self-help and a way out under the epidemic.
“The worst month of performance”, “no cash flow”
For the hotel industry, the occupancy rate is the most intuitive “barometer”.
When asked about the occupancy rate of the hotel, the reporter noticed that hotel practitioners from Changsha, Wuhan, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other parts of the country in the live studio gave different data. The data were mainly concentrated in the range of 30% to 50%, ranging from 70% to 10%.
Zhou Rong, speaker of the live studio and founder of texueyuan, said at that time that the average occupancy rate of hotels in China is about 30%, and the situation is not optimistic.
Li Xi (a pseudonym), an operator of an independent hotel in Lijiang for four years, told the daily economic news that since its opening in early 2019, except for the resumption of work in April 2020, it can now be regarded as “the worst month of performance” and “the occupancy rate is not even 10%.
Li Xi’s hotel has 18 rooms at the foot of Yulong Snow Mountain. Like most other hotels in Lijiang, his hotel is a resort hotel, with tourists from Yunnan. “Previously, in the peak tourist season of July and August, the occupancy rate can exceed 90%.”
“As long as there is an epidemic, business will not be good that month. Last year’s July and August and the following spring festival stalls were hit by the epidemic and lost two blood return opportunities.” He recalled, “I remember that in July and August of 2020, business was booming for a period of time, and the peers returned their blood at that time. But from November last year to now, many people can’t stand the money in their hands. They change their careers and close their stores.”
In this southwest city supported by tourism, there were many hotels, inns and home stay. But the epidemic has disrupted people’s travel plans. In recent years, Li Xi has witnessed the departure of too many peers around him. “Some inns in Shuhe ancient town have been transferred, and even hotels that have been open for ten years have been closed.”
According to the 2021 report on the development and consumption trend of China’s accommodation industry, in the past two years, the number of hotels in first tier cities and provincial capital cities in China has decreased by 20.4% and 29.6% respectively, of which the number of single hotels has been seriously damaged, and the number of single hotels closed in China is about 150000.
However, the fear of lack of money does not only belong to the operators who leave the site, but also the hotel practitioners who stay in the industry are experiencing this fear at the moment.
In the live studio class, hotel practitioners from all over the world were worried about cash flow. Several of them wrote “there is no cash flow” in the comment area.
In order to prevent the hotel from falling down due to excessive blood loss, where to find cash flow blood transfusion has become the most important thing for small and medium-sized hotel practitioners.
Price reduction seems to be the most conventional means.
A backpacker who often goes to Yunnan revealed to the reporter of the daily economic news that a hotel just two minutes’ walk from Erhai Lake priced 800 yuan per night before the epidemic. This year, affected by the epidemic in Shanghai, it has dropped to 1800 yuan per month.
Li Xi did not choose to reduce the price, but made some efforts in the service, “provide the coffee originally sold for free, and then hold some afternoon tea with drinks, barbecue, small concerts and other activities to attract customers”.
As a result, the operating cost of the hotel “rose by about 20%, but as for the results, Li Xi said,” it is better than those (hotels) that can not be maintained “.
In this way, on the one hand, low pricing and low occupancy rate are doomed to poor revenue. On the other hand, monthly expenses such as daily operation and employee salary are likely to increase instead of decrease. Under the great pressure of capital shortage, some practitioners said in the comment area of the live broadcasting room that many employees have left their jobs because they can’t pay wages. What’s more, “they are the boss, the operator and the front desk”.
Why are small and medium-sized hotels stuck in the mud?
Covid-19 epidemic, the “black swan” once dragged the hotel industry into the mire.
According to the data released by China Hotel Association, during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday in early 2020, the epidemic caused an operating loss of 1.23 billion yuan to 5109 hotels. Compared with the same period in 2019, the average loss of hotel operating revenue during the epidemic period was as high as 67.81%.
The 2021 report on the development and consumption trend of China’s accommodation industry jointly released by elong hotel technology and Tongcheng Research Institute shows that due to the negative impact of the epidemic, the number of hotels in first tier cities and provincial capital cities in China has declined by more than 20%. In terms of the number of star hotels in the country, the economy hotels with two stars and below decreased the most, by 20.1%. In contrast, the number of three-star hotels decreased by only 5.1%, and the number of four-star hotels even increased by 3.5%P align = “center” chart source: 2021 China’s accommodation industry development and consumption trend report
At the same time, tourism has not fully recovered.
According to the data released by the Ministry of culture and tourism, the number of Chinese tourists in 2020 was 2.879 billion, a decrease of 52.1% compared with 2019. The number of Chinese tourists in 2021 was 3.246 billion, an increase of 12.8% compared with the same period in 2020, but it only recovered to 54% in 2019.
Judging from the above data, it seems that we can not completely attribute the plight of small and medium-sized hotels to the recovery of small and medium-sized hotels. But looking at the entire hotel industry, it is surprising that many large hotels have changed their decline and turned losses into profits in 2021.
According to the financial report, the revenue of Hilton Hotel in 2021 was US $5.79 billion, an increase of 34.4% over the same period last year, and the net profit was US $410 million.
Similarly, the revenue of 6 Haoxiangni Health Food Co.Ltd(002582) 021 was 6.153 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.49%, and the net profit was 556769 million yuan.
So, why is it difficult for the warm spring breeze to blow to small and medium-sized hotels, so that they are still stuck in the mud?
In the face of this problem, Zhu Yue, the partner of burning knowledge consulting, analyzed to the reporter of the daily economic news. The first is the different cash flow pressure. “The capital flow of large chain hotels is relatively abundant, the cash flow pressure is less, and the operation stability is relatively stronger. Small and medium-sized hotels will be more vulnerable under the epidemic because they lack sufficient capital flow and corresponding risk response strategies.”
It is reported that under the influence of the epidemic, Jinjiang, ShouLv, Huazhu and other hotel groups have announced the reduction of some franchise fees and launched other plans to help franchisees. Jinjiang and other hotel groups also provide low interest loans to investors with capital turnover difficulties to alleviate their cash flow pressure.
However, small and medium-sized hotels do not have such good luck and strength.
In the live broadcast room hosted by Zhou Rong, a small and medium-sized hotel practitioner said that “cash flow can be maintained for six months”, which not only attracted the envy of everyone, but also was evaluated as “quite good” by the course lecturer.
A set of data in the live broadcast course shows the severity of the cash flow shortage of small and medium-sized enterprises: 34% of small and medium-sized enterprises can only last for one month, 33.1% can last for two months, 17.91% can last for three months, and only 9.96% can last for more than six months.
In addition, in addition to cash flow, Zhu Yue said that affected by the epidemic, the vacancy rate of hotel rooms was high, and the overall price of the hotel industry decreased significantly. When there are more choices for guests, compared with small and medium-sized hotels, large chain hotels with higher cost performance and stronger brand strength will naturally attract more guests and bear lower guest turnover rate.
“At the same time, in terms of enterprise docking business and epidemic prevention and control publicity, large chain hotels also have more advantages. They can contract most of the enterprise isolation room business and effectively reduce losses.” He added.
Finally, from the perspective of operation, Zhu Yue believes that the digital operation degree and fine operation degree of large chain hotels are higher. More and more large-scale chain hotels have adopted a hotel management system integrating intelligent operation, labor cost optimization and flow sharing. Through digital transformation, they not only improve the flow, but also reduce the operation cost and increase efficiency. Therefore, in the face of the epidemic, the degree of damage is far lower than that of small and medium-sized hotels with high operating costs and low traffic.
Analysys analysis tourism industry analyst Wang Ke told the reporter of the daily economic news that due to the small volume and low operating cost, small and medium-sized hotels are greatly impacted by the epidemic, and with the extension of time, the long-term impact of the epidemic will bring great challenges to the hotel’s operation ability and operation ability.
Self rescue: “in 2022, survival is the best strategy”
Under the background of normalization of epidemic prevention and control, how can small and medium-sized hotels with low occupancy rate and tight cash flow help themselves?
Yuan Zhonghong, general manager of Zhejiang Huihe Hotel Management Co., Ltd., believes that during the epidemic, it is actually a good time for hotels to cultivate their internal skills. The Sales Department of the new traveller’s public welfare plan has inspired him and his company to resist the “cold winter”: the marketing department of the hotel learned how to borrow the PMS technology to make a good sale and save the membership. It also made the service related departments more deeply understand how to serve tiktok and enhance the praise of the liquor store in the mainstream OTA. There are more gains for the new channel’s operation mode, and the new channel like jitter and Xiao Hong book is also a good increment in the future.
The relevant person in charge of Chenlong chain hotel group also said that he gained a lot from the public welfare courses for several consecutive days, especially how to pre sell hotel products in special periods and how to operate private domain traffic. At present, Chenlong chain hotel group has decided to try with the fastest speed to do the pre-sale activities, so as to quickly recover the cash flow and ensure that the hotel can get better operation guarantee during the epidemic.
Zhou Rong believes that small and medium-sized hotels need to start from the three aspects of service, marketing and cost, and use a set of “combination boxing” to break the situation.
She suggested that small and medium-sized hotels can make breakthroughs and innovations in the speed, temperature and height of services, such as adding customized breakfast and afternoon tea to strengthen in-house services, or allowing customers to participate in personalized services such as ancient poetry interaction.
In this regard, Zhu Yue also said that small and medium-sized hotels urgently need to provide diversified services. “At present, the source of business travelers has been reduced to a certain extent, and small and medium-sized hotels can make up for the loss of this part through diversified services.”
For example, “during the epidemic period, some hotels launched ‘online class room’ and ‘blind box room’, and some hotels began to provide takeout and dry cleaning services to reduce the losses under the epidemic prevention and control by maximizing the use of the existing resources of the hotel.”
According to the reporter of the daily economic news, previously, many hotels in Shanghai, Xiamen, Nanjing and other places had launched “online class rooms”, and the housekeeper urged students to take online classes, so as to reduce the burden of taking care of children in dual working families. According to the Securities Daily, after launching the online class room package with a price of 4888 yuan for five days and four nights, the staff of Guangzhou white swan hotel said, “many customers are consulting the package, and the revenue of the package can greatly increase the turnover of the hotel in the near future.”
It is noteworthy that on April 22, the course of “new traveler public welfare plan” entered the fifth session. Previously, public welfare courses such as how to improve hotel revenue with the help of PMS system and how to occupy ultra-high traffic positions of Ota “for free” have been conducted respectively. As one of the themes of hotel consumption, the reporter noted that the fourth theme is the competition of hotel products, which is also of great significance to the competition of hotel products.
For small and medium-sized hotels, while strengthening offline services, online marketing can not be ignored.
Tiktok live in Yichang for more than 2 months, the cash flow of 3 million yuan, Zhou Rong stressed the importance of the online dividend on the snatch line, “strive to get the first order on the OTA, sell on the social platform such as jitter, and actively activate the old members tiktok.”
“Besides selling and selling products in social media, it is more important that small and medium sized hotels should pay attention to the operation of private areas such as official account and so on, and use the complete operation logic and long-term user training to build private area traffic, so as to achieve the realization of traffic volume.” Zhu Yue added.
In addition, Zhu Yue believes that hotel accommodation still belongs to low-frequency consumption in China. Returning to the essence of consumer service industry and improving service quality is the final solution to the current operation dilemma of small and medium-sized hotels. “While improving service quality, reducing costs is also very important. The operation of ‘digital’ and ‘intelligent’ is one of the ways for small and medium-sized hotels to reduce costs and increase efficiency.”
On the problem of reducing costs, Zhou Rong also put forward more specific measures, such as managing water and electricity consumables, opening rooms according to floors, implementing staff rotation system, etc.
In addition to self rescue, the reporter learned that the same journey provides customized solutions for airports, airlines, scenic spots, hotels, passenger transport enterprises and destination governments respectively, helping the industry realize digital industrial upgrading. At the same time, it has also created theme IPS such as intangible cultural heritage tourism, red tourism and short distance peripheral tourism.
At the same time, in view of the changing prevention and control situation during the epidemic and the diversified travel needs of users, the same trip has successively launched a variety of new travel products such as black whale student card, script killing flight, hotel E-sports room and “pet hotel”, as well as special activities such as “ideal weekend without home” for the short-term weekend travel market, and actively explore new scenes and new ways of local and surrounding travel.
Giant platforms such as meituan have also launched the “anti epidemic love hotel” zone, which not only provides accommodation for takeout riders, but also helps the hotel industry recover better.
“In 2022, survival is the best strategy.” Just like Zhou Rong’s encouragement to small and medium-sized hotel practitioners in the live broadcast room, small and medium-sized hotels are looking for new vitality in this spring. At present, may day is approaching. Whether this holiday at the end of spring and summer solstice can bring a turn for the better for small and medium-sized hotels, the answer should be revealed soon.
