There is a growing demand by Chinese consumers for four- or five-star hotels accompanied by shorter reservation time, according to findings in the 2017 Ctrip Hotel White Paper (in Chinese) on the latest trends and consumer data insights for the hospitality industry in China.
The Chinese travel giant, which released the white paper together with its hotel information subsidiary, Joint Wisdom, said the Chinese consumers’ preference for higher-rated hotels was shown when they were filtering its listed hotels by star rating. About 76% of the searches on star rating were for “five star/luxury hotel” or “four star/high-end hotel”, while only 11.61% of the hotel searches were price-related.
The white paper stated that in the 12 months, from July 2016 to June 2017, the country’s online demand for hotel accommodation grew 28.8% (domestic hotel room nights also rose by the same percentage). Average online room rates during this period, however, stayed flat.
Chinese consumers want to stay in four- and five-star hotels. (Image credit: bdsklo/iStock-Getty Images)
Ctrip’s data also showed consumer booking behaviour has changed radically in recent years with shorter advance reservation time and fragmented booking processes, and more last-minute bookings.
More than half of the company’s users opted for same-day reservation and check-in while about 26% booked one to three days in advance. Only 13% made reservations a week or longer in advance.
Semantic analysis on the review contents posted by the company’s family travel users showed some common complaints that included “not having kids’ slippers in the guestroom” and “not having sufficient child-friendly cutlery”. Ctrip believes that user satisfaction can be effectively elevated if these shortcomings are rectified.
Note: This story was originally published on ChinaTravelNews.
• Featured image credit: zhudifeng/iStock-GettyImages
