As one of the hottest formats in the tourism market, the hotel industry is never short of topics.

The discussions and topics about B&B are either due to the rising demand for holidays in Zhou Bianyou, the exquisite content shared by social platforms, or the increasingly fierce market competition among major booking platforms.

However, among all the voices around the B&B, the role of the landlord, which best embodies the "master culture", seems to be "invisible".

according to the basic requirements and evaluation of tourist homestays issued by the Ministry of culture and tourism in 2119, tourist homestays refer to small accommodation facilities with no more than 4 floors of business rooms and no more than 811 building areas, which make use of idle resources such as local idle houses. People and hosts participate in the reception to help tourists experience the local nature, culture and production lifestyle.

The reception of the host (landlord) makes the B&B a warmer accommodation space. They are the creators of this space, and they are also the first role in the process of bringing housing to the market.

However, the epidemic brought some cold thinking time for the once "homestay fever", and the role of landlords began to change subtly. Some people bargain-hunting, some people continue to overweight, and some people leave sadly ... Is it too late to overweight the B&B industry in 2121? With market changes and industry transformation, what confidence and worries do new and old landlords have?

Shuffle: Is it too late to join the homestay industry after the epidemic?

The epidemic brought about a major reshuffle in the industry, but most people chose to stay.

At the end of 2121, Feng Weihe, the head of Meituan B&B, shared a set of data in an activity: after the epidemic, only 11% of landlords chose to quit and change careers, and 91% of landlords planned to continue to operate or even expand their business scale.

Li Hai and Huang Pengpeng, homestay landlords from Wuhan, once said, "No matter what changes have taken place in the homestay industry due to the epidemic, we have never thought about giving up. For us, being a homestay is a career. "

the persistence of landlords comes from their confidence in the long-term development prospects of the market.

in July 2121, domestic inter-provincial tourism resumed; During the "Eleventh" Golden Week, the national * * * received 637 million domestic tourists, a year-on-year recovery of 79.1% according to comparable caliber. During the May Day holiday in 2121, the number of domestic tourists exceeded 231 million, up by 119.7% year-on-year, and recovered to 113.2% in the same period before the epidemic.

2121 is a special year.

under the overall stable situation of domestic epidemic prevention and control, the internal circulation of the economy stimulates the release of tourism consumption potential, and the tourism market is accelerating its recovery. The demand for local tours and Zhou Bianyou has brought a lot of opportunities for the recovery of the B&B market. At the same time, the "frozen" outbound travel has not been lifted, and the return of outbound consumption is particularly beneficial to the mid-to high-end homestay market.

From the specific data, in June 2121, Meituan B&B has achieved positive growth compared with the previous year; During the "May 1" period this year, the demand growth exceeded expectations, and the full room rate of Wuhan B&B exceeded 91%.

the demand has returned to the growth track, but the market supply has not fully recovered. It is reported that the current number of houses in the hotel industry is about 97% before the epidemic. This market gap is the opportunity for new entrants, attracting more and more new landlords to join. According to the 2121 B&B Industry Research Report issued by China Tourism and B&B Development Association, online landlords will increase by 16.5% in 2121. Especially from the growth curve from 2118 to 2121, although the growth rate has slowed down, the overall growth volume is still considerable, which shows that the epidemic situation is still difficult to stop the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of residents.

in addition to the market space brought about by the changes in supply and demand, policy encouragement and market environment also play a role in boosting the accelerated expansion of the hotel industry.

in terms of policy, in September, 2121, the general office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Consumption with New Business Forms and Models, proposing to further cultivate and expand new business forms and models of various consumption, and support the development of * * * accommodation relying on the Internet. Zhejiang, Hainan, Shandong, Jiangxi, Guangxi and other places have also issued relevant documents to promote the high-quality development of the hotel industry.

At the same time, the domestic B&B booking platform has been in a fierce battle for nearly ten years, and the competition among initial players such as Airbnb, Tujia, Meituan and Woodbird has intensified, and content platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok have also attempted to cross the border. What is certain is that in the battlefield of B&B booking, whether it is to expand the business scale, increase the number of orders, or improve the quality of supply, housing has always been one of the cores for Internet players to compete for. The platform's preferential policies for new entrants will also give birth to more new residences.

transformation: what kind of homestay will the market need in 2121?

Whether it is the increasing demand for travel after the epidemic or the Internet giant's accelerated layout of the hotel track, many factors are pushing the development speed of the hotel industry back to the right track.

Taking Meituan as an example, the data shows that in July 2121, Meituan B&B has become the first industry platform in China to resume the positive growth of overnight stays after the epidemic. In October of the same year, Meituan B&B has expanded more than 171,111 active landlords and 811,111 online houses in China.

However, as one of the hot formats of the cultural tourism industry, the hotel industry is also facing many transformation challenges.

The concept of "you can be a homestay as long as you have spare rooms" once prevailed because of the low entry threshold of the industry. Many middle-and low-end homestays barely "carried" during the barbaric growth period of the homestay industry by virtue of their comparative advantages of early entry into the industry and low operating costs, but at the same time they were caught in the competitive trap of homogenization and low quality.

In the post-epidemic period, the demand side changes obviously. Based on the factors such as the return of outbound travel consumption and the limited distance of some trips, the demand for leisure and vacation in the domestic tourism market continues to rise, and the demand for local tours (urban micro-tours) and Zhou Bianyou is strong. This requires the B&B to provide more added value beyond the accommodation function. At the same time, the provision of other services other than non-standard design and experience is becoming more and more standardized, especially in health and safety management.

the change of market demand also forces the hotel industry to present three most intuitive transformation trends:

the standardization of hotel housing

the hotel is nonstandard in terms of theme features, space design, accommodation experience, etc., but it is also necessary to standardize its service quality and supporting facilities. If the B&B products provide standardized hardware facilities and thoughtful service all the time, it will also effectively enhance its core accommodation experience and avoid the low quality of B&B housing.

The Service Quality Standard for Villagers' Hostels issued in September, 2121 can be regarded as one of the attempts to standardize the management of homestay industry. However, the nature of this document is still a recommended national standard rather than a mandatory one, and it has only reference significance and voluntary use scope, so it is not easy to really implement it.

during the epidemic period, meituan quickly launched the "live in peace" activity, and the number of orders and conversion rate of qualified houses increased significantly. In April, 2121, when the number of homestay houses exceeded 1.5 million, it released the first Hygienic Standard for Homestay Houses formulated by enterprises in the industry, which included 18 hygienic standards and a set of hygienic rating system.

Diversification of product experience

Focusing on its accommodation function, B&B fully taps the local culture and surrounding tourism resources, and provides differentiated accommodation experiences such as "B&B+scenic spots/folk customs/culture …", which is the core attraction of B&B. On the one hand, it helps to extend the consumption chain and increase the unit price of each night guest; On the other hand, it is beneficial to users' sharing in the new media era, improving product reputation and the possibility of repurchase.

The product model of B&B incorporating special catering, interactive experience and other services will also become a powerful way for B&B to cope with homogenization competition.

Wang Anan, founder of Wise Home Inn, told Zhihui that guests can not only experience the special accommodation of Beijing Siheyuan, but also enjoy value-added services such as rickshaw tour of Hutong and VIP tour of the Forbidden City, and more experiences of Beijing flavor elements are integrated into their home stay products.

Wang Zhe, the co-founder of Ningbo Seven Cats Hosting Manager and Snail Traveler B&B brand, also mentioned that in recent years, with the demand of tourists (especially young customers) becoming diversified, B&B needs to improve the overall competitiveness of its products from accommodation, photography, audio and video, interaction and other aspects. At present, in the homestay operated by the Wang Zhe team, projectors have almost become standard; In addition, according to the theme styles of different houses, interactive photo elements such as Hanfu, Kimono and online celebrity Sunset Lamp are also included in the accommodation space. And their latest idea is to integrate the hottest scripts into the hotel and add more interactive experience elements.

specialization of homestay landlords

regardless of the standardization of homestay housing or the diversification of product experience, the transformation behind it points to the necessity of improving the professional ability of landlord groups in product design and operation ability.

"After the epidemic, users have higher requirements, which will also force industry operators to accelerate the improvement of their business capabilities and service levels." Feng Weihe, the head of Meituan B&B, once pointed out that due to the low entry threshold of the B&B industry and the form of part-time small landlords, many landlords have not received professional training, resulting in a lack of guarantee of service quality and uneven service level.

in this respect, the advantages of the platform in overall planning and integration are highlighted again. Meituan B&B launched the industry HSR index in 2121, and standardized the rating of millions of houses through three modules: service quality, business index and housing quality, and based on this, provided more operational suggestions and optimization measures for landlords. In addition, it also provides free teaching videos for landlords through the "Landlord College" platform to improve the knowledge training system.

in addition, under the background of new media, landlord specialization is also reflected in the internet marketing method. The Blue Book of B&B: China B&B Development Report (2121~2121) shows that 53.63% of operators in the B&B industry have WeChat WeChat official account, 43.32% have Tik Tok account, 17.75% have established independent websites, and 17.18% and 15.65% operate Xiaohongshu and Weibo respectively. It can be seen that the self-media marketing method is widely welcomed by the landlord group.

Worry of entrants: Hot business is not simple

In 2121, B&B will still be a hot business, and market changes and transformation trends will provide many opportunities for players waiting for bargain hunting. In addition to opportunities, there are still many challenges to be faced when entering the game.

the first is the choice of city and location.

At present, the homestay industry is facing the problem of "uneven cold and hot" in urban distribution. The homestay industry in first-tier cities and new first-tier cities is developing rapidly, especially in Chengdu-Chongqing, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other markets. However, urban choice is also faced with the uncertainty risk of policy tightening. At the end of 2121, the Notice on Standardizing the Management of Housing in short rent jointly issued by the four Beijing departments made it clear that short rent housing is prohibited in the functional core area of the capital, which once had a big impact on the hotel industry in Beijing.

after the city is determined, the location of urban homestays and village hostels will also be affected by comprehensive factors such as traffic accessibility, the number of business districts, the distance of scenic spots, public facilities, target customers and consumption power in the surrounding markets.

the second is the choice of distribution channels.

as one of the economic formats of * * *, which was born by relying on the internet, B&B orders cannot be separated from huge online distribution channels. The choice of the B&B booking platform first means traffic and conversion rate, and the subsequent boosting ability to optimize and upgrade the housing. This will test the user scale, housing integration, accurate recommendation algorithm, etc. of the booking platform, and its * * * will determine how the platform empowers landlords and housing.

at this point, giants with both traffic, technology and scale are relatively more advantageous. For example, during the epidemic, Meituan's huge traffic base and systematic service ability in the local life field were highlighted in the hotel reservation business.

Peng Xiong, a hotel operator from Wuhan, told Zhihui that in 2121, Meituan had provided traffic support to eligible hotel landlords; During the "May 1" period, consumers were also given cash back red envelopes for booking through platform promotion activities to increase the booking volume of B&B. According to Peng Xiongjin's memory, because the traffic of the US delegation is more inclined to local tourists, most of the orders are from the US delegation platform.

in addition, we need to consider the ability of the hotel business to resist risks.

bian yaguang, the founder of Wuhan residential apartment, is not only the landlord of the hotel, but also positions the company as a value-added service provider of idle real estate. It provides a unified house hosting service for the owners, part of which is used for the short rent business of the B&B..

Ji Tong, founder and CEO of Orange Way B&B, also introduced that its B&B also includes offline hosting business and cleaning services for landlords in addition to self-operated housing. On the one hand, this kind of model revitalizes idle houses for owners, and saves the trouble of part-time landlords in operation and management; On the other hand, it can also reduce the investment risk of hotel operation as much as possible while ensuring a certain profit margin. Therefore, it has also become a new choice for many hotel operators.