In April, in early spring, the weather in Beijing is warm and cold. During the epidemic, Beijing suburban B&Bs, which have experienced explosive growth, are just like this spring temperature, finding their own rhythm. After visiting a number of homestays in Bohai Town, Huairou District, the reporter learned that the current Beijing suburban homestay market has bid farewell to the "lying win" stage of "high price and full", and has entered the adjustment period, how to recover costs and attract customer flow has become a difficult problem in front of many homestay owners. There are less than 20 days before the May Day holiday, but as of now, most Beijing suburban B&Bs have not received May Day orders.
The fire was great
Reservations used to be made a month in advance
Every year, when the spring blossoms bloom, it is the transition period for Beijing outings from off-season to high-season. However, on these weekends in March, the homeowners in Bohai Town, Huairou District, are very idle, and there are vacant rooms when they knock on the door of a random house, which would have been almost unthinkable a few months ago. There is a saying in the industry called "Beijing B&B looks at Huairou, Huairou B&B looks at Bohai Sea." "In Bohai Town, which has 429 country houses and 451 courtyards, the living situation of homestay owners here may be seen as a microcosm of Beijing's suburban homestays.
"Today is Saturday, this time last year, we couldn't sit in this position and chat like we do now, every weekend the room is full! At this time last year, my room on May Day had already been fully booked, and I haven't had a single order this year! Zhang Xiaorong, the manager of "A Stroke of Sunshine" of the homestay, said with a sad face that in 2019, during the period of rapid development of Beijing suburban homestays, he invested more than 3 million yuan to build this homestay like raising "his own children", this amount is high in the local area and even in the entire suburbs of Beijing, from Mona Lisa floor tiles, to Daikin air conditioning, luxury hotel quality linen, this homestay full of ideal colors was popular during the epidemic, "When it is hottest, guests have to book a month in advance!" Zhang Xiaorong originally thought that the investment of more than 3 million yuan could be repaid in one or two years, but so far, the turnover of the homestay has not reached 3 million.
Also located in Liuduhe Village, Bohai Town, "Yeshe B&B" opened in October 2020, due to proper cost control, coupled with the early opening time, basically every step of development has stepped to the point, and the investment of more than 1 million yuan has "paid off" in two years. "In the past two years of the epidemic, we have been full of more than 140 days a year." Sang Yexing, the manager of the "Yeshe B&B", told the Beiqing News reporter that this number of days is very high in the local ranking. Unlike the first two, Yang Lin, the manager of the "Dian Cui Inn" in Sanduhe Village, was previously engaged in the overseas car rental industry and is a tourist insider, and his homestay in Huairou has opened three, with investments ranging from 600,000, 800,000 to 3 million, and some costs have been fully recovered, and some have recovered half.
Cut prices and change hands
Beijing suburban B&B entered the adjustment period
From 2020 to 2022, Beijing suburban B&Bs quickly rose in popularity due to their independence and privacy, not only the price of May Day, Eleventh Day, Spring Festival and other holidays skyrocketed, it was difficult to find a room, and even ordinary weekends were crowded with guests. The huge market has attracted a large number of investors to enter the market. However, after the tide receded, in the face of the "cliff-like" decline in passenger flow, Beijing suburban homestays quickly entered a period of adjustment.
With the resumption of the domestic and outbound tourism markets, the main customer group of the Beijing suburban homestay market - Beijing's high-end consumers have lost a large number of people, and some homestay owners who came to "make quick money" at this time had a resignation, "Our homestay owners have many groups, the first two years are taking the initiative to ask whether there is a transfer, this year's Spring Festival is the homestay owner himself sent transfer information, but sent more, almost no asked." Zhang Xiaorong revealed.
In the absence of "takeover man", more homestay owners began to attract customer flow through price reductions, splits and other methods. The whole rental price of "a brush of sunshine" has dropped from more than 8,000 yuan at the peak to about 4,000 yuan on weekends now. The prices of "Yeshe B&B" and "Dian Cui Inn" have also decreased to varying degrees. "Blindly reducing prices is not desirable, but I think it is not a loss to reduce prices now, but more like a rational return, after all, the previous price was still a little too crazy." Yang Lin said.
In addition to price reductions, high-end homestays that were basically based on whole-hospital charters have now "put down their bodies" and begun to accept the model of splitting and selling by room. "In the past two years, we have been a private hospital, and we have never been out of a single room." Sang also said. Several of Yanglin's homestays are basically the same, "During the epidemic, everyone has higher requirements for privacy, so the way of chartering the hospital is more suitable." Many homestay owners revealed that for homestays, the cost performance of private houses is much higher than that of single room sales, but "now the situation has changed, everyone has more travel options, the chance of several people meeting together to stay in the suburbs of Beijing has become smaller, and single room rental will be more mainstream." ”
Create "Homestay+"
Enrich the travel accommodation experience
Many homestay owners have also begun to make articles in activities, product packaging and other aspects. Yang Lin's three homestays have different themes, taking "Dian Cui Inn" as an example, Yang Lin is planning to launch leather handicraft activities in this leather-themed homestay to attract customers by taking a differentiated route.
This practice of creating "homestay +" and increasing the added value of homestay accommodation is exactly what some booking platforms and associations are doing. From April 8 to 16, the first Beijing Cultural and Creative Homestay Festival, initiated by Tujia Homestay and Bohai Town Homestay Association, and participated by more than 100 homestay hosts, is such an attempt. The on-site cultural and creative market offers a variety of special experiences such as intangible cultural heritage and handicrafts, and launches a number of booking offers for consumers. "The demand for homestays is not only accommodation, we hope to create higher added value for users and enrich the travel accommodation experience by creating 'homestay+'." Liu Yang, vice president of Tujia Homestay, introduced.
Similarly, as the secretary general of the Bohai Town Homestay Association, Yao Yuan plans to attract intangible inheritors and artists to build studios in homestays, reducing the operating costs of both parties on the one hand, and enriching the homestay experience on the other hand, so as to achieve the purpose of draining traffic for both parties. "Although consumers now have more choices, on ordinary weekends, for most consumers, there is still a demand to go to the suburbs of Beijing, which means that our market still exists, and what we have to do is to find ways to attract these groups to live."
"In recent years, Bohai Town has been vigorously promoting the transformation and upgrading of the traditional tourism industry, and through the rental and circulation of idle farmhouses, it has built and upgraded a number of boutique homestays, realizing the transformation and upgrading from the traditional popular folk house version 1.0 to the boutique homestay version 2.0." Peng Xingjin, director of the Tourism Office of Bohai Town Government, introduced that in order to enrich the connotation of the homestay industry, Bohai Town has launched activities such as the Mutianyu Great Wall Marathon, the Ancient Style Cultural Festival, and the Public Welfare Painting Exhibition, hoping to empower the local homestay industry through the integration of culture and tourism.