The reporter investigated: "Cabbage prices" are concentrated in niche routes, and popular routes are still hot

This year's "May Day" holiday is approaching, and many netizens have booked air tickets and hotels and homestays for the "May Day" holiday. But in the past few days, they have found that "May Day" is approaching, and the prices of air tickets and hotels and B&Bs are much "diving" compared to when booking! ""'May Day' hotel air tickets are gritting their teeth and reducing prices", "'May Day' 1500 yuan air tickets have dived to 400" and other topics have appeared on the hot search.

The Red Star News reporter's investigation found that before the "May Day", some air tickets and hotel booking prices did appear "cabbage prices", but they were relatively concentrated on niche routes, and the time period was mostly a few days in the middle of the holiday, and there was no general price "diving".

Wang Qiyan, senior researcher of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and director of the Leisure Economy Research Center of the Chinese People's University, said that due to the impact of supply and demand, it is not realistic for air tickets and hotel prices to fall during the May Day holiday, but the gradual adjustment of prices will make tourists' travel prices enter a reasonable range.

Creative illustration According to the picture worm creativity

"A few days ago the ticket was 1500, now it is 800"

Holidays are approaching: air tickets and hotel prices "dive"

Mr. Su, who works in Chongqing, plans to go to Guangzhou for three days during this year's May Day holiday, leaving on May 1 and returning on May 4. A month ago, he began to pay attention to the trend of airfares. "At that time, the round-trip was basically about 1,500 to 2,000 yuan, which was definitely higher than the usual round-trip price. But there is no way, I only have the 'May Day' holiday time to take a vacation, so I can only choose to travel at a fixed time. ”

After watching for about half a month, Mr. Su found that the price of the air ticket basically did not fluctuate much, so he spent 1,500 yuan to buy a round-trip air ticket. However, on April 28, Mr. Wang accidentally browsed the air tickets during this time period, only to find that the price of the same route had dropped to about 800 yuan.

"I thought that the closer the ticket was to May Day, the more expensive it would be, but I didn't expect it to drop so much at once. Mr. Su said, however, considering factors such as the refund fee, he did not refund the previous ticket and repurchased the ticket.

After inquiring, the Red Star News reporter found that during the "May Day" holiday, there were many "cabbage prices" in air ticket prices. For example, the routes from Shijiazhuang to Seoul, South Korea, Qingdao to Seoul, South Korea, and Ningbo to Osaka, Japan, have prices of less than 500 yuan including tax on some days. However, the Red Star News reporter also noticed that most of these flights are concentrated in the middle and end of the holiday, and many of them are low-cost airlines.

The Red Star News reporter noticed that many netizens on the Internet said that during this "May Day" holiday, when booking air tickets and hotels, they encountered high prices before and later reduced prices.

"I also took a good look at the news, and I saved 100 yuan less. According to a screenshot of a netizen, the netizen booked a hotel in Xiamen from April 30 to May 3, and the netizen previously booked a price of 2,066 yuan for 4 days, but after checking on April 29, it was found that it had dropped to 1,978 yuan. Since there is no need for check-out fees, the netizen said that he had refunded the previous reservation and booked according to the new price, saving more than 100 yuan. "But compared with the house price of nearly 2,000, the price reduction of more than 100 cannot be said to be a price 'dive'. The netizen said frankly.

Price "diving" is not universal

Prices have risen in some popular cities

Although some air tickets and hotels have "dived" in booking prices when the "May Day" holiday is approaching, the Red Star News reporter found that such situations are not common.

After checking through a number of tourism platforms, the Red Star News reporter found that the prices of air tickets and hotels in popular tourist cities such as Beijing, Xi'an, Dalian and other places rose during this year's "May Day". Some hotels even reach three times the price before the "May Day". At the same time, many netizens said on social platforms that the prices of air tickets and hotels they booked have not been reduced.

According to data from the travel platform Qunar.com, as of April 24, the number of hotel bookings in popular cities on the platform increased nearly 1 times year-on-year, with Beijing, Chongqing, Changsha, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Nanjing and Qingdao being the most popular hotel booking cities for this year's May Day holiday. According to data from the homestay platform Tujia, by April 24, 88% of the homestays on the platform in Jingdezhen had been sold out, 86% of the homestays in Datong had been sold out, and the sales rates of Pingtan and Zibo homestays had reached 83% and 78% respectively. "It can be said that there is no unpopular destination for this year's May Day. The platform staff said.

Ms. Wang, from Hebei, plans to travel to Kaifeng, Henan Province with her family by car during the May Day holiday. Due to her busy work on weekdays, Ms. Wang did not book a hotel in advance, but she found from the platform's low-price calendar that the hotel that usually costs tens of yuan rose to more than 200 yuan during the "May Day" holiday. "I didn't think I would go to these less popular places and not encounter price increases. ”

However, Ms. Wang also said that although the cost of travel during the holidays has risen, this is the only opportunity she has to travel with her family in the near future. "All holidays will increase in price, which is understandable, as long as it is not too outrageous, it is still acceptable. ”

Insiders:

If the customer source is not satisfactory, the price may be adjusted

Mr. Li, who works for a ticket agency in Xi'an, told Red Star News on April 30 that airlines will adjust ticket prices up and down according to passengers' willingness to buy tickets. Generally speaking, holiday tickets are definitely more expensive than usual when pricing in advance, especially on some popular routes. "However, flights will increase or decrease dynamically, and if airlines find that the actual situation of ticket sales is not ideal, or new flights are added, it is possible to make price adjustments, or even relatively large reductions. ”

However, Mr. Li said that this kind of "diving" is generally rare during holidays, especially routes in popular cities and popular time periods. "If you want to buy a cheap ticket, you can wait and see how the price is going, and then start at the low price point, or avoid some popular times as much as possible. ”

On the morning of April 30, the Red Star News reporter learned from the staff of an express hotel near the Xi'an Bell Tower that he personally felt that the source of guests in the hotel during this year's "May Day" holiday was slightly less than that of holidays such as the Spring Festival. At present, the hotel also has rooms remaining during the "May Day" holiday, and many previous holidays will be fully booked in advance. "However, compared to usual, our house prices have increased by about 40%. However, there has been rain in Xi'an in the past two days, and some tourists may change their itinerary. ”

The staff of another hotel in Xi'an told the Red Star News reporter that the hotel price will indeed be expensive to book in advance and cheap to book near the holiday. "Some of our guests are also savvy these days and won't book a hotel until they reach their destination or even when they want to stay. At this time, the hotel will adjust the price in real time based on the flow of guests. If the hotel has a small number of guests, the hotel will reduce the price appropriately. ”

Wang Qiyan, a senior researcher at the Yangtze River Economic Belt and director of the Leisure Economy Research Center of Chinese University, said in an interview with a reporter from Red Star News that it is very normal for the prices of hotels and air tickets to fluctuate during the "May Day" period, which is also the result of changes in supply and demand.

"In the first half of the year, there are more holidays, and people's spending power is also limited, so it may be that compared with holidays such as the Spring Festival, the number of people traveling on May Day will decrease, resulting in the reduction of some air tickets and hotel prices. Wang Qiyan said, but this kind of adjustment can not be said to be a general "diving", because after all, "May Day" is a holiday with a long continuous rest time, and many people will still choose to travel.

However, these adjustments will also gradually bring the prices of air tickets and hotels to a reasonable range, and people who want to travel can observe the price changes more so that they can travel at a more affordable price. ”

Red Star News reporter Fu Yao intern Shi Zixiao

Edited by Guo Zhuang and edited by Deng Minguang