During this year’s eight-day National Day holiday in mainland China, the highways and major tourist attractions were packed with crowds. However, despite the record number of travelers, the owners of hotels, guesthouses, and travel agencies in these areas were sighing with regret as they found themselves not only failing to make a profit but actually losing money.
According to a report by the well-known self-media “Financial Gossip Lady,” focusing on insider information and hot topics in the mainland’s financial, business, and workplace circles, feedback from three owners of hotels, guesthouses, and travel agencies in Guangdong, Lijiang, and the northwest revealed that they all suffered losses during this year’s National Day holiday. Offering discounts and lowering prices, coupled with significantly low occupancy rates, has become the norm. What’s particularly disheartening is the sudden disappearance of tourists virtually overnight, a common phenomenon across the board.
In Guangdong, a hotel located near a renowned tourist spot only had a 30% occupancy rate. The owner, Ah Qiang, explained that during the National Day holiday, Typhoon “Medam” hit Guangdong, bringing continuous rainy weather from October 1st until the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 6th, essentially soaking the main travel periods of the holiday.
Many travelers canceled their reservations, causing Ah Qiang to lose sleep due to anxiety. He mentioned that despite constantly adjusting prices behind the scenes throughout the holiday, using price adjustment software, pre-sale packages, TikTok, and member channels, they still couldn’t escape the predicament of high cancellation rates.
Ah Qiang stated, “The weather is only part of the problem. Many people never intended to stay in hotels. Travelers these days are penny-pinching, trying to avoid unnecessary expenses wherever possible.”
In Lijiang, Ah Bing, who runs a guesthouse, lamented, “After tallying up the revenue from the holiday, my guesthouse suffered significant losses!”
Explaining further, he mentioned that despite the excellent location of his guesthouse with ten rooms, the prices typically surged to over 1500 yuan per room before the holiday. However, realizing that the market wasn’t favorable just before the holiday, he immediately had to slash prices from over 1500 yuan to just over 700 yuan. The situation was dismal.
After the holiday, the occupancy rate rapidly dropped to below 30% from over 75% on October 2nd and 3rd in Lijiang due to fierce competition and oversupply of guesthouses.
Ah Bing had invested over a million yuan in upgrading the interior design of his guesthouse, hoping to make a substantial profit during the National Day holiday. However, the dismal performance greatly exceeded Ah Bing’s expectations as he had assumed that all ten rooms would be fully booked.
He noted that despite the large number of tourists in the streets and alleys of Lijiang, they seemed to prefer self-driving tours and avoided staying in guesthouses. It appears that 2025 is going to be a year of losses for him.
In the northwest, popular scenic spots were filled with self-driving tourists, causing a sharp decline in business for travel agencies.
Ajie, the owner of a small group tour agency specializing in the Qinghai and Gansu regions, where stunning landscapes and Silk Road cultural and historical sites are abundant, described how he, a man under 40 years old, had turned gray from stress due to the bleak situation during this year’s holiday.
He explained that the travel agency’s business was exceptionally poor, receiving very few bookings during the holiday period. Most travelers preferred self-driving tours and did not require the services of the travel agency. Some chose to sleep in their cars or pitch tents near camping sites or parking areas in the scenic spots.
The report from “Financial Gossip Lady” highlighted that in the current environment, even during the National Day holiday, travelers are becoming increasingly sensitive to consumption prices and less tolerant of high mark-ups.
According to statistics from Meituan, users browse an average of 4.3 platforms and compare 12 hotels before making a reservation. Even a slight increase in price compared to neighboring options leads to a significant surge in cancellation rates.