“Star Quality, Street Vendor Prices”: Chinese five-star hotels are not only setting up stalls and offering online delivery services, but also planning to introduce in-home cooking services. Officials have praised the practice of five-star hotels as “convenient for the public,” while the public questions, “Can they successfully self-rescue?” Analysts believe that the situation of five-star hotels illustrates the economic distress in China and is a microcosm of the current economic recession.
The stall model of Chinese five-star hotels is becoming more diversified. The renowned Wenfeng Hotel in Nantong has set up stalls in the subway. Wenfeng Hotel is a four-star garden-style hotel and a long-established enterprise in Jiangsu Province, with a garden area covering nearly 100,000 square meters, providing 2,000 dining seats, including a multi-functional banquet hall and themed private rooms. Media in Nantong reported on July 31, exclaiming, “Quite a twist!”
Netizens summed it up by saying, “The hotel business is in decline, not even sparing the meat of a fly’s leg,” and “The chefs’ salaries will be reduced; the night market stalls will have to increase their turnover, making people more reluctant to eat.”
In Zhengzhou, the five-star Noble International Hotel recently announced plans to set up a night market stall in the hotel courtyard, introduce customized in-home cooking services, and even plan to launch on JD.com for delivery services. Global Travel News reported on this on July 28, questioning, “Can they successfully self-rescue?”
The prices of takeout at the Noble International Hotel are very down-to-earth, with spring rolls priced at 2 yuan each, no different from street vendors, aligning with the hotel’s slogan: “Star Quality, Street Vendor Prices.” Netizens directly call it “street vendor prices.” The Noble International Hotel started setting up stalls at the end of June, being one of the first five-star hotels in Zhengzhou to make the “stall delivery” model a daily operational strategy. The staff uniforms also bear the words “Star Quality, Warmly ‘Stall’ Out.”
It is said that the operating income from the stall at the Noble International Hotel reaches 30,000 yuan a day, but many hotels’ sales figures fall far below this scale. Chinese media reported that daily sales range from ten thousand to three or four thousand.
The trend of five-star hotels setting up stalls began in cities like Zhengzhou and is now followed by five-star hotels and high-end brand restaurants in Beijing. In addition, some Michelin-starred restaurants such as “102 House” and “New Wing Kee” have introduced more affordable set meals to attract more consumers.
Regarding the five-star hotels setting up stalls, Li Yuanhua, former associate professor of Beijing Normal University, told Epoch Times on July 30, “As far as the hotels are concerned, their operational methods do not need to be judged by outsiders too much, but as a social phenomenon, it is abnormal. Because five-star hotels have huge investments and serve high-end clientele.”
Li Yuanhua stated, “If five-star hotels rely on setting up stalls to make a living or plan to earn some pocket money through in-home services in the future, it will be impossible to recoup the investment cost, illustrating China’s quite dire economic situation.”
The investment in five-star hotels is immense. Taking the Noble International Hotel as an example, this high-end business hotel, built to five-star standards, has a total investment exceeding 1 billion RMB. Located in Zhengzhou’s CBD business district in Zhengdong New District, adjacent to the Henan Provincial Government and near the Zhengzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center, it offers 360 luxury rooms, nine high-end meeting rooms, with the largest banquet hall accommodating up to 800 people. Additionally, the hotel’s underground storage-style parking garage provides up to 1,500 parking spaces, along with facilities like a temperature-controlled swimming pool, and a spa center.
The Noble International Hotel has both a Western and Chinese restaurant. The Weistidina Western Restaurant offers over 200 dishes, including Boston lobster, sashimi, steaks, pizzas, and various desserts. Currently, the Weistidina buffet lunch on weekdays is priced at around 228 yuan. The Xuan Yue Chinese Restaurant specializes in Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, seafood banquets, with an average cost of around 185 yuan per person.
Japanese political commentator Huang Kai, familiar with the Chinese financial and political system, told Epoch Times on July 31, “If the economic downturn is considered a fundamental problem in the Chinese model, then it is not surprising that today five-star hotels are taking the ‘low-end route,’ as it is just a microcosm of the overall situation.”
“In the case of an overall economic downturn, with businesses declining (regardless of whether these businesses involve collusion between officials and businessmen), there naturally won’t be as much need for places to ‘discuss business’ or ‘hold exhibitions.’ Hotel revenues will naturally decrease, and in order to survive, hotels must take the ‘low-end route,’ which can be seen as a sign of China’s slowing economy, especially the disappearance of large-scale investments.”
However, local CCP governments are beautifying the setting up of stalls by five-star hotels as “convenience services.”
Official reports in Huai’an have listed hotels offering stall takeout services, including the Hongze Lake International Hotel (four-star), Shuguang International Hotel (four-star), and Huai’an Yingbin Hotel (four-star), praising these establishments for transitioning from “private dining rooms” to “street stalls,” offering delicious and affordable dishes to serve the people.
This report was reposted on Netease, and a Netease user from Yancheng, Jiangsu, left a comment saying, “Stop bragging; if the dine-in business isn’t doing well, will they come out to set up stalls? They are all tightening their belts to get by.”
Li Yuanhua stated, “This is self-deception by the CCP, but the actual effect is ‘self-revelation’ because foreign five-star hotels are not seen setting up stalls by the street. It’s not that five-star hotels can’t set up stalls; it’s just that stall revenue is ultimately low and cannot match the high investment.”
He believes that the current operational difficulties faced by five-star hotels are basically “unsolvable” because “the current Chinese economy is bad, foreign investment is withdrawing, supply chains are relocating, and demand for business and high-end tourism is decreasing,” not to mention that the CCP government’s finances are already stretched.
Currently, multiple economic indicators show that the Chinese economy continues to decline. In the first half of 2025, profits of Chinese industrial firms decreased by 1.8% year-on-year, indicating the profit pressure faced by the industrial sector; the Chinese manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.3 in July, the fourth consecutive month below 50, indicating continued contraction in manufacturing activities; and China’s new export order index has been in a contraction zone for the 15th consecutive month, reflecting weak external demand.