Ctrip and Home Inn of Ctrip Group

Surviving between Ctrip and Homein

In addition to transplanting Ctrip’s business model to other industries, some entrepreneurs are also trying to find business opportunities in the market gaps between Ctrip and Homein. So-Hotel hotel direct sales network, which has just formed strategic alliances with Alibaba, Taobao and 3,000 hotels, is obviously a model.

According to So-Hotel Vice President Liu Zhigang, the hotel direct sales network is different from the hotel network agents represented by Ctrip and elong.com. It is not an "agent" between the hotel and the consumer, but an "agent" between the hotel and the consumer. Like Taobao, it is a platform for face-to-face transactions between two parties. Hotel Direct Sales Network does not charge commissions from hotels, but charges a small annual system usage fee.

This business model undoubtedly opens up a new marketing channel for the domestic hotel industry. Many hotels have always relied on online agents such as Ctrip and elong.com, but they have also been trapped by rising agency commissions. Statistics show that many domestic hotels currently do 20% of their business through these online agency booking websites, and the commissions charged exceed 20% of the hotel's revenue.

Take Ctrip as an example. In the third quarter of 2006 alone, the number of hotel room nights booked was approximately 1.82 million room nights, and the booking operating income totaled 125 million yuan. The average commission income per hotel was as high as 68.68 yuan. . In contrast, budget hotels, which account for 90% of the total number, are hardly favored by Ctrip and E-Long who "dislike the poor and love the rich".

“Faced with such huge profits being exploited by booking websites, hotel managers want to get rid of these constraints. What they need is helpers like So-Hotel.” Liu Zhigang said that economic hotel chains like "Home Inn" are So-Hotel's most suitable potential partners.

Liu Zhigang believes that if the hotel network agency model represented by Ctrip and E-Long replaces traditional hotel direct sales and travel agency agents and sets off the first revolution in the hotel reservation industry, then with "self-customization, So-Hotel, characterized by “no information barriers, cheaper prices, and more comprehensive services”, is the beginning of the “second revolution”.

According to the "Research Report on China's Online Travel Market and Investment Prospects" released by the China Market Intelligence Center, China's online travel market will reach 10 billion in 2006 and will expand to 35 billion in 2008. Obviously, in addition to Ctrip and Homeinns, there will be more and more companies like So-Hotel trying to get a piece of the pie.