Far Mountain | Literature Recently, the chain hotel brand Qinzhu has launched a "24-hour check-out system" activity in multiple stores in Chongqing, Guiyang, Xi'an, and other places: starting from the actual check-in time of guests, guests can check out after 24 hours without additional charges. The related topic quickly made it to the hot search, triggering widespread discussion. This chain hotel with a group purchase price of about 129 yuan/night, with flexible check-out as its selling point, is trying to open a hole in the fierce market competition.

The 24-hour check-out system is not a new thing. The system was implemented at the opening of Danfeng Bailu Hotel in Wuhan in 2011. It has been running stably for 15 years, and is one of the hotels that have adhered to this model for the longest time in China. In the same year, Sanya Harbor Hotel also attempted, but the system did not result in a higher occupancy rate. In 2013, the Kailai Hotel in Sanya followed up on the trial implementation, but was unable to persist in the long term due to operational efficiency limitations. Looking back at these cases, a thought-provoking question is: why has a service that was seen by some consumers as' supposed to be 'never become mainstream in the industry?

From an economic perspective, a 24-hour check-out system is more in line with the equivalent exchange logic of the leasing cycle. Consumers who pay for the full day room rate should have the right to use it for an equivalent amount of time. The traditional practice of checking out before 12 o'clock is essentially a transfer of operational efficiency costs to late night arriving passengers in the name of industry convenience.

However, business logic must consider the profit margin of physical operations. Under the traditional check-out mode, room cleaning and front desk handover can be carried out at a fixed pace. Once the check-out time is fragmented, the entire service chain is forced to be disrupted and reorganized, which increases a lot of costs. The difficulty of continuing to test this model at the Kailai Hotel in Sanya precisely indicates that this system requires a high level of operational pressure capacity. The 24-hour check-out system does not have the foundation for industry wide promotion. For example, economy chain hotels have narrow profit margins and extremely low operational fault tolerance. Blindly following the trend can lead to cost increases and revenue decreases.

The true applicability of this model is mainly concentrated in certain specific scenarios. One type is vacation experience hotels, such as hot spring hotels, travel hotels, etc. The core selling point of this type of hotel is leisure and wellness, with a relaxed travel schedule for travelers and minimal room turnover pressure. Implementing this system can significantly improve the check-in experience without significantly affecting operating revenue.

The other type is mid to low end hotels with low occupancy rates during the off-season. During periods of high vacancy rates, hotels can use flexible layouts and offer a small number of room types as a selling point to attract individual guests. For example, some chain hotels implement this system by flexibly arranging 20% to 50% of rooms during the off-season, in order to cover the additional operating costs by increasing off-season revenue.

The dispute over check-out rules in the hotel industry is essentially a game between consumer experience and operational efficiency. The state has not mandated a unified check-out time, and the revised industry standards in 2009 have returned pricing and settlement rights to enterprises. In a buyer's market, catering to consumer needs and actively committing to support delayed check-out can help expand brand influence. However, whether to adopt this model should still be decided independently by the enterprise based on its own business needs.

The value of 24-hour check-out should not be denied, and in the future, it is more likely to emerge as a differentiated selling point. For most hotels, finding a new balance between operational efficiency and humanized service and establishing a tiered delayed fee system is a more practical way to break through the impasse.

The attempt of Qinzhu Hotel provides more choices for the market, but if we expect this model to become the standard configuration of the industry, we may underestimate the practical constraints of hotel operation. The demands of consumers are worth listening to, and the operating rules of hotels also need to be respected. The balance point between the two still needs more practice to explore and calibrate.

(The author is a financial commentator)