Economic Observer reporter Zheng Yuxin

On September 19th, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation launched an investigation into Beijing Sankuai Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Meituan"), Hangzhou Taomei Aviation Service Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fliggy"), Tongcheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tongcheng"), and Tujia Online Information Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tujia") for suspected illegal activities.

The Economic Observer reporter exclusively learned that the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation entered the four enterprises mentioned above in April this year, and the investigation scope covered business lines such as algorithms, marketing, and legal affairs. A detailed investigation was conducted, and all enterprises submitted relevant data as required. The focus of the investigation is on illegal activities related to hotel accommodation, including traffic display requiring bidding rankings, requiring merchants to sell at the lowest price on the entire network, and depriving merchants of pricing autonomy.

According to the reporter's understanding, Ctrip and Qunar were not included in the investigated companies this time because Ctrip's anti-monopoly case had already been investigated and punished.

Several hotel and homestay operators told reporters that not only Ctrip, but also OTA (online travel platforms) such as Meituan and Tongcheng will classify hotels and homestays, just with different names.

Ctrip's "special brand, gold medal, and unlicensed" system is well-known in the industry. "Special brand" hotels enjoy the most traffic tilt, but at the cost of exclusive cooperation with Ctrip and not being able to list listings on competitive platforms such as Meituan and Fliggy. Meituan also has a comprehensive operational capability evaluation system for merchants, which directly affects the types and quantities of benefits that merchants can obtain. Tongcheng also implements monthly assessment and rating for accommodation suppliers. Fliggy evaluates them based on "diamond level", while Tujia launches a pyramid grading system of "preferred, strict selection, and ultimate selection" on the residential end. The number of ultimate selected homestays accounts for only 1% of the platform's housing, but the occupancy rate is 22% higher than that of ordinary homestays.

A boss who owns multiple homestays in Guangxi, Fujian and other places told reporters that the gameplay of OTA is actually similar, with different levels corresponding to different commission benefits, and top resources given to exclusive cooperative merchants. Display requires bidding, and the bidder with the highest bid will receive a higher ranking on the consumer display page; After the transaction, commission is required, and the overall cost should reach about 20% of the room rate.

However, multiple operators have stated that their customer acquisition capabilities are not as good as OTA, which can generate orders but also has high order costs. This year, the hotel accommodation industry has fierce competition for low prices.

Liu Xu, a special researcher at the National Strategic Research Institute of Tsinghua University, told reporters that after Ctrip, this survey not only shows the importance that the State Administration for Market Regulation attaches to the competitive environment and consumer rights protection in the tourism industry, but also indicates that the State Administration for Market Regulation will not "catch big and slack small", but will "strike tigers and flies together" and treat operators of different sizes equally.

Meituan, Fliggy, Tongcheng, and Tujia all responded to Economic Observer reporters by actively cooperating with regulatory investigations, fully implementing regulatory requirements, and promoting high-quality development of the industry.

Liu Xu said that in the future, the tourism industry should also pay more attention to competition and differentiation in service quality, and avoid continuing to rely on the path of sacrificing service quality and price. This will help promote tourism consumption and drive related enterprises to invest in construction and decoration, home appliance procurement, cultural creativity, and other areas, playing an economic driving role.

(Author Zheng Yuxin)