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I saw this in a forum on reddit and i think of sharing it here, Might be helpful to anyone here too.
I'm a young Chinese into traveling domestically and globally with a low budget. Let me tell you guys, those foreign China-tour lovers, how to book a nice hotel/homestay with a cheaper price using local apps like Meituan. Screw the trip.cXm tax. It's gonna be a long thread because I want to explain the entire logic and how it works to you thoroughly.
First, I gonna explain the current scenario and information gap of Chinese hotels to you. With the visa-free visiting policies implementation in China since 2024, more and more hotels have gained the qualification to accomodate foreign visitors. In the past, only limited numbers of hotels, like those star-rated ones (expensive, standardized and boring), are allowed to host foreigners. However, nowadays, a lot individually operated, yet beautifully decorated hotels or homestays are also capable of receiving foreign guests. Those nice homestays, charging around $20-30 (RMB 100-300) on average, are budget-conscious Chinese tourists's fav. With such a price, I can enjoy a room styled like a Greek temple in a seaside city in Guangdong, for example, where I can wake up to the sparkling sea from the window.
The low price of those nice-quality, well-designed homestays is fair due to the fierce competition in China tourism market. However, you won't find over 90% of those homestays on the Chinese hotel lists from TrXp.cXm, Bking.cXm, AgodX or so, or just find it with a high 'foreign tax'. This is because their main customers are Chinese and they mostly don't hire an English-speaking employee to deal with foreign visitors, given they get the qualification. Also, they can't afford the heavy promotion fee to compete with those star-rated hotels to gain foreign traffic from trXp.cXm, and the promotion fee is also where the foreign tax fee comes from. These cheap homestays, they compete in a price war on China's domestic booking platforms/apps, like Meituan, Tongcheng, Xiecheng (Trip.Chinese version), even Douyin (Chinese Tiktok), etc.
Those domestic apps have monopolized Chinese customers' consumption habits. In China, hotels always get two price versions. One is the official or in-store price you can see from the hotel front desk (usually there's a screen). If you walk-in to book a room, the staff will let you pay at this price. One is the retail price shown on these booking apps, 50%-150% lower than the in-store price. We could regard the later one as the real price that covers their operating cost, since the hotel has already decided to compete on apps with this price. However, those platforms only accept online payment with RMB and there will be many troubles to link your foreign credit card (service fee, unsuccessful payment, fraud, etc.). Moreover, most information on these platforms does not have English translations. Therefore, it sounds impossible for foreign visitors to search on these apps to get a low price.
However, you can actually get a room at the platform's low price without paying through this platform. You just need to check the dedicated pics of the hotel room (and the qualification to receive foreigners) and screenshot its price of the day, then walk-in to the hotel, tell the front desk that you wanna pay with the platform price (using your Chinese translator), and pay by your CNY cash. It works because: 1 hotel is one of the few places in China that still accept cash. 2 it's a hidden rule so damn common in China. the staff will agree your proposal due to: 1 the platform price is the real price as I explained before. 2 this deal prevents you from leaving and turning to other homestays, especially in such a competitive market. The hotel also benefits from your onsite payment as they avoid the commission fee (15%-30% of the retail price) from the platform. Indeed, it's happening every day that the staff ask the Chinese customers to cancel their orders on the platform (which attracts them to the restaurant or hotel), and pay through the hotel's wechat or alipay QR code at the same price.
This is my suggestion to fill the information gap and help you save your accommodation cost in China. What you may conclude from my thread is that those Chinese platforms suck or the China market is toxic. However, I'm just sharing something to help individual utility. If you think it's unethical, you can choose not to do it.
Finally, I would like to share some beautiful pictures of those homestays in my hometown, Lijiang, Yunnan. For less than $30, I can enjoy a vacation filled with sunshine in the ancient town, stroll through the flora garden, and take in the breathtaking views of the snowy mountain. Wish you all can find a nice accommodation in China!
I'm a young Chinese into traveling domestically and globally with a low budget. Let me tell you guys, those foreign China-tour lovers, how to book a nice hotel/homestay with a cheaper price using local apps like Meituan. Screw the trip.cXm tax. It's gonna be a long thread because I want to explain the entire logic and how it works to you thoroughly.
First, I gonna explain the current scenario and information gap of Chinese hotels to you. With the visa-free visiting policies implementation in China since 2024, more and more hotels have gained the qualification to accomodate foreign visitors. In the past, only limited numbers of hotels, like those star-rated ones (expensive, standardized and boring), are allowed to host foreigners. However, nowadays, a lot individually operated, yet beautifully decorated hotels or homestays are also capable of receiving foreign guests. Those nice homestays, charging around $20-30 (RMB 100-300) on average, are budget-conscious Chinese tourists's fav. With such a price, I can enjoy a room styled like a Greek temple in a seaside city in Guangdong, for example, where I can wake up to the sparkling sea from the window.
The low price of those nice-quality, well-designed homestays is fair due to the fierce competition in China tourism market. However, you won't find over 90% of those homestays on the Chinese hotel lists from TrXp.cXm, Bking.cXm, AgodX or so, or just find it with a high 'foreign tax'. This is because their main customers are Chinese and they mostly don't hire an English-speaking employee to deal with foreign visitors, given they get the qualification. Also, they can't afford the heavy promotion fee to compete with those star-rated hotels to gain foreign traffic from trXp.cXm, and the promotion fee is also where the foreign tax fee comes from. These cheap homestays, they compete in a price war on China's domestic booking platforms/apps, like Meituan, Tongcheng, Xiecheng (Trip.Chinese version), even Douyin (Chinese Tiktok), etc.
Those domestic apps have monopolized Chinese customers' consumption habits. In China, hotels always get two price versions. One is the official or in-store price you can see from the hotel front desk (usually there's a screen). If you walk-in to book a room, the staff will let you pay at this price. One is the retail price shown on these booking apps, 50%-150% lower than the in-store price. We could regard the later one as the real price that covers their operating cost, since the hotel has already decided to compete on apps with this price. However, those platforms only accept online payment with RMB and there will be many troubles to link your foreign credit card (service fee, unsuccessful payment, fraud, etc.). Moreover, most information on these platforms does not have English translations. Therefore, it sounds impossible for foreign visitors to search on these apps to get a low price.
However, you can actually get a room at the platform's low price without paying through this platform. You just need to check the dedicated pics of the hotel room (and the qualification to receive foreigners) and screenshot its price of the day, then walk-in to the hotel, tell the front desk that you wanna pay with the platform price (using your Chinese translator), and pay by your CNY cash. It works because: 1 hotel is one of the few places in China that still accept cash. 2 it's a hidden rule so damn common in China. the staff will agree your proposal due to: 1 the platform price is the real price as I explained before. 2 this deal prevents you from leaving and turning to other homestays, especially in such a competitive market. The hotel also benefits from your onsite payment as they avoid the commission fee (15%-30% of the retail price) from the platform. Indeed, it's happening every day that the staff ask the Chinese customers to cancel their orders on the platform (which attracts them to the restaurant or hotel), and pay through the hotel's wechat or alipay QR code at the same price.
This is my suggestion to fill the information gap and help you save your accommodation cost in China. What you may conclude from my thread is that those Chinese platforms suck or the China market is toxic. However, I'm just sharing something to help individual utility. If you think it's unethical, you can choose not to do it.
Finally, I would like to share some beautiful pictures of those homestays in my hometown, Lijiang, Yunnan. For less than $30, I can enjoy a vacation filled with sunshine in the ancient town, stroll through the flora garden, and take in the breathtaking views of the snowy mountain. Wish you all can find a nice accommodation in China!
I saw this in a forum on reddit and i think of sharing it here, Might be helpful to anyone here too.
I'm a young Chinese into traveling domestically and globally with a low budget. Let me tell you guys, those foreign China-tour lovers, how to book a nice hotel/homestay with a cheaper price using local apps like Meituan. Screw the trip.cXm tax. It's gonna be a long thread because I want to explain the entire logic and how it works to you thoroughly.
First, I gonna explain the current scenario and information gap of Chinese hotels to you. With the visa-free visiting policies implementation in China since 2024, more and more hotels have gained the qualification to accomodate foreign visitors. In the past, only limited numbers of hotels, like those star-rated ones (expensive, standardized and boring), are allowed to host foreigners. However, nowadays, a lot individually operated, yet beautifully decorated hotels or homestays are also capable of receiving foreign guests. Those nice homestays, charging around $20-30 (RMB 100-300) on average, are budget-conscious Chinese tourists's fav. With such a price, I can enjoy a room styled like a Greek temple in a seaside city in Guangdong, for example, where I can wake up to the sparkling sea from the window.
The low price of those nice-quality, well-designed homestays is fair due to the fierce competition in China tourism market. However, you won't find over 90% of those homestays on the Chinese hotel lists from TrXp.cXm, Bking.cXm, AgodX or so, or just find it with a high 'foreign tax'. This is because their main customers are Chinese and they mostly don't hire an English-speaking employee to deal with foreign visitors, given they get the qualification. Also, they can't afford the heavy promotion fee to compete with those star-rated hotels to gain foreign traffic from trXp.cXm, and the promotion fee is also where the foreign tax fee comes from. These cheap homestays, they compete in a price war on China's domestic booking platforms/apps, like Meituan, Tongcheng, Xiecheng (Trip.Chinese version), even Douyin (Chinese Tiktok), etc.
Those domestic apps have monopolized Chinese customers' consumption habits. In China, hotels always get two price versions. One is the official or in-store price you can see from the hotel front desk (usually there's a screen). If you walk-in to book a room, the staff will let you pay at this price. One is the retail price shown on these booking apps, 50%-150% lower than the in-store price. We could regard the later one as the real price that covers their operating cost, since the hotel has already decided to compete on apps with this price. However, those platforms only accept online payment with RMB and there will be many troubles to link your foreign credit card (service fee, unsuccessful payment, fraud, etc.). Moreover, most information on these platforms does not have English translations. Therefore, it sounds impossible for foreign visitors to search on these apps to get a low price.
However, you can actually get a room at the platform's low price without paying through this platform. You just need to check the dedicated pics of the hotel room (and the qualification to receive foreigners) and screenshot its price of the day, then walk-in to the hotel, tell the front desk that you wanna pay with the platform price (using your Chinese translator), and pay by your CNY cash. It works because: 1 hotel is one of the few places in China that still accept cash. 2 it's a hidden rule so damn common in China. the staff will agree your proposal due to: 1 the platform price is the real price as I explained before. 2 this deal prevents you from leaving and turning to other homestays, especially in such a competitive market. The hotel also benefits from your onsite payment as they avoid the commission fee (15%-30% of the retail price) from the platform. Indeed, it's happening every day that the staff ask the Chinese customers to cancel their orders on the platform (which attracts them to the restaurant or hotel), and pay through the hotel's wechat or alipay QR code at the same price.
This is my suggestion to fill the information gap and help you save your accommodation cost in China. What you may conclude from my thread is that those Chinese platforms suck or the China market is toxic. However, I'm just sharing something to help individual utility. If you think it's unethical, you can choose not to do it.
Finally, I would like to share some beautiful pictures of those homestays in my hometown, Lijiang, Yunnan. For less than $30, I can enjoy a vacation filled with sunshine in the ancient town, stroll through the flora garden, and take in the breathtaking views of the snowy mountain. Wish you all can find a nice accommodation in China!
