The phenomenon of breaking contracts is beginning to emerge, and prices of popular hotels are rising. Be vigilant! The Golden Week PLUS Edition is Coming

This year's Mid Autumn Festival and National Day holidays are superimposed, and the public has an 8-day "PLUS version of the Golden Week", and various long-term trips have also been arranged in advance.

But when people planning to travel prepare to book hotels, many are stabbed by the doubled prices.

Up and up! The prices of popular hotels during the National Day holiday have doubled

"I want to go to Luoyang for the 'Eleven' holiday, but when I saw the hotel prices, they doubled. I decided to stay on a park bench instead." "On September 27th, it was still over 200 yuan, but the next day it skyrocketed to over 1600 yuan. Staying overnight is even more expensive than my rent, so it's still suitable to lie at home."

Opening various social media platforms, many netizens have reported that hotels are raising prices during the National Day holiday.

According to Qunar's big data, as of September 11th, the top three popular cities for air ticket bookings during the National Day holiday are Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu. Among them, the popular business districts for hotel bookings in Beijing include Qianmen/Temple of Heaven Park/Chongwenmen, Tiananmen/Wangfujing area, and Guomao area.

On the 13th, when searching for hotels near Qianmen in Beijing on an online booking platform, the prices of most hotels showed a significant increase during the National Day holiday. Taking the Beijing Wangfu Peninsula Hotel as an example, its deluxe suite king bed room is priced at 2630 yuan on weekdays, while the price for the National Day holiday can increase to 3738 yuan.

Shanghai Disneyland has always been a popular tourist attraction. A certain online booking platform shows that the luxury garden view twin room at Shanghai Disneyland Hotel, which was priced at 2482 yuan on September 17th, has increased to 5634 yuan during the holiday period, and the price has more than doubled.

The Shanghai Disneyland hotel prices displayed on an online booking platform.

In addition to traditional tourist destinations such as Beijing and Shanghai, Hangzhou has recently become a popular tourist city driven by the Asian Games. Coupled with the upcoming National Day holiday, local hotel prices have also skyrocketed.

For example, the Orange Crystal Hangzhou Binjiang Olympic Sports Center Hotel offers a large tatami bed room for as low as 361 yuan during normal working hours, and the highest during holidays is 993 yuan, with prices increasing nearly threefold.

The phenomenon of hotel and homestay breach reappears

During the National Day holiday, in addition to the doubling of hotel prices in popular cities, the previously controversial phenomenon of hotel and homestay contract breaking has also begun to emerge.

The hotel needs to be renovated, there are no available rooms, the house has already been rented out, and the system has not updated the price... From the comments of netizens, there are various reasons why hotels and homestays request to cancel orders.

Aji, who currently lives in Shanghai, has encountered a situation where a merchant claims to have no room and requests a check-out.

According to Aji's description, during the "National Day" holiday, he booked a room for 7 nights at a local hotel because he was going to Yishui, Shandong. However, the hotel requested him to cancel the order on the grounds of no room available.

Aji noticed that the hotel not only had rooms on the booking platform, but also had a significant price increase, so he contacted the platform. "The platform informed me that it's not that the hotel is fully booked, but rather that during the National Day holiday, the prices of the rooms have increased, and the hotel does not want to fulfill the contract. They have proposed a plan to return red envelopes or compensate for the first night's room rate."

Aji said that after multiple communications, the booking platform offered to reimburse the total order amount with an invoice, but she is still considering, "Although the full reimbursement is over 400 yuan, the surrounding room prices have now risen to over 1500 yuan for 7 nights, and in the end, customers are still at a loss."

"Operators shall not maliciously breach the contract or use inferior products as substitutes."

Regarding the phenomenon of some hotels doubling their prices during holidays, Yan Bing, senior partner of Jiuhe Law Firm, said that hotels are affected by factors such as location, climate, and holidays, and their prices will fluctuate in a wave like manner, which is a normal market law.

"But if merchants only seek temporary economic benefits and increase prices excessively, it may affect tourists' consumption experience and indirectly affect the local tourism industry. Even from the perspective of economic laws, price increases should be within a reasonable range."

As for some travelers who encounter situations where hotels and homestays break contracts, Yan Bing believes that "usually when consumers use the platform to book hotels, they will receive a confirmation form. At this time, the contractual relationship between consumers and operators is established, and the operator's request for a refund or price increase is considered a breach of contract."

In May of this year, the China Consumers Association pointed out phenomena such as the general increase in accommodation prices during the May Day holiday. Faced with the upcoming National Day holiday, on the 13th, the China Consumers Association and the China Hotel Association jointly issued an initiative, proposing that operators should not collude with each other and manipulate market prices; Accommodation and catering operators shall abide by the principle of honesty and trustworthiness, and shall not maliciously breach the contract or substitute inferior products.

The two associations also remind consumers to actively participate in supervision and actively protect their legitimate rights and interests by complaining to the consumer association organization or reporting to relevant departments in case of malicious breach of contract.

Screenshot of the official website of the China Consumers Association.

In addition, the reporter noticed that recently, Anhui, Qingdao, Fuzhou and other places have also issued documents to regulate the pricing behavior of the Mid Autumn Festival and National Day tourism market.

Among them, the warning letter jointly issued by the five departments in Fuzhou mentions that pricing should not only comply with market laws but also fulfill social responsibilities. Hotel operators are not allowed to unilaterally breach the contract, increase the order price without authorization, or fail to fulfill price commitments after booking room orders through e-commerce platforms and other channels.