Hermit Crab B&B Card is a B&B member platform that has emerged in recent two years. It is claimed that "880 yuan can stay in all high-quality resort hotels on this platform for free and unlimited times within one year". Compared with high-end homestays with one or two thousand nights, hermit crabs can stay for only a few hundred yuan, and there are no restrictions all year round, so the "preferential" conditions attract many users to buy cards. However, in addition to the membership card fee, users also need to pay a deposit of 4-5 times the room rate when booking, which will be refunded after the actual check-in.
This model brings two pools of funds to the hermit crab hotel card, one is the membership card fee and the other is the reservation deposit. Recently, however, many users found that the hermit crab B&B card body was lost, the office space was empty, the membership card could not be used, and the reservation deposit was not refunded. According to the incomplete statistics of hermit crab members, more than 1000 members have lost more than17 million yuan.
Uncover the origin of the homestay card model
In fact, as early as more than a year ago, the new tourism industry exposed the crisis of hermit crab B&B card, and also made an in-depth report on the field of B&B membership (news review: Jianghu is full of sinister routines, how can the host not move? )。 The domestic B&B membership system originated from 20 19. At first, it was mainly to solve the pain point of low occupancy rate of B&B in off-season. At that time, Deng Liang, the founder of chain brand B&B Banshanxia, introduced that he could stay in a chain B&B 10 night within one year and launched the activity of staying in 99 yuan, which immediately attracted many users to experience B&B, and the occupancy rate rose from 10% to about 60%.
After the model was successfully verified, it was quickly copied. For a time, all kinds of homestay cards emerged one after another. Hermit crab, Xiaoye, He Suoyi, Shoumai, traveling everywhere, Sanqiu Xi, Zuo Li, enjoying architectural space, Chang 'an Ten Paintings, accommodation exploration and incubation began. The main body of the B&B membership card has also changed from the B&B operator itself to a third-party platform.
"The original intention of the member B&B card is no problem, digesting the inventory of B&B in the off-season. B&B is obvious in the off-season, and there is a lot of inventory in the off-season. There is almost no cost to stay with a few more guests in the off-season, so the price in the off-season can be very low. However, hotel operators can't set the price target too low in the off-season, which will affect the brand image of high-end hotels and the price in the peak season, so it is a more reasonable way to use membership cards, "said the above-mentioned people in the accommodation industry to the new travel industry.
The cost of the hotel is mainly rent and decoration, which is a fixed cost. Take a high-end hotel as an example. Generally, it takes a one-time investment of 8-10 million yuan to open a high-end hotel, and the average house price is above10,000 yuan. According to the routine situation, 25% of the rooms are sold every year, and if the rooms are kept full on weekends and holidays, it can basically achieve profitability.
The conventional B&B membership card mode is that the membership card operator buys a large number of houses from the B&B operator at a low price, mainly in the off-season and a small number of houses in the peak season, and then closes the house on its own platform, so that the users who buy the membership card can order on demand. The profit of the membership card operator mainly comes from the difference between membership fee and house purchase, as well as advertising and marketing expenses.
In fact, this model is a difficult tightrope, and it needs to find a balance between membership scale, user experience and procurement cost. In order to achieve a good user experience and thus achieve user growth, it is necessary to increase the purchase volume, especially in the peak season, to avoid users' dissatisfaction and complaints because they have not booked the desired housing, which will inevitably increase costs, reduce platform profits, and even cause losses. With the growth of paying users, the purchase amount of housing needs to be increased, and at the same time, it is necessary to balance the situation that a small number of users have too many houses, resulting in other users having no room to book. If the platform wants to make a profit, it must limit the cost of housing purchase without affecting the user experience or the renewal rate of users.
Hermit crabs take "crooked ways"
Not every hotel card operator has the ability to walk a tightrope. Operators represented by hermit crabs chose a "crooked road".
"In fact, hermit crabs have no housing inventory. They hold fake houses to attract users to place orders. When the user pays the deposit, he takes the deposit to make a reservation at OTA. This kind of booking cost is very high, so they actually rely on the user's deposit to maintain their operations, and the scale of the deposit must be increased, "an industry insider who did not want to be named told Lvjie Media.
This false housing model makes the housing of hermit crabs much richer than other membership B&B cards, so it is more attractive to users. For example, Beijing Bulgari Hotel, a non-B&B high-end hotel, also appeared on the platform of hermit crabs, providing users with a deposit of 10,000 yuan. Since the rule of hermit crab is to release the house three months in advance, these deposits will be placed in the hands of hermit crab for three months.
Before the accident, the hermit crab had been interviewed by the Sichuan Consumer Council 202 1 1, regarding the problem that the deposit was delayed and the seizure money was inconsistent. However, the interview did not make the hermit crab turn over a new leaf. Instead, I stepped up my preparations for escape. In May of 20021year, hermit crab released a large number of high-end hotel listings that were difficult to grab before. Many users who planned to travel in the summer took the bait and paid a lot of money, but they waited for the news that the platform was running away.
B&B card platforms generally charge a reservation deposit. This is because the house booked by the user is the inventory purchased by the platform. If the user cancels temporarily, resulting in no one staying, the platform will lose an inventory in vain, so the platform will constrain the user to cancel at will in the form of a deposit. However, the deposit charged by other platforms will not exceed the house price. For example, the Cheng B&B card only charges the deposit of the cost price of the house, and the reservation is cancelled 48 hours before check-in, and the deposit is refunded every second. If the reservation is cancelled less than 48 hours before check-in, 30% of the deposit is deducted.
Hermit crabs use this deposit mechanism to attract users to pay a deposit of 4-5 times the house price with false house inventory, which is completely an out-of-shape homestay card model. "Hermit crabs are essentially fund-raising scams, and homestays are just a cover, just like some scammers open gyms, beauty salons and barbershops to attract neighboring residents to store value and then run away," said the insider.
But even so, the explosion of hermit crab will still lead to the trust crisis of B&B membership card. Under the overwhelming negative events, whether users will buy or renew B&B cards is a realistic test for every B&B card operator.
To some extent, B&B membership is not a good business model. Even if it is a carefully operated platform, it is difficult to satisfy users and get good returns. As early as a year ago, Wu Chong, CEO of Xiangban Lv Wen, revealed the disadvantages of this model to the new tourism industry. "This model is completely hopeless, either over-commitment or negative marginal gross profit. Any one of them will be one of them. It can only be used to pay off old debts with new money. Throughout the ages, this marginal profit rate has been negative, and businesses that rely on cash flow to maintain scale expansion have never been able to retreat. "
In fact, the B&B membership card itself is difficult to make a profit, but it can be used as a platform for diversion and destocking, and embedded in a larger closed loop of industrial services. For example, Cheng Minsuka was born out of the lifestyle crowdfunding platform "Let's start", and start and Rucheng team attracted many VC institutions such as Yunfeng Fund and Ali Yuan Jing Capital, with a cumulative capital injection of 400 million yuan. Starting from Rucheng, we will build an industrial closed loop around the accommodation industry. There are membership cards such as Cheng Min Accommodation Card, and there are also pain points for B&B card users to grab houses. We have launched the instant booking platform "Cool Duck" to provide users with the service of booking at any time and staying at any time at the cost price.
In addition to the platform, Qipaoba and Rucheng are also involved in industrial operations, extending B&B's "micro-residence" and hotel hosting business. "Micro-residence" introduces housing for Rucheng and Cool Duck at low cost, and also solves the pain point of scattered hotel resources and weak operation and management ability of owners.
In addition, the accommodation of the famous B&B cluster "Yellow River Accommodation Set" also belongs to the same team as Cheba and Rucheng, and has laid out accommodation in many places across the country and built its own accommodation. Starting with traveling, staying, duck cooling and staying overnight, we will build a complete closed loop of the accommodation industry, with first-hand resources, first-class products, well-known accommodation brands and multiple traffic platforms, and have the ability to go deep into the industry. Upstream integrates resources, downstream integrates traffic, and provides operational support in the middle, such as cheng membership card, which is only a channel at the traffic end and plays a diversion role.
Generally speaking, the B&B membership card is limited to the imperfection of the business model itself, so it is difficult to make money, and it is forced to make money, either losing users quickly or becoming a "crooked path" like a hermit crab. However, as an industry innovation, B&B membership card has a good effect of destocking and gathering traffic. The right way to open the B&B membership system is to reasonably combine the B&B membership card with other businesses and build new business logic.