In addition to transplanting Ctrip's business model to other industries, some entrepreneurs are also trying to find business opportunities between Ctrip and Home Inn. So-Hotel hotel direct sales network, which has just formed a strategic alliance with Alibaba, Taobao and 3000 hotels, is obviously a model.
According to Liu Zhigang, vice president of So-Hotel, hotel direct selling network is different from hotel network agents represented by Ctrip and e-Dragon. It is not an "agent" between hotels and consumers, but a platform for face-to-face transactions like Taobao. The hotel direct sales network does not charge the hotel commission, but charges a small amount of system usage fee once a year.
This business model has undoubtedly opened up new marketing channels for the domestic hotel industry. For a long time, many hotels have relied on Ctrip.com, e-Dragon.com and other network agents, but they are also trapped by the rising agency commission. According to statistics, at present, many hotels in China account for 20% of the business of booking websites through these online agents, and the commission charged is also more than 20% of the hotel income.
Take Ctrip as an example. In the third quarter of 2006 alone, the number of hotel rooms booked was about 65.438+0.82 million, and the total booking income was 65.438+0.25 billion yuan, with an average commission income of 6,868 yuan per hotel. In contrast, budget hotels, which account for 90% of the total, are hardly favored by Ctrip and E-Dragon, which are "too poor to love the rich".
Faced with such huge profits being exploited by booking websites, hotel managers need helpers like So-Hotel if they want to get rid of these constraints. Liu Zhigang said that budget hotel chains like Home Inn are the most suitable potential partners for So-Hotel.
Liu Zhigang believes that if the hotel network agent model represented by Ctrip and E-Dragon replaced the traditional hotel direct sales and travel agencies and set off the first revolution in the hotel reservation industry, then the So-Hotel with the characteristics of "self-ordering, no information barrier, cheaper price and more comprehensive service" is the beginning of the "second revolution".
According to the Research Report on Online Travel Market and Investment Prospect in China issued by China Market Intelligence Center, the online travel market in China will reach 654.38+0 billion in 2006 and will expand to 35 billion in 2008. Obviously, in addition to Ctrip and Home Inns, more and more companies like So-Hotel will try to share a piece of the action.