Qianjiang Evening News
As the Spring Festival holiday approaches, tourism popularity in Shantou, Guangdong continues to rise. Many netizens report that hotel prices in Shantou have "skyrocketed."
Netizens preparing to return to Shantou from Shanghai to visit relatives found that the prices of some hotels in Shantou have exceeded those on the Bund in Shanghai. Among them, a certain room type at Atour Hotel was quoted as high as 4,221 yuan per night during the Spring Festival, nearly five times higher than the usual price. Prices at Home Inn and other hotels generally jumped to more than 1,000 yuan, and some hotels in scenic spots even exceeded 6,000 yuan. Regarding the price increase, local hoteliers explained that during the Spring Festival, the operating costs of all aspects of the hotel have increased.
2025 Spring Festival, Shantou, Guangdong
Returning to Shantou from Shanghai to celebrate the New Year
Netizens discovered that the hotel is more expensive than the Bund
In early February, a netizen who lives in Shanghai and was preparing to return to Shantou for the Spring Festival discovered that during the same period of the Spring Festival, many hotels in Shantou were three or four times more expensive than high-end hotels near the Bund in Shanghai. The netizen said that he is a daughter-in-law from Shantou and returns to Shantou every year to celebrate the New Year. There are only three rooms in the house for six people to live in. The family usually stays in hotels when they go back. "Every New Year, the rent goes up, but you have to live where you should."
Netizens report hotel prices in Shantou increase during Spring Festival
The hotel information posted by this netizen from February 17 to 19 shows that the Atour Hotel on Huashan South Road in Shantou Vientiane City has risen to 3,377 yuan, and the prices of many hotels are also around 2,000 to 3,000 yuan. During the same period, the room prices of many local Atour hotels also exceeded 2,000 yuan. The netizen said, "The increase is too exaggerated!"
Another Hubei netizen who was preparing to travel to Shantou during the Spring Festival said that in early February, he found on the ticket purchase platform that the Queen Hotel near Shantou Small Park had risen to 6,719 yuan per night, and the surrounding Sheraton and Marriott hotels had also risen to around 3,000 yuan.
Ctrip data shows that hotel bookings in Shantou during the Spring Festival this year increased by 186% year-on-year, ranking among the top in the country; closely followed by the remaining two cities in Chaoshan, Jieyang and Chaozhou, which increased by 162% and 135% respectively, far exceeding the fourth place Sanya.
Atour’s one-room model is over 4,200 yuan, an increase of about 5 times.
On February 9, the reporter searched on the platform and found that, taking the Atour Hotel on Huashan South Road in Shantou Vientiane City as an example, during the Spring Festival, the deep-sleeping king-size bed room on the evening of February 18 (the second day of the Lunar New Year) had risen to 4,221 yuan, while the non-holiday price of this room type was stable at around 720 yuan, an increase of nearly 5 times. According to the staff of the store, the retail price of the above-mentioned room type is even more expensive, at 4,599 yuan, and this is the only room type currently left. Regarding the reason for the price increase, the staff said that "the store took into consideration various factors such as cost."
Rujia's one-room model increased by more than 9 times
In addition to Atour, during the Spring Festival, the room prices of well-known chain hotels such as Shantou Homeinn and Jinjiang also increased to varying degrees. The prices exceeded 1,000 yuan per night, and some room types exceeded 2,000 yuan.
Local: Market regulation
Previously, a reminder and warning was issued requiring reasonable pricing.
A well-known hotel manager in Shantou said that with the rising popularity of Shantou, hotels from the first to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year this year are basically fully booked, and demand currently exceeds supply. Talking about the reasons for the hotel's price increase, the manager explained that during the Spring Festival, the hotel's operating costs in terms of personnel and materials increased, and it is normal for prices to rise. For some abnormal price increases, the hotel will continue to monitor on multiple platforms in the future to optimize service levels.
The reporter noticed that on January 28, the Shantou Municipal Administration for Market Regulation and the Shantou Municipal Development and Reform Bureau issued the "Reminder and Warning on Regulating Market Price Behavior during the 2026 Spring Festival", requiring that during the Spring Festival holiday, the four major relevant operators of accommodation, catering, tourist attractions, and commodity retail must reasonably set prices based on costs and market supply and demand, and obtain legitimate profits from market competition.
Regarding accommodation services, the reminder and warning states that during the city’s major Spring Festival cultural tourism events, accommodation service operators with location advantages for viewing cultural tourism activities should improve their business service concepts and reasonably set prices in accordance with the law. "You must not abuse your independent pricing power; you must not raise prices at will or excessively; you must not spread or fabricate price increase information, induce or push up price expectations, or push prices to rise too fast or too high."
On the afternoon of February 9, a reporter consulted as a citizen about hotel price increases during the Spring Festival. A staff member of the Shantou Longhu District Market Supervision Bureau introduced that hotel pricing is a market regulation behavior, and prices are set independently by operators. At present, Shantou has not officially introduced any price intervention policies for the holiday accommodation industry. The staff can only remind and interview the operators. "There is currently no policy that clearly stipulates the hotel's increase rate before our law enforcement departments can investigate and deal with it. In this case, we can only use warnings and reminders to urge operators to maintain market price order."
The staff member said that for some accommodation operators who have been reported to have excessive price increases, the regulatory authorities have restrained them through telephone communication and on-site supervision. "If foreign tourists encounter violations of clearly marked prices, they can call the 12345 hotline to complain and report at any time."
The article "Market Considerations and Urban Temperature Behind the Fluctuation in Accommodation Prices During the Spring Festival" published by Shantou Fusion Media Shantou News on February 7 mentioned that Shantou is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese. During the Spring Festival, overseas Chinese and overseas celebrities return to their hometowns in large numbers. In addition, the passenger flow from Hong Kong and Macao brought by Hong Kong trains traveling northward creates a "superimposed resonance" between tourism demand and return demand.
The article mentioned that according to incomplete statistics, the total number of hotel rooms in Shantou is about 25,000. Faced with the number of tourists that may exceed 100,000 in a single day, the gap between supply and demand is obvious. Especially for high-quality hotels around core scenic spots and at key times before and after the New Year's Day fireworks show, the elasticity of supply is even smaller. When the passenger flow that is several times or even ten times that of normal times flocks to the limited accommodation resources, the market law of "scarce things are more valuable" naturally emerges.
The article also mentioned that the reasonable increase in house prices also carries the actual cost of operating the hotel industry. According to industry estimates, the operating cost of a single room during the Spring Festival will increase by 30%-50% compared with normal days. In order to ensure service quality, some hotels need to add temporary employees and improve service standards, further pushing up costs.
It is not illegal to clearly mark the price
However, temporary price intervention can be implemented in hotspot areas
Is it legal and compliant to increase hotel room prices during holidays?
Yue Qiang, senior partner of Beijing Hairun Tianrui Law Firm, introduced that there are three types of prices stipulated in my country's price law, namely market-regulated prices, government-guided prices, and government-set prices. The prices of most goods and services are subject to market-adjusted prices, which are independently determined by operators and formed through market competition. At present, hotel room prices are mainly subject to market regulation. Price increases are generally not illegal as long as the price is clearly marked.
But does the increase in hotel room prices mean that there is no ceiling? The above-mentioned lawyer mentioned that in order to maintain the basic stability of accommodation prices during the holidays, many places will implement government-guided prices for hotels, that is, hotel pricing must be supervised, and different local governments will issue corresponding policies for temporary price intervention.
In 2010, the "Opinions on Regulating the Market Price of Hotel Rooms" jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and three other departments proposed that in tourist hotspot areas and areas surrounding large-scale event venues, temporary price intervention measures such as maximum price limits can be implemented on hotel room prices in accordance with the provisions of the Price Law to ensure the basic stability of hotel room prices. The country does not have a unified range for specific price limit standards, and each region has its own control.
The reporter found out that in practice, some local governments have introduced price limit measures to regulate hotel peak season prices. Zibo, a city that became popular for its barbecue in 2023, issued the "Notice on Issues Concerning the Periodic Identification of Price Gouging of Hotel Rooms" on the eve of the May Day holiday that year, and clarified the price increase range, that is, if the average actual transaction price of various types of hotel rooms from March 1 to 31 of that year increased by more than 50%, it would be investigated and punished as price gouging.
On May Day in 2025, the Municipal Supervision Bureau and Development and Reform Bureau of Zhenfeng County, Guizhou Province also clarified the quantitative price increase standards in warning letters. The letter clearly lists the basis for determining price gouging: During major holidays, peak travel periods, and large-scale events, if the room price of the same accommodation operator exceeds the average room price of the same room type in the previous 30 days by 60% without justifiable reasons, it will be deemed to be price gouging.
