Room rates in hotels and guest houses during the Labour Day “mini Golden Week” are not as expensive in comparison to past figures due to competition from Airbnb listings.
Hong Kong had a busy weekend ahead of tomorrow’s Labour Day and saw a 9 percent rise in the number of mainland visitors on Saturday compared to last year.
Tourist Guest Houses Federation of Hong Kong chairman Sam Lau Kung-shing said rooms in guest houses were fully booked at the weekend. But they did not increase rates due to keen competition from Airbnb listings.
“Rooms were fully booked for April 28 to May 1, but booking rates will drop to 60 to 70 percent on May 2 as people leave and go back to work on May 3,” Lau said
Although occupancy rates remain high, Lau said Airbnb listings have taken business away from the guest-house industry, especially when it comes to foreign visitors.
He said room rates in guest houses were priced between HK$300 and HK$700, similar to last year.
“If there is no Airbnb, rooms can be charged at a higher price as the supply falls short of demand,” he said.
“But now people can book their rooms at any time, which means prices cannot be set too high. It is more competitive and since people now have more choices, they don’t have to rush to book a room.”
A search on the Airbnb website showed that most rooms in urban areas from yesterday to Labour Day were booked.
Only a few rooms with higher rates – above HK$1,400 – remained available. Among the listings was a seaview room near Causeway Bay at HK$1,997 a night.
Michael Li Hon-shing, executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, said rates in a low-end hotel can be as cheap as HK$400 on May 1, while a room in a four-star hotel can be priced at HK$600.
He said mainlanders visited Hong Kong from Friday and many left yesterday. He expects the occupancy rate on Labour Day to be about 80 percent.
But hotels still had a busy weekend with room occupancy rates hitting 90 percent, similar to last year. Room rates were about HK$1,300 to HK$1,400 a night in a three-star or four-star hotel.
Li said Airbnb has had an impact as its website says it has 5,000 listings.
He said Airbnb has been operating illegally and urged the government to take action.
The holiday started yesterday and runs until tomorrow, but travelers came across the border a day earlier on Saturday.
Travel Industry Council executive director Alice Chan Cheung Lok-yee said an average of 180 to 200 mainland tours a day are expected to come to Hong Kong during the three-day Labour Day holiday period, slightly up from nearly 180 tours a day last year. Tourism sector lawmaker Yiu Si-wing also believes that the number of individual travelers from the mainland will increase by some eight to 10 percent in comparison to last year’s Labour Day holiday.
He said a three-day holiday is not long enough for visitors, so many of them will opt to travel to other cities in the mainland, or to Hong Kong or Macau.
Yiu also said a strong yuan has encouraged mainland tourists to shop in Hong Kong and retail sales have improved over the past 10 months.
He believes businesses specializing in luxury goods, medicine, cosmetic products and other necessities will see a rise in sales.
“Mainland tourists have faith in these goods and some of them are imported goods, so they will buy in bulk,” Yiu said.