Time to regulate the mushrooming homestay business

"Had I known it would be so frustrating, I wouldn't have entered the homestay business," complained Jiang Ping, the owner of Big Roots Guesthouse in Wusu, a small town in Heilongjiang province bordering Russia. As China's easternmost town, Wusu is becoming a hot destination for tourists who visit it to witness the grandeur of sunrise, the beautiful wetlands and the black bears but most of all to escape the summer heat in other parts of China.

Booming tourism prompted Jiang, a retired office clerk, to return to her family's long-deserted house in Wusu to open her seven-room homestay three years ago.

Her nightmare began almost immediately. She felt frustrated when no guest turned up for several days, leaving her worried about how to recover her 1 million yuan ($138,659) investment, which she spent on refurbishing and decorating her family house. She was frustrated even when all the rooms were booked, mostly online, because, without any helping hands, she had to run like a clock, cleaning the rooms, making beds, washing bedsheets and quilt covers, and tending to the flowers in the front yard and the vegetable garden in the backyard.

Jiang's frustration is likely shared by thousands of homestay owners in China, even as the homestay business is witnessing fast growth and tougher competition. According to 2022 data, there were 3.5 million guesthouse rooms in China. Although only about 10 percent of them are in villages, their number, at the time, was increasing at 25 percent a year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The homestay business in China started about 30 years ago when many better-off Chinese people, who loved traveling, found there were not enough hotels. Villagers in some tourist spots, to seize the opportunity, opened their houses to visitors, charging just a dozen or so yuan for a room per night. When urban residents bought their own apartments and had an extra room (or rooms) to spare, homestay became a booming business nationwide.

To open a homestay, big or small, one has to register with the local administration for a business license and pass the tests for security, fire-prevention, health and sanitary requirements. Since most homestays offer their rooms through online platforms, the platforms grade them according to guests' comments.

Following China's visa-free entry policy for the nationals of a number of countries over the past two years, an increasing number of foreigners have been visiting the country. But these visitors should know that apart from hotels, they can also use the services of homestays, where they can get a real feel of Chinese people's lifestyle, as well as save money. But before booking a Chinese homestay, they should make sure the property is legal and has a business license, and they can communicate with the host, probably with the help of a translation device, to avoid any misunderstanding.

With thousands of homes registering each year to join the millions of existing homestays, it is high time the authorities took measures to regulate the sector. National unified standards should be implemented to ensure both the owners and visitors know what kind of facilities and service they are expected to provide and enjoy. Arbitrary charges and forced payments should be stopped and the violators punished, in order to protect consumer rights.

Also, the number of homestays should be controlled in certain places to avoid vicious competition. Such competitions usually lead to losses to the owners and poor services for the guests. Also, when a locality lacks overall planning, too many guesthouses with divergent designs can destroy the landscape of the place.

Being frequent travelers, my family prefers homestays to hotels both at home and abroad. We prefer them not only because they cost less or we can cook our own meals but also because we can learn a lot more about the place we are staying in by talking with our hosts/hostesses. In fact, I found that the best part of a visit is not necessarily the local sceneries but friendly and pleasant exchanges with "Lao Wang", "Peter" or "Wendy".

Despite its rapid expansion, the homestay business in China, to me, is still in a premature state. But I hope it will grow healthily. I also hope Jiang Ping will keep running her business by overcoming the odds.

The author is former deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily.