Tujia learned from Muniiao and Meituan to develop.

Behind the release of Tujia's top ten lists of homestays lies the undercurrent of the industry landscape. From imitating Muniiao's C2C model to focusing on the Guizhou sojourn market, this platform, which once relied on business travelers and self - operated housing sources, is undergoing a difficult transformation. While Tujia is still adjusting its housing source structure, Muniiao has established a barrier for internet - famous homestays, and Meituan has reconstructed users' perception through its lists. The strategic divergence among the three platforms reflects a new battlefield in the homestay industry, shifting from competition for housing sources to experience upgrading.

Recently, Tujia released a top ten list of homestays, from which we can see Tujia's intention to develop towards characteristic homestays. To some extent, it imitates Meituan in form and Muniiao in essence. What is hidden behind Tujia's actions of imitating its competitors?

Before 2020, Tujia was wealthy and spent the funds obtained through financing on various co - branding and advertising campaigns. However, since Tujia shut down its self - operated housing sources in 20 cities in 2020, it is a very clear fact that even Tujia, which has a strong backing, has to cut down on expenses in the face of continuous losses. So, Tujia began a long - term transformation and exploration.

To date, Tujia's daily download volume is only one - third of that in 2019. There is no longer room for growth in Tujia's story.

Tujia Tightens Its Belt

It was Muniiao and Meituan that took the lead in making changes.

Muniiao was the first domestic homestay booking platform to adopt the C2C model. Established in 2012 by emulating Airbnb, Muniiao attracted a large number of small and medium - sized homestay owners with unique characteristics. In 2017, Muniiao launched the "Four - Wood Homestays" in line with the service standards of four - star hotels, and was the first in the industry to propose the establishment of standardized services. Focusing on internet - famous homestays, characteristic scenarios, and young users, Muniiao has developed steadily in the following years, further establishing its competitive edge.

Meituan's homestay business caught up later. Although it was established relatively late, the C2C model still helped Meituan accumulate a group of early - stage homestay owners. In recent years, Meituan has launched the "Popular Homestays List" and the "Landlord List" on its main website's homestay section. After attempting to upgrade users' perception through high - star hotels, Meituan seems to have improved its previous situation of low - quality and low - price homestays. Coupled with the boom of Meituan's flash shopping, the integration process of Meituan's hotel and travel business is also accelerating.

The main line of Tujia's current adjustment is to focus on characteristic homestays. Judging from the short - listed homestays, they still follow Tujia's old - fashioned villa vacation style, emphasizing quality. This is in line with its previous practice of renting out multi - bedroom apartments.

In fact, before 2020, the business travel traffic brought by Ctrip and Tujia's standardized hotel - style apartments were the perfect combination. Frequent financing and promotion made Tujia thrive. With the shutdown of its self - operated business, Tujia's growth has stagnated. Tujia's current update seems more like a vanguard for the upgrade of sojourn services.

And the focus is Guizhou. In the past two years, Guizhou has been an important base for Tujia's sojourn business and has been mentioned in many reports. Tujia's platform data shows that among the tourists sojourning in Guizhou, the orders for multi - bedroom apartments with two or more bedrooms account for more than 54%, and the orders for large - sized apartments such as four - bedroom and four - bed rooms have increased by 1.2 times year - on - year. In terms of accommodation preferences, Tujia's sojourn users prefer multi - bedroom apartments.

After shutting down its self - operated housing sources, Tujia switched to the C2C model verified by Muniiao and Meituan. While changing its operation model from heavy to light, Tujia started to develop internet - famous homestays in 2022. This means that Tujia is focusing on replacing low - quality housing sources with high - quality ones, and the hidden problems are coming to the surface. Tujia must find an effective way to achieve self - sufficiency while losing the support of standardized management of self - operated housing sources.

To complete the transformation, Tujia has tried to increase its revenue through the vacation needs of Ctrip's business travelers, and the importance of renting out entire villas has increased significantly.

Recently, while Muniiao redesigned its homepage, it began to focus on segmented scenario experiences. While Tujia is still struggling with the loss and transformation of business travelers, Muniiao and Meituan have made great progress. If Tujia's high - profile release of the list is just to promote its sojourn business, then the sojourn section, which is similar to medium - and long - term rentals, still has more marketing significance than practical value without the improvement of user experience.

Reconstructing Relationships: Platforms Step from the "Background" to the "Foreground"

In the past, the production relationship in the homestay industry was very simple: landlords provide housing sources → platforms list and guarantee them → users place orders → platforms take commissions. Except for Tujia, which developed self - operated B - end housing sources, Muniiao and Meituan only act as platforms, regulating landlords' services through platform operations. After Tujia's failure in the B - end market, the industry logic has completely reversed: C - end users, C - end suppliers, and platforms form an unbreakable cycle.

Under the new consensus, the more online housing sources without characteristics, the greater the structural burden on the platform. After Tujia merged the apartment housing sources under Ctrip and Qunar in 2016, the number of housing sources quickly expanded from the estimated 420,000 in 2015 to 2.3 million. In addition, Tujia's founder, Luo Jun, cooperated with real - estate developers to increase housing source options in the early days, and Tujia's standard hotel - style apartments accounted for the majority. "Being too big to be flexible" has become the biggest obstacle for Tujia to establish its homestay characteristics, and it will take a long time to improve the inventory and structural upgrade.

The same is true for Meituan's homestay business. In order to expand its housing sources, Meituan, which was established in 2017, developed a large number of hourly and daily rental rooms around schools and hospitals relying on local - life traffic. The low - quality and low - price housing source structure has become the biggest obstacle for Meituan to expand its characteristic homestay business. On the one hand, users' perception has already been formed. On the other hand, Meituan's upward - looking strategy has not attracted many brand - conscious homestay owners who have doubts.

Tujia's list and Meituan's "Must - Stay List" are just a slice of this change. In fact, Tujia and Meituan hope to improve their old housing source composition through the promotion of these lists. The aim is to change the existing situation: few characteristic homestays and few core users.

In this situation, Tujia and Meituan are committed to standardizing and visualizing the new changes of the platforms from multiple dimensions through the lists. For example, in Tujia's "Must - Stay Guide" this time, most of the short - listed places are vacation hotels and villa courtyards. Tujia is adopting a slow - upgrade approach by combining the existing business travel traffic.

Muniiao quietly established its supply - chain barrier before 2020. The internet - famous homestay owners attracted by the C2C model form Muniiao's most solid structural advantage. Among the three major homestay booking platforms, this structure is particularly rare. At the same time, Muniiao has taken actions on its front - end.

Although the main structure of internet - famous homestays can maintain Muniiao's competitive advantage for a long time, with the increasing demand for scenario experiences, homestay consumption undoubtedly has higher requirements for housing sources and brand loyalty. Take the pet - friendly homestays on the homepage as an example. Li Dexin, the secretary - general of the Scenic Area Branch of the Tourism Chamber of Commerce of the All - China Federation of Industry and Commerce, said in a survey that more than 90% of pet owners are between the ages of 80s and 00s, and more than 70% of pet - owning people have a strong willingness to travel with their pets. This is a data that platforms have to pay attention to. It is reasonable for Muniiao to provide traffic support and operational assistance on its homepage.

So far, the development plans of the three major homestay booking platforms, Tujia, Muniiao, and Meituan, for their housing source product structures have become clear. Functions beyond single - accommodation, such as characteristic homestays, experience projects, family vacations, and list recommendations, are becoming the new chips for these platforms.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Everyone is a Product Manager" (ID: woshipm), written by Heibai Zhijian, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.