Meituan Travel and Tujia Look to Capitalize on Airbnb’s Exit From China

On Tuesday, homestay and travel services platform Airbnb announced plans to suspend reservations for accommodation, experiences and other domestic services in China from July 30, 2022. Instead, the firm has decided to focus on outbound travel from the country. For hosts in China using Airbnb, Chinese local homestay platforms have quickly taken responsive measures.

SEE ALSO: Airbnb to Quit Chinese Domestic Market on July 30, Laying Off About 60 Employees

One platform called Tujia opened a “green audit channel” and set up a special business services team that is responsible for communicating with Airbnb hosts to help them launch their properties on the platform. In addition, Tujia will soon launch fast release functions such as “one-click launch,” and will set up homestay operation experts to help Airbnb hosts in the Chinese market.

Likewise, Meituan Travel issued similar measures, and decided to set up a team to provide hosts with services such as quick audits of housing occupancy and quick responses within five minutes.

Homestay platform Muniao announced the release of a “one-click launch” function for house rentals, and several service policies such as “free commission on YouShop.” Muniao said they had urgently set up a special team for serving Airbnb hosts, and would evaluate the credit weight of popular Airbnb hosts, then give them support and favorable web traffic.

Platforms including Fliggy and Xiaozhu released green service channels exclusively for the affected hosts. Fliggy staff said that on Wednesday morning, the platform had assigned more business service employees to address issues related to homestay hosts and to support them in resuming normal operations as soon as possible. Besides, the platform will launch a series of measures to serve homestay businesses.

Airbnb announced it would provide further information and support through multiple channels after closing its domestic travel accommodation business in China later this summer. It has also exempted hosts and experience participants from order service fees, and is helping hosts and their properties deal with any follow-up issues.