Summary of the Key Points
This article highlights a very typical phenomenon in the hospitality industry today: the "negative consequences of relying on traffic." A few years ago, hotels would conduct live broadcasts, honestly showing empty rooms and introducing facilities to sell packages. However, in an attempt to leverage platform traffic, they have now placed their cameras in public areas with the highest foot traffic, such as restaurants, lobbies, and pools. The cameras casually capture guests who are eating, checking in, or relaxing, without any prior notice or consent, which has led to numerous complaints from customers and negative reviews on social media. The初衷 of hotels conducting live broadcasts was to bypass the high commissions charged by traditional booking platforms and generate additional revenue. Instead, this approach has offended all the customers who visit the hotels. Regulatory authorities have also started to pay attention to the issue of unauthorized live broadcasts in public areas, and the old tactic of "doing anything for traffic" is no longer feasible.
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Detailed Analysis
1. Why do hotels insist on pointing the cameras at customers?
Many people wonder why hotels would bother filming customers instead of empty rooms. The reason is straightforward: it's driven by the need to balance "traffic" and "costs." In the past, hotels had to either distribute flyers with little effect or rely on traditional booking platforms like Ctrip and Meituan, paying 20%-30% commissions on each booking. For a room costing 1000 yuan, 300 yuan went directly to the platform as a fee, leaving the hotel with little profit. In the past two years, short-video platforms have integrated group buying and live broadcasts, allowing users to place orders directly while watching. Data from 2025 shows that group buying orders for hotels and homestays have increased by 63%, bringing in a significant new customer base.
However, live streamers have quickly learned the platform's traffic patterns: filming empty rooms attracts few viewers, but when the camera pans to the bustling lobby, viewers' engagement time increases significantly, and the platform provides more free traffic, leading to more sales. Additionally, hotels set KPIs for live broadcasts that focus only on viewership and sales, without considering the rule of not filming customers. As a result, employees, knowing it's inappropriate to film customers, have no choice but to proceed.
2. Why do customers prefer to change hotels rather than being filmed?
The privacy concerns in the hotel setting are much more serious than you might think. Being filmed in a mall might just indicate you were there that day, but being filmed in a hotel reveals a lot of personal information. If your face is shown, it exposes your whereabouts, the city you were in, who you were with, whether you were on a business trip without telling your family, or if you went on a secret vacation without reporting it to your employer. There have even been cases where hotels filmed guests in swimsuits, with comments on the live stream criticizing their appearance, which is very troubling for everyone involved.
Previously, guests were wary of hidden cameras in rooms, but now hotels openly place cameras in public areas without any warning signs. The result is that guests instinctively avoid the cameras while eating, ruining the relaxation experience.
3. Don't think customers will just complain: Hotels that engage in unauthorized live broadcasts will face real consequences
In the past, hotels could resolve complaints with an apology and a fruit plate. However, this approach no longer works. At the beginning of this year, the procuratorate in Hong'an, Hubei, took action against restaurants and bars that had been filming customers for a long time, sometimes even showing their faces clearly. The procuratorate recommended that all live-streaming businesses display clear warnings and obtain customers' consent before filming them. Otherwise, they would face penalties for violating consumer rights.
Customers are becoming more assertive; if you film them without their consent, they will leave immediately, not only refusing to eat there but also leaving negative reviews on booking platforms and sharing the incident on social media, causing significant damage to the business. The attempt to attract new customers through live broadcasts could result in losing 1,000 regular customers, which is a huge loss.
4. The new core competitiveness for hotels: Providing areas free from cameras
Some think hotels cannot abandon live broadcasts since they generate so many orders, but there are clever solutions. Some hotels now use fixed camera positions to film dining tables, empty landscapes, or the garden and pool, creating areas that do not affect customers. They also display large signs indicating, "Live broadcasts are taking place in public areas; customers who prefer not to be filmed can sit in exclusive areas out of view." This consideration for privacy is becoming increasingly attractive to customers. With everyone having a smartphone that can be used for broadcasting, the barrier to creating content has lowered, but the standards for the service industry have become clearer: you can use live broadcasts to promote products and generate traffic, but you must not use customers' private lives as free promotional material.