Food delivery orders to hotels double during Labor Day holiday

The "stay-at-home" economy just evolved into the "stay-at-hotel" economy in China during this past Labor Day holiday, as food delivery orders to hotels across the country doubled during the five-day vacation.

(Xinhua file photo)

According to the latest consumption report released by Ele.me, a major online Chinese food delivery platform, food delivery orders in China spiked in the first three days of the holiday compared with a year ago, with the number of deliveries made to hotels and tourists sites increasing more than twofold.

"I heard that at least 200 million people will be taking trips during the Labor Day holiday this year, so the highways must be jammed," said a man surnamed Chen from Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province, who opted not to take a road trip during the holiday but instead stayed three nights at a hotel with his family in Liangzhu, an ancient city situated in Hangzhou's Yuhang district.

This vacation option was decided with the mutual support of his family, Chen said. "We just enjoyed the services of the hotel, laying all day long on the sofa and watching TV. Our food was ordered online," he told Qianjiang Evening News.

Chen thought it would be easy to get a taste of all the delicious food available in the area, but to his surprise he discovered that there were not enough couriers to take his orders as the number or deliveries surged.

Today, more and more people are choosing a staycation at hotels as a way to spend their holidays. According to a courier surnamed Yang from Hangzhou, nearly half of the orders he received during the holiday were sent directly to hotels.

According to the Ele.me report, the number of orders for breakfast meals and night snacks experienced a rapid uptick compared with a month ago, which clearly indicates tourists' intention in early May to avoid rush hour traffic as well as their enthusiasm for ordering in local dishes.

The report said that coffee, rice congee and pan-fried steamed buns were the most welcomed breakfast items ordered online by tourists, while barbecue, Liuzhou-style snail rice noodles and milk tea were mostly ordered at nighttime.