Has the price of small town hotels gone crazy? As the Spring Festival approaches, hotel prices have once again become a hot topic in public opinion. According to media reports, during this year's Spring Festival holiday, hotel prices in many popular small towns in southern China seem to have skyrocketed. On weekdays, companies like Home Inn and Jinjiang Inn that focus on cost-effectiveness often cost thousands of dollars; Renowned for stability and cleanliness, mid to high end chain brands such as Yaduo and Quanji have even offered prices of over 3000 yuan per night. Topics such as "Guangdong Shantou Yaduo Hotel Spring Festival One Night 4200" and "Sichuan County's 300 yuan room price increases to 1200 yuan during the Spring Festival" have also been listed on the hot search list. The hotel prices in small towns can easily reach thousands, which surprised many people. But from the perspective of market logic, this phenomenon is actually not difficult to understand. As analyzed by relevant experts, compared to first tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, the supply of hotels in small cities is already limited, and there are fewer mid to high end brands. The concentrated release of travel demand during the Spring Festival holiday and the rapid increase in prices due to short-term mismatch between supply and demand are almost an inevitable result. Of course, this does not mean that hotel pricing can be completely free from constraints. In fact, relevant local departments have already held a "Spring Festival Market Service and Price Self discipline Symposium for the Cultural and Tourism Accommodation Industry", requiring business entities to strictly implement clear and standardized pricing, eliminate price gouging, price fraud and other behaviors, and continuously optimize service quality, improve reception level and complaint handling efficiency, and continuously improve service supply quality. From the perspective of price mechanism, such price increases themselves are a market signal. As these small towns continue to become popular, the local accommodation supply structure is likely to accelerate its adjustment, with more chain brands entering and local homestays developing in a standardized manner, which is expected to gradually alleviate the supply-demand tension in the coming years. To a certain extent, this is precisely conducive to accelerating the improvement of the service carrying capacity of "small towns". However, this phenomenon is not just a price signal, but also reflects a new change in the consumption pattern during the Spring Festival. It should be noted that for a considerable period of time in the past, "small towns" were not popular places for accommodation during the Spring Festival. However, now some small towns have a large influx of foreign tourists, leading to a significant increase in hotel prices during the Spring Festival period, presenting a completely different atmosphere. One noteworthy feature is that the "small towns" with the highest hotel price increases mainly come from the south. Although they are not traditional "top tier" tourist cities, they have gradually become emerging popular options for Spring Festival vacation and leisure due to their warm climate, livable environment, and local cuisine. This actually echoes the trend of "reverse tourism" in recent years, where more and more tourists are no longer blindly chasing top tourist destinations, but turning to non-traditional tourist cities that offer better value for money and experience. Correspondingly, in recent years, there has also been a phenomenon of "reverse reunion", where some young people no longer go to "roll up" a ticket to go home, but instead pick up their parents and fly to big cities for the Chinese New Year. This avoids the rush during the Spring Festival travel rush and allows the whole family to have more abundant and relaxed time together, making it actually more cost-effective. This transition from 'rolling back home' to 'inviting over' not only involves the role of 'rational economic agents', but also implies a change in social concepts. Therefore, when examining the topic of "small town hotels going crazy", we should not only focus on whether the prices are reasonable, but also see the transformation of consumption structure and social psychological changes behind it. More and more people are no longer sticking to a certain established tourism or reunion "routine", but actively designing more suitable ways of celebrating festivals based on their own conditions and preferences. This has also brought important insights for boosting consumption and expanding domestic demand. For example, the focus of consumer policies can shift from stimulating the total amount to identifying and adapting to new consumer demands; The supply side of the industry should also keenly capture the service "equal rights" demand of both large and small cities, and make more accurate responses in regional layout, product stratification, experience optimization, and other aspects. In short, facing the increasingly diverse consumer landscape and more open social concepts, there is still a lot of room for exploration in terms of how to ensure that every choice has dignity and quality service guarantees, from the market side to the governance side. And this may also be a potential for boosting consumption. (New Society)