Chinese hotels turn to hawking food as guests tighten belts

Every evening, staff at Beiyuan Grand Hotel in Beijing set up street stalls selling freshly-cooked gourmet dishes trying to make up for falling revenue indoors as Chinese consumers and firms cut spending on travel, conferences and banquets.

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“These days, it’s not that people will come just because you lower prices or offer discounts — they simply don’t come at all,” said Anwen Xu, its sales director, explaining the need to find new income streams.

Beiyuan is among at least 15 high-end hotels nationwide hawking food outside in recent weeks, according to their social media and Chinese news sites. Their sales had been hit by weaker consumer demand, cuts to corporate and official travel budgets and a lack of banquet reservations, staff said.

Ms. Xu said Beijing’s moves earlier this year to reinforce austerity and discipline among public sector workers and party members, including bans on dining out in large groups and curbs on alcohol consumption, had also hurt business.

Analysts say the hotel hawkers are another sign that deflationary pressures risk becoming entrenched in the world’s second-largest economy, whose growth leans more on manufacturing and exports than consumption.

Consumer prices were flat year-on-year in July.