Ratings, traffic, commissions, and algorithmic price adjustments — hotel and homestay operators on Ctrip have found themselves trapped in a chain of rules.
In January 2026, based on preliminary investigations, the State Administration for Market Regulation initiated an antitrust probe into Ctrip Group Co., Ltd. for suspected abuse of market dominance, in accordance with the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China. In March, three departments, including the Beijing Municipal Market Regulation Bureau, jointly summoned Ctrip and other platform companies, citing typical cases that directly pointed to Ctrip’s “infringement on merchants’ autonomous operation rights,” “setting unreasonable rules,” and “misleading consumers with special gold badge labels.”
In response to regulatory scrutiny, Ctrip announced the removal of the special gold badge label for hotels and the discontinuation of the price adjustment assistant.
However, some merchants reported that although the “thumbs up” icon previously flagged as misleading for special gold and gold hotels has been removed from the page, the underlying ranking rules remain hidden in the backend, requiring continued advertising investment to maintain rankings and traffic. The price adjustment assistant was officially discontinued, but price adjustment guidance has never stopped.
