By DING Jingjing
China’s better hotels, including the Hilton and Wyndham chains, are pushing all-you-can-eat memberships, which often come with breakfast deals and gym membership.
Still dealing with weekday occupancy of less than 50 percent during the off-season, hotels are forced to find other ways of making money. Many restaurants in China offer varieties of similar schemes, but compared to smaller restaurants, default risk at hotels is lower.
A five-star hotel buffet can cost as much as 1,000 yuan (US$137.16) and never cost less than 300 yuan.
Membership card holders can eat as often as they want - though not necessarily at every restaurant - in the hotel where the card was issued, making it an interesting option for those working or living nearby.
Yearly membership at a well-known hotel costs 9,999 yuan. Ordinary office workers spend as much as 30,000 yuan on food deliveries in a year.
If one were to eat in the hotel every day, that would cost about 27 yuan per day. If one were to eat lunch there four times a week for 50 weeks of the year, each meal would cost more than 50 yuan, which is still an excellent deal.
