But with the number of tenants on the rise, there are also increasing concerns about safety and security.
China’s home-sharing industry has been booming in recent years. About 78 million hosts and guests contributed to the market in 2017 worth 14.5 billion yuan, and the industry is expected to hit 50 billion yuan by 2020.
But with the number of tenants on the rise, there are also increasing concerns about safety and security.
Xiaozhu, one of the biggest home-sharing sites in the country, plans to install facial recognition-enabled door locks in 80% of its listings in Chengdu – its second largest market by revenue – this year. The city, which is also home to the company’s newly opened second headquarters, will be the pilot city to carry out Xiaozhu’s safety and security upgrade plans.
The smart locks, powered by technology from Alibaba Group, will help verify the identities of tenants before they check-in. Xiaozhu has also announced other measures to upgrade safety and security, including installing more smoke detectors, gas alarms and burglar alarms in more apartments.
In addition, it is setting up a blacklist of tenants who misbehave during their stay at hosts’ homes.
These measures are in line with the Chinese government’s tighter control over home-sharing for state security reasons. Starting Jan 1, Zhejiang will be the first province in the country to require all home-sharing platforms and short-term rental firms to submit information on apartments for rent to the local public security authority, including host and guest names.
The boom in this new form of travel, with Chinese citizens staying in private apartments rather than hotels, has posed a challenge to Chinese authorities who want to keep tabs on the flow of citizens. The Airbnb-style business has also faced complaints from neighbours over tenants causing excessive noise.
“Years ago, what we worried about the most was that people didn’t want to share their homes with strangers. Now, home-sharing has become an industry so we need to do more to address the concerns of all parties involved,” said Kelvin Chen Chi, CEO of Xiaozhu, in an interview with the South China Morning Post.