Official Removal! Ctrip is about to shut down the "Pricing Adjustment Assistant"

On March 5th, market reports indicated that Ctrip will soon remove the “Pricing Adjustment Assistant.” In response, Ctrip confirmed that starting March 10, 2026, the “AI Business Assistant” (Pricing Adjustment Assistant) feature will be discontinued in the Ctrip Merchant Management Backend Ebooking. “After introducing the pricing adjustment tool in line with industry trends, we received various suggestions for optimization and realized that this type of automatic pricing tool, widely used in the hospitality industry, no longer meets the current high-quality development requirements. Our company is taking the lead in removing this tool to reduce irrational price competition among hotels, expand merchants’ autonomous pricing space and profitability, and further motivate merchants to invest in and improve service quality.”

“Research shows that after the automatic pricing tool is discontinued, many merchants still objectively need platform-provided pricing references and operational guidance due to limited manpower and operational capacity, to improve efficiency and sales results. Therefore, we will continue to provide advice and guidance to merchants through the ‘Business Guidance’ and ‘Data Center’ sections of E-Booking. These suggestions are for reference only.”

“Ctrip firmly supports the national policies against disorderly industry competition and advocates healthy development. We sincerely promote a return to rational, healthy, and sustainable industry competition, working with all operators to create a platform ecosystem that is more friendly to merchants and consumers.”

It is reported that in the online hotel booking sector, major platforms generally offer various pricing adjustment tools to help merchants improve pricing efficiency, accelerate room sales, and increase order conversions. Ctrip is also the first domestic OTA platform to announce the discontinuation of the “Pricing Adjustment Assistant.”

Chen Yanjing, Deputy Secretary-General of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, stated that automatic pricing tools are quite common in the practice of internet platforms. In practice, such tools may cross reasonable boundaries and entrap merchants in inward-looking competition.

Ctrip’s proactive removal of the “Pricing Adjustment Assistant” appears to be a business tool adjustment, but it is actually a response to social concerns, an active measure to protect consumers’ right to information, choice, and fair transactions, and a significant step toward easing supply chain operational anxiety and promoting healthy ecological development.

From the consumer perspective, after the tool’s removal, hotels will set prices based solely on their own strategies and market supply and demand, making prices more reflective of service value. Consumers can make choices that better meet their needs based on thorough price comparisons. Meanwhile, as price wars diminish, hotels and platforms are more likely to focus on service quality and unique experiences, which aligns with consumers’ long-term value expectations.

Consumers need a market environment characterized by decentralized decision-making and rational competition. Breaking the inward-looking cycle cannot rely solely on a single platform’s actions; it requires proactive regulation from more platforms. As long as platforms continue to use similar tools, the soil for vicious competition will persist. Therefore, to fundamentally protect merchants’ and consumers’ rights, establish a healthy industry value system, and promote fair competition, it is strongly recommended that all internet platforms strengthen self-discipline, consciously regulate automatic pricing tools that interfere with merchant pricing, enhance market transparency, and improve fairness. Trust should be built on integrity, and development should be driven by fairness. All parties should work together to build a trustworthy, freely choosing, and orderly competitive online consumption ecosystem.

Additionally, Ctrip appointed two new directors: Ms. Wu Yihong and Ms. Xiao Yang.

Following this adjustment, the proportion of independent directors on the Ctrip Board increased from 50% in 2025 to 62.5%, and the proportion of female directors rose from 12.5% in 2025 to 37.5%. “This change helps gather broader professional perspectives and industry experience, improving the quality of board decision-making and governance efficiency. It also reflects the company’s commitment to practicing diversity and supporting female leadership development at the societal level.”

In recent years, regulators in the capital markets, securities exchanges, and investors have raised higher requirements for corporate governance of listed companies, including maintaining or increasing the proportion of independent directors, improving director rotation mechanisms, and promoting gender diversity on boards. As early as June last year, Ctrip explicitly stated to shareholders that it would continue to refresh and optimize its board composition to ensure that the board always has professional perspectives aligned with business development, effectively overseeing the company’s evolving strategies and potential risks. Under the ESG governance framework, this board structure optimization is an important step in the ongoing upgrade of the company’s governance system toward greater balance and diversity.