A wage earner with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan could not say that he could not afford to rent a house for 1,500 yuan or 2,000 yuan. However, he would definitely compare.
Currently, the Sloth Apartments' direct competitor was Home Corporation's new 'Safe House' business.
The Home Group was a very influential real estate agency in the country. Many people would mindlessly choose the houses under the Home Group when renting a house. This was because, compared to those small agents and secondary landlords who deceived people, the Home Group was a big company with a big business, and the possibility of deceiving people was lower.
In the past two years, Home Corporation had also seen the increasing demand of young people for a living environment. Thus, it launched the 'Safe House' business. That was to sign contracts with landlords to rent dilapidated old houses, renovate them themselves, and then rent them to tenants at a higher rent.
These were all renovated houses with complete furniture and appliances. Overall, they looked good. Although they were more expensive than other houses, renovations meant that they were comfortable to live in. Thus, this business was developing well.
Compared to the Sloth Apartments, Home Corporation's Safe House was much worse in terms of overall renovation and furniture. However, it did not have as many rules, and it was much cheaper. In the eyes of the average wage earner, it was obviously more suitable for the general public.
If the monthly rent was raised from 1,500 yuan to 2,000 yuan, they would have to spend an additional 6,000 yuan a year. That was enough for them to buy a new cell phone. This difference was very obvious to most people.
Moreover, Pei Qian smelled the scent of fake reviewers from these comments.
Home Corporation had many shops in Jingzhou. There were many agents working in each shop.
Tengda's Sloth Apartments was also a rental business. It was a direct competitor to their 'Safe House' business. Home Corporation could not just watch Sloth Apartments become famous and not do anything.
They did not even have to hire professional fake reviewers. They just had to force all the shop employees in Jingzhou to search for similar posts and pretend to be passers-by.
These people might not understand, but they could create a lot of noise online after all. They could muddy the waters and create the illusion that 'most people were not satisfied with Sloth Apartments'.
All in all, from the public opinion online, most of the customers attracted by Sloth Apartments' promotional video had been dissuaded.
However, even so, there were people who overcame all difficulties, signed the rental contract, and moved into Sloth Apartments.
The apartment on the top floor of Block 8 in the Binhu District, which was also the apartment where Chen Lei had filmed his music video, was rented by one of his crazy female fans on the spot.
Because the view from this house was exactly the same as in the music video, it was very suitable to take photos and post them on WeChat.
Obviously, this customer's main purpose in renting this apartment on the top floor was not to live in, but to chase after celebrities.
It was worth it to sit on the sofa that Chen Lei had sat on!
Pei Qian did not know whether to laugh or cry when he heard about this from the building's butler.
It could only be said that the idol-chasing of rich people was so simple and boring.
"Sigh, after all, Chen Lei has a lot of fans. This kind of thing is unavoidable."
"However, if it's just a few houses, it won't have a big impact on the loss-making model of Sloth Apartments.
Although Chen Lei's influence might cause some people to chase after him, it was not a big problem.
The key was that he was renting, not buying.
If he sold this apartment, many people might buy it for the sake of chasing after him. After all, the apartment could be resold after it was bought, and it could be rented out. It would be worth it no matter what.
However, this apartment was only for rent and not for sale. What's more, subletting was strictly prohibited. If one chased after a celebrity like this girl and did not live in it, that meant that the monthly rent would be thrown away, and the apartment would not belong to them.
Thus, Pei Qian felt that even if people chased after him because of the music video, it would not affect the overall situation.
What's more, the residential-commercial building in Shundong Gardens and the Dawn of Prosperous City that he lived in did not have a single tenant.
Pei Qian walked around and came to a conclusion: although Sloth Apartments was gaining a lot of attention, it was still safe for the time being. He could continue to observe.
Thus, he took a cab home and took an afternoon nap in peace.
…
In the afternoon, at Thriller Hostel …
Li Shi and the other investors gathered together in a meeting.
Ever since Thriller Hostel opened for business, it had been doing quite well.
The initial publicity work had been very sufficient. It had attracted many young people from Jingzhou and even Handong Province. The various interesting projects in Thriller Hostel had also continued its excellent reputation.
However, the problem was that it did not seem to be that popular.
To Li Shi and the other investors, Thriller Hostel could only be considered to be in a normal state of profitability. The income from the related supporting industries and the profits from the sales of the Golden Maze could cover the daily expenses of Thriller Hostel.
However, it was still a long way to go to recoup the investment.
This kind of popularity was at most drinking the soup.
Although everyone was used to drinking the soup with Boss Pei, the problem was that Boss Pei did not seem to be making a lot of money this time.
To be precise, the current situation was that Boss Pei was drinking the soup, and the others were just smelling the aroma.
Until now, Thriller Hostel had not actually met everyone's expectations.
Thus, the investors gathered together spontaneously and called Boss Li over to discuss countermeasures.
"Boss Li, based on the current income, it will take us a long time to recoup the investment. We can't wait that long!"
"That's right, Boss Li, quickly think of a solution. Should we rush Boss Pei again? Boss Pei must have a backup plan! "
"Or should we think of a solution ourselves?"
"What solution? There's no solution! I've been observing the situation in Thriller Hostel and found it not very optimistic. Although this project can be experienced many times, there will always be a time when people get tired of it. At the moment, there are not enough tourists in the country. Most people are not willing to make a trip to Jingzhou just for a haunted house. Therefore, there is no possibility of making a big profit in the short term! "
"Could Boss Pei have miscalculated? Failed? "
"Boss Pei warned us that this project might not be profitable before. Could he be serious?"
The investors were all talking at once, feeling a little panicked.
That was because the investment in Thriller Hostel was too big. Making money now could only be said to offset the operating costs. Only after all the initial investments were recovered would they really make money!
If they could not recover the initial investments, it would not be profit, but a huge loss.
Li Shi listened to the other investors' discussion in silence.
The current situation of the Thriller Hostel project did not satisfy him.
Everyone could feel that there seemed to be a small distance between 'still alright' and 'popular'.
However, they could not reach this small distance no matter how hard they tried.
Was there a problem with the project itself?
There was no problem. Desperate Escape, Haunted House Nightmare, Ultimate Horror, Golden Maze, Healing Fountain, Maid Coffee … these were all very good. The feedback from the tourists was not bad either.
Now, the problem of queuing was solved with the Tengda Life App. Everyone could use the app to queue up while eating, walking around, and shopping in the Golden Maze. The tourists' experience was greatly improved.
Was it a problem with publicity?
The publicity seemed to be in place. Many people already knew about Thriller Hostel, be it in Jingzhou or the country. The publicity that Boss Pei had arranged, including the shared phone booths and Teacher Qiao's videos, had worked.
No matter how he thought about it, he could not figure out what was missing that prevented Thriller Hostel from going from 'still alright' to 'popular'.
Or could it be that, like some investors said, Boss Pei was not omnipotent, and he could not successfully calculate all the situations?
Obviously, Li Shi would not agree with such a statement.
After all the investors had finished complaining, Li Shi gently knocked on the table. "Alright, quiet down.
"Do you think that Boss Pei miscalculated on the Thriller Hostel project?
"Then aren't you guys too impatient?"
"How long has it been since Thriller Hostel opened? It's been less than two months! You only saw that many of Boss Pei's projects became popular and mistakenly thought that Thriller Hostel would do the same.
"Didn't you notice? In fact, many of Boss Pei's projects only became popular because they persisted for a long time!
"Take Fish-Catching Take-Out for example. It lost money for more than a year, but not only did Boss Pei not cut this project, but he also kept investing in it. Finally, it started to soar with Jingzhou's garbage classification!
"Now, Fish-Catching Take-Out's future is immeasurable!
"If Boss Pei was as impatient as you and gave up after two months of losses, how could he have achieved today's success? What's more, Thriller Hostel is not losing money now, it's just earning more slowly.
"Do you know the difference between you and Boss Pei?
"All of you are in the investment business. You can't possibly not know this, right?"
The investors all quietened down after being lectured by Boss Li.
Indeed, anyone who knew anything about investment knew that it was meaningless to invest in the short term. They had to look at the long term.
However, there were too many investment myths about Boss Pei. Thus, these investors' psychological expectations were constantly raised. They lost their patience when Thriller Hostel became slightly less popular.
Now that Boss Li had lectured them, everyone calmed down.
An investor coughed lightly. "Boss Li, yes, what you said makes sense. We are indeed a little anxious. However, we are doing this for everyone's sake. Who doesn't want Thriller Hostel to become more popular and earn more money?
"Boss Li, you asked us to calm down and wait. Indeed, we should believe in Boss Pei, but isn't it too passive to wait like this?"
The other investors nodded. "Yes, Boss Li, this is too passive. Why don't we think of a way to do publicity, even if we spend more money?"
Li Shi was silent for a moment and looked around at everyone. "Spend more money? Are you willing to? "
The investors continued to nod. "Yes!"
They paused and added. "Of course … we have to discuss how to spend it."
Li Shi nodded slightly. He was quite satisfied with the investors' attitude.
No matter what, everyone's interests had been deeply tied together by the Thriller Hostel project. No one wanted to be a deserter and were even willing to continue spending money for publicity.
That was a good thing.
Only those who firmly believed in Boss Pei and followed him would be qualified to benefit.
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