Trustdata, a mobile internet big data monitoring company in China, found that Ctrip, Meituan, Qunar, Tongcheng-eLong and Fliggy accounted for 96.4% of online hotel bookings in the second quarter. The big five were also the fast-growing platforms for the quarter, suggesting that their dominance is getting stronger.

The headline findings from the report said that there was a 20% increase in the number of monthly active users - 91.9 million -  in the hotel booking space compared with the first quarter of 2018. This growth is coming from users in third and lower-tier cities, and from those born after 1980.

There is also some brief but telling observations about three of the big five. Meituan Hotels is the market leader in terms of order volume and room nights, with a market share of almost 50% (46.2% to be precise). Fliggy is the travel unit of internet giant Alibaba Group and ranks No.1 in terms of “customer stickiness”. Ctrip “has the edge in high-starred hotels” Trustdata says, although Meituan and Fliggy are looking to challenge this.