Bachelors have relied on the service in the past, but this year "business is booming," China’s Global Times reported. Rising prices indicate surging demand, and this year women can earn 3,000 renminbi, or roughly $500, for a two-day, one-night stay with a bachelor and his parents.
Parents and agents alike are cashing in on bachelors’ desires to put on a good show when visiting Mom and Dad. "Legitimate" matchmakers have imposed stronger rules on renters who want increasingly refined women to take home, while jacking up prices to meet demand.
Renters should not expect so much as a "hold of the hand," one matchmaker told the news outlet. One wonders whether a "girlfriend" who is reluctant to show any accepted form of physical affection would not tip the hand of young men involved in the scheme.
The business can be lucrative for willing bachelorettes, even beyond cushy weekend contracts that can reach $1,000 per day. In 2014, a paid stand-in arrived at a bachelor’s home in Fuijan Province where the bachelor’s family lavished the woman with a New Year’s gift of 20,000 yuan (about $3000) in cash.
