Freelancing is extremely dodgy and unstable.
Freelancing in hotels is 10 times more so.
Hotels are wonderful places to work, but the people who own and run them are among the cheapest humans on the face of the planet. They tend to take two years to decide anything. The training manager or department managers may be quite gung ho about English training, but the GM makes the final decision and often won't let them spend more than 100 RMB per hour...if that. The ones who don't finally decide to hire in a local college student at 25 RMB an hour will finally call you on Monday to start classes on Tuesday. After 6 weeks of classes they'll announce that the hotel is getting busy and cancel classes for the next several months. Hotels are notoriously understaffed, and most inevitably find that they don't want their people tied up in English class 2 hours a week. The workers are often badly overworked (ie exhausted) and underpaid (ie unmotivated).
The hotel market in Suzhou is really small and not always very professional. I may take my course to Shanghai.
Freelancing tends to blow hot or cold. One week you can be turning away work, the next week mostly unemployed. Some of the most useless, bloody-minded, self-serving slugs I've encountered in China have been company training managers. Many companies won't simply pay directly in cash; they want a Tax Bureau invoice...and you wouldn't believe what a nightmare that can be to get. You get paid NOTHING over the interminable Chinese holidays. There's no support and no benefits. It can be nigh impossible to score a work permit and residence permit, and only a chump would work here without those documents for very long.
Freelancing can be a great way to supplement your income. It can be a wonderful experience. You get to keep the money (if you're truly freelance) rather than cutting in the lion's share of the total earnings to some corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling butthead who runs a training center. You have a bit more freedom to get the kind of schedule you want.
But I'm coming to the conclusion that I can't recommend it as a full-time occupation unless you live in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou or Shenzhen; are very experienced; have an in to legal documentation, and have a great corporate network. Especially if you are a parent with kids at home!
Freelancing is a hard, hard road with many hazards. It takes an enormous amount of work to succeed at it. That road tempts us all at some point, but many are not really willing to put in the work (and patience and poverty) it takes to build a successful practice.