I obtained trip.com Diamond status for free, but to "activate" the free lounge pass it says I need to have one hotel booking with them. Do you know if it would work if I just book the cheapest hotel I can find in the world? Obviously I'm not going to actually stay either
I am not sure that would work as you would be a no show.
However, the approach I believe (but am not certain) would work is to gift a hotel stay to someone. I don’t believe you have to be the one staying at the hotel, so as long as the person named on the booking shows up and stays that should be enough to trigger higher status with trip.com. Remember please that this is my personal opinion, not a guarantee.