5-star hotels, resorts offering big discounts

Having few customers, a lot of 5-star hotels and resorts have decided to slash service fees or offer discounts.

Vinpearl in Nha Trang

Returning from a 4-day trip to Nha Trang city, Nga in the Dinh Cong new urban area in Hanoi related that her big family had a wonderful holiday there for a very good price.

Her family, comprising 24 members, booked rooms at Vinpearl at $125 per night only from June 3 to 6, nearly a 50 percent decrease in comparison with the previous rate of $200 per night.

Nga related that she and her family members felt lucky because they did not have to worry about meals when they were there because the resort provided free breakfasts, lunches and dinners. This is part of a promotion programme the resort is offering to travellers who stay there through the end of August.

When asked about total expenses, Nga said she spent only 20 million dong on five members of her immediate family, including two children.

The economic downturn and H1N1 super flu have led to the sharp decreases of numbers of travellers, which has forced hotels and resorts to launch promotion campaigns to lure travellers back.

Sand Doclet has launched a relax package priced at $155 per person which includes hotel room, meals for two days, free pick-up and drop-off at the airport and massage services. At Sun Rise resort, guests who stay here for three nights only have to pay for 2.5 nights, while those who stay for five nights only have to pay for four nights.

In Hanoi, Tran Khanh Ngoc, Marketing Director of Hilton Hotel, said that from June 1 to July 31, if guests book rooms for stays between now and August 31, they will have to pay only a 1-night fee for two-night stay. On weekends, the hotel serves breakfast until 11 am, while guests don’t have to check out until 6 pm and children enjoy free meals and stays.

The five-star InterContinental has launched a promotion package which sets the fee of $238 for a room for two people for two nights. Guests can have free use of the sports room, swimming pool and sauna. Previous, two guests had to pay $170 for each night.

As hotels and resorts have begun slashing service fees, travel firms are doing likewise. Saigontourist has launched the “easing the summer heat” tours of sea beaches, namely Tuy Hoa, Phu Quoc Island, Ha Long and Nha Trang. The 3-day Saigon-Phu Quoc Island trip costs 3.155 million dong per traveller, not including airfare.

Regarding tours to Phu Quoc Island, families are able to save 300-550,000 dong for a trip for two adults and two children. Travellers will stay at Saigon-Phu Quoc resort.

Nguyen Cong Hoan, Deputy Director of Hanoi Redtours, has said his travel firm has reached an agreement on room rate reductions with Diamond Resort & Spa.

The travel firm has launched a series of tours to Da Nang city, Lang Co beach, Da Lat city, Mui Ne beach and Phu Quoc Island, in which travellers will enjoy room rate reductions at high-grade hotels. Travellers have to pay 3.8 million dong per person for the Hanoi-HCM City-Mui Ne tour and 5 million dong for Hanoi-Phu Quoc.

Ngoc Ha

Hanoi hotels feel sting of economic downturn, high room rates

Hotels in Hanoi are seeing the gilded age of business going away when their room occupancy and revenue fall due to the sluggish growth in the global economy and high room tariff they have applied for a long time.

In Hanoi, the hotel market was hit by slow demand growth in 2008, as a result of a year-on-year increase of 5.8% in the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in the first nine months of this year, or much lower than the national target of 12-17% rise.The international property services firm Savills Vietnam has released a survey showing that the 4 and 5-star hotel markets in Hanoi continued to drop in both average occupancy and room rate at 4.4% and 4.8% respectively in the third quarter of this year compared to the second quarter.
The 4-star hotels performed better than the 5-star properties in their average occupancy, at slightly higher than 70.5% and less than 60% in the first three quarters of 2008, respectively, according to the survey.
The room occupancy of 60-70% is much lower than that in previous years when there was not any “no low season” for the hotels of 4- and 5-star ratings in the capital city. Even in the third quarter of previous years, which is considered as a low tourist season, many hotels reported their average occupancy of over 90%.
An executive of a 5-star hotel in Hanoi, who asked not to be named, told the Daily on the phone that demand this year was much lower than that of previous years.
Savills Vietnam put overall revenue per available room of the 4 to 5-star hotels in Hanoi in the third quarter at around US$80 per night, and said this was a significant decrease. However, the company did not clarify how much this average revenue is lower than the same period last year.
The hotel executive and Savills Vietnam attributed the falling revenue to the impact of volatility in local and global markets, as well as higher hotel prices that luxury hotels offered over the past years because demand outstripped supply.
According to the survey, the current average room rate at 5-star hotels in Hanoi is less than US$145 per night white the rate at 4-star hotels is more than US$95 per night. These rates are exclusive of 5% service charge and 10% value-added tax.
However, the rates were lower than in HCMC where 5-star hotels publicized nearly US$158 per day, 4-star hotels charged more than US$100 per day and 3-star offered more than US$63 per day. This was one of the reasons why average occupancy was much lower-than-expected in the period, about 55.16% at 5-star hotels and 67.24% at 4-star properties in HCMC.
In Hanoi, the hotel market was hit by slow demand growth in 2008, as a result of a year-on-year increase of 5.8% in the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam in the first nine months of this year, or much lower than the national target of 12-17% rise.
However, Savills Vietnam anticipates that Hanoi’s hotel performance will perform better in the medium-term given improved economic conditions next year.
There are 15 four and five star hotels in Hanoi, or over 1.4 million room nights yearly. Hanoi’s tourism officials said this capital city would need approximately 24,000 hotel rooms, with 6,800 of 4 to 5-star ratings in 2010 when the city looks to attracting two million foreign visitors.
However, there are concerns that high building materials costs and a tight credit policy in 2008 have had a negative impact on the capacity of many developers to implement their hotel projects, resulting in some delays and even cancellations.
Savills Vietnam predicts a total of 2,000 new 4 to 5-star rooms will enter the market by 2010, and nearly 1,000 of these will be in Tu Liem District in Hanoi’s suburbs.
(Source: SGT)