Holiday sends room rates soaring at resorts | Look At Vietnam

Holiday sends room rates soaring at resorts

May 3, 2012

VietNamNet Bridge – Prices of hotel rooms at popular holiday destinations rose sharply during the four-day holiday beginning last Saturday.

Tourists visit the Citadel of Hue in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue. (Photo: VNS)

The holiday celebrated both Liberation Day, which marked the end of the American War, and May Day.
Hotel rooms along famous beaches in Vung Tau, Phan Thiet and Nha Trang cities were fully booked in advance or rented at cut-throat prices to customers without bookings.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan, a holidaymaker from HCM City, said that she paid VND800,000 (US$38) for a single room at a hotel in Nha Trang City on the first night last weekend.
As she did not book the room in advance, the hotel asked her to pay VND1.5 million for the second night or check out, she said.
A team of inspectors in Vung Tau City found several hotels raising room rates by 60-80 per cent over listed prices of VND150,000-300,000 higher than normal days.
More than 110,000 tourists spent their holiday in Vung Tau City in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, according to the city administration.
The central province of Binh Thuan received around 148,300 visitors for the holiday, an increase of 10 per cent against the same period last year, according to the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The department reported that room rates at Mui Ne beach in Phan Thiet City rose by only 8 per cent during the holiday because they were booked in advance at the beginning of the year.
Free admission tickets to Ha Long Bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh between 28 April to May 2 attracted a record high number of visitors.
On Monday the Bai Chay Tourist Cruise Wharf handled around 21,400 visitors to Ha Long Bay, said Pham Quoc Binh, head of the wharf.
Existing boats failed to meet the increased demand although their capacity was raised to 65 trips per day from 35.
Large hotels along Bai Chay Beach were fully booked in advance while smaller ones 300-500 metres away from the beach raised their room rates to VND1.5 million per night from VND300,000-400,000 per night in normal days.
Da Nang City was flocked with visitors for the International Firework Competition held on April 29 and 30.
More than 1,200 visitors arrived at the Da Nang Railway Station last Saturday and nearly 2,000 visitors came to the city from Ha Noi and HCM City on Sunday, said Do Thai Lam, deputy head of the station.
Vietnam Airlines put an additional 195 flights on eight domestic routes to Da Nang City between 27 April and May 2, including 77 flights on the Ha Noi- Da Nang route and 56 on HCM City-Da Nang route.
Meanwhile, more than 40,600 tourists flocked to Thua Thien-Hue Province between April 28 to 30, double the number of this time last year, bringing in more than VND2.3 billion ($110,000) in revenues.
According to Phan Thanh Hai, director of the Hue Relics Preservation Centre, heritage sites in Hue attracted more than 16,000 tourists on April 29, the peak time of the holiday.
Besides visiting famous heritage sites such as the Citadel and the tombs of kings Minh Mang, Tu Duc and Khai Dinh, many tourists enjoyed various cultural events and community sports as part of the Thuan An Festival 2012 “Call of the Sea” held in the province between April 28-30.
VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Healthiest hotels for guests and conventioneers-19 August, 2009

Healthiest hotels for guests and conventioneers
Where are you most likely to find healthy meetings? Health Magazine has a top ten list which includes:
• Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has stress-relief options that include a hand massage specifically for those who overuse BlackBerrys.
• Westin Hotels & Resorts’ guests work out in privacy in a number of rooms that include a treadmill or spinning cycle.
• Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts offers wellness facilities that go beyond fitness with exercises such as paddle boarding, kayak tours and outrigger canoeing. Some of the brand hotels offer organic fruits and cheeses instead of chocolate.
• Hilton Hotels Corporation has an “Eat Right” menu that features high-energy, high-fiber, low-fat offerings.
• Hyatt Hotels and Resorts has a “StayRight Hyatt” program that has a selection of workout routines catering to fitness-conscious guests.
• The Ritz-Carlton has hypoallergenic bedding, signature spas and 100 percent smoke-free properties as well as healthy features such as snowshoe hikes at colder properties. There are also various outdoor activities that include organized beach walks and tennis tournaments.
• Loews Hotels have great gym facilities and maps are available for jogging or walking.
• Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants offer nontoxic cleaning products and on-demand yoga and Pilates workouts in some rooms. Planners can take advantage of out-of-the-box approaches such as starting off the day with group yoga sessions.
• Cambria Suites offer gyms with state-of-the-art Precor equipment and a light fare bistro menu that avoids fried foods.
• The Peninsula Hotels was “inspiring spas,” and food and drink includes organic teas and coffees. A Guest Nutrition Advisor is also available.
by David Wilkening

5-star hotels, resorts reluctantly slash service fees

It is quite a surprise that in the context of the global economic recession, when the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and travel firms are calling for tour fee reductions, luxury hotels and resorts have not slashed service fees at all.
High-class hotels should not slash service fees?
Foreign tourists to Furama resort
Nguyen Tri Phong in Hanoi, while booking a room at Furama Resorts in Da Nang City for the holiday at the end of March, realised that room rates had not been slashed as he expected.
Phong said that the staffs of Furama Resorts said that the room rate was $327/night, including a pick-up and drop-off at the airport.
Meanwhile, Luong Duy Khiem, Deputy Director of ANZ Travel, said that travellers in groups can book rooms at 4-star and less luxurious hotels at much cheaper rates, 1.5 times or 2 times lower than the rates applied to separate travellers.
River Side, a 4-star hotel in Da Nang city, for example, is offering $50/night, while a 3-star $35-40/night. However, these rates are applied to travel firms, much lower than the officially announced rates. If groups of travellers use more than eight rooms, the room rate would be $36-37/night (4-star hotel).
Meanwhile, 5-star hotels even do not accept slashing room rates for tourists in groups, or just slash by a little of 10%. At Furama resort, the lowest room rate is $195/night.
Explaining the big gap between the room rates at high-grade and lower-grade hotels and resorts, Khiem said that high-grade and lower-grade hotels have different subjects of clients. The main clients of high-grade hotels are businessmen and high-income earners who do not care much about room rates.
Nguyen Duc Quynh, Managing Director of Furama resort in Da Nang city, said that every hotel has its own pricing policy.
High room rates can bring high profit, low profit and many clients bring less profit because hotels have to pay high commissions. Meanwhile, it is easier to slash room rates than raise prices.
However, “the market will define the right prices. Hotels are adjusting room rates in order to attract travellers,” he said.
Quynh said that Furama has not joined ‘Impressive Vietnam’ because it believes that Furama’s room rates are now reasonable. As for travellers in groups, the room rates will still depend on different times. However, Furama is considering slashing room rates or providing free meals to groups of travellers, or even one free night if the travellers stay for many days.
Once tour fees down, travellers up
When hotels have high rates of idle rooms, turnover is low. Therefore, all hotels, both luxury and less luxury ones, need to attract clients with special offers.
The 5-star Sheraton Hotel in Hanoi, after two months of shaking hands with several travel firms, slashing room rates for travellers from Australia, South Korea, Europe and the US, has seen the number of travellers increasing significantly.
According to VNAT, the number of foreign travellers to Vietnam has decreased by 10.3% in total, but the number of travellers from the US has still risen by 40% (89,500 travellers). The number of travellers from Australia has increased by 14.4% (49,500), France 12.4% (31,200), Canada 30% (22,500).
As for separate travellers, Sheraton has offered special hotel room rates, $145/night, applied until the end of April 30 in Hanoi, and $275/night from now to March 31 in HCM City.

Many other 5-star hotels are also offering special programmes to attract MICE travellers. In the last time, a lot of MICE tours were cancelled in the context of economic difficulties.
Do Khanh Tra, Foreign Affairs Director of InterContinental Hanoi, said that the occupancy rate reached 98% last week after the hotel launched a discount programme applied to travellers in groups who stay for three nights and more.
Tra said that InterContinental Hanoi has also slashed service fees for workshops and conferences with associated free services, to be applied to events confirmed prior to June 30, 2009.
Ha Yen

Investors rush to cash in on building boom

Developers both foreign and domestic are rushing to build new resorts throughout Vietnam. Luxury hotels are rising above the sands, and villas carry price tags of several million US dollars.


Tourism authorities are expecting a sharp rise in the number of newly-built resorts in the country. The Hai Phong port city’s Cat Ba Island is planning to build a number of high-end resorts.

The development of tourism in Vietnam has created a boom in newly built resorts across the country. Many tourism projects worth several hundred million dollars are being implemented in Vietnam. Around 50 resort projects are waiting for licenses while 20 others are about to be built or expanded, according to statistics released the by Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

Vietnam is bestowed with many advantages such as beautiful beaches along 3,260 km of its coastline and many cultural heritage and wildlife sites throughout the country. And while political uncertainty elsewhere in the region has been worrying potential visitors, Vietnam has emerged as a safe and friendly destination in the eyes of foreign tourists.

Over 200 resorts currently operate in Vietnam, mostly based in Mui Ne - Phan Thiet of Binh Thuan Province, where there are approximately 100 resorts. The remainder are distributed across Ha Long, Cat Ba, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tay in the North and Da Nang, Hoi An, Thua Thien Hue, and Quy Nhon in the Central region.

According to the real estate advisory and management Company CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Vietnam, budget flights offered by airlines such as AirAsia, Jetstar, Tiger Airways and Hong Kong Air are bringing an increasing number of tourists to Vietnam. Moreover, visitors who travel to Vietnam for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) purposes account for 20 per cent of the 3.6 million annual international visitors to Vietnam. This kind of tourism demands high quality complexes including entertainment and convention centres and resorts.

Jeff Tisdall, vice chairman of Kingdom Hotel Investment Group, the investor of Raffles Danang Resort project, said that Vietnam’s tourism market offered huge opportunities for investors because of lower investment costs compared to other countries. In addition, Vietnam is fully eligible for construction of luxury hotels and resorts.

Hurdles such as the acquisition of sites for resort construction and licence-granting procedures have discouraged some from investing. At the same time, however, many international real estate firms are now partnering with domestic firms, marrying capital and know-how to property and human resources, in order to successfully realise new building projects.

While the number of resorts in operation is growing at a fast clip, most projects remain small-scale. There are exceptions, though, such as the Furama Da Nang, Padanus Mui Ne, Sai Gon - Phu Quoc, Kien Giang and Vinpearl Nha Trang, among others.

Vu Quoc Thai, research director of Research and Advisory Real Estate Company VietRees, said that resort owners were now beginning to offer units as time-shares. Owners can reserve their villa for a holiday whenever they like, turning a profit for the rest of the year by renting their unit out to other vacationers.

The price range for a villa falls between VND4 - 50 billion ($250,000 - 3.125 million) depending on the location and scale of the project, as well as the investor’s brand name and prestige.

More projects will be launched in Vung Tau, Binh Thuan, Da Lat and Dong Nai provinces in the time to come, according to VietRees’ studies.

Vietnam now has 30 five-star resorts nation-wide.