Although reopening for tourism, in the last days of the year, the 5-star hotel in Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi still has quite a lot of rooms empty during Tet.
Do Thi Linh, a hotel employee, said that the number of international visitors to Hanoi has not recovered as before the epidemic. About 40% of booking guests are local and domestic tourists, 60% are foreign tourists. The price offered by this hotel during Tet does not increase, and even offers incentives for some guests who book early. Room rates for Tet holiday are only from 4 million VND/room/night.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Trung (salesman in Hanoi), added, only need to spend about 3 million to book a 5-star hotel in Hanoi. With this amount of money, tourists can hardly book a 5-star hotel room in Bangkok or Singapore. “Last year, many 5-star hotels promoted, my family took advantage of cheap prices to experience,” said Trung.
Surveyed on online booking sites, the number of empty rooms during Tet holiday at 5-star hotels is quite large and the price is relatively reasonable.
On the online booking site Traveloka, a 5-star hotel in Hoan Kiem area during Tet is priced from 3 million VND/room/night or more. For example, Apricot Hotel Hanoi and Hotel de l’Opera Hanoi – Mgallery are priced from 3 million VND/room/night. Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi is priced from 8 million VND/room/night.
In other areas, many 5-star hotels have cheaper room rates. Grand Vista Hanoi Hotel or Wyndham Garden Hanoi Hotel from only 1.5 million VND/room/night.
The hotel market report of research unit Savills Vietnam shows that hotels in Hanoi recorded a better level of recovery thanks to the source of official guests, long-stay guests as well as MICE (workshop) delegations. , conference). However, the average room rate is still 15-20% lower than in 2019.
In Hanoi, the supply of 10,179 rooms from 17 5-star hotels, 17 4-star hotels and 31 3-star hotels, was stable QoQ and 1% YoY. In the fourth quarter of 2022, occupancy reached 49%, up 7 percentage points QoQ and 22 ppts YoY.
The average room rate is 2.5 million VND/room/night, up 15% QoQ and 41% YoY. For the whole year of 2022, the occupancy rate increased by 16% to 39% and the average room rate reached 2.2 million VND/room/night. The opening contributes to the recovery of the hotel market, but still mainly depends on domestic tourism demand.
Mr. Neil MacGregor, Managing Director of Savills Vietnam, assessed, 5-star hotels in Vietnam are the cheapest in the region and need a little more time to recover.
Before the pandemic hit, China was the world’s largest tourist market, making more than 150 million trips abroad in 2019. The country opened its borders on January 8, flights. Routine flights between Vietnam and China are resumed and the number of flights is expected to increase. The hotel industry will benefit from the return of Chinese tourists.
Absent Chinese visitors, the Korean market is leading in terms of international visitors to Vietnam in 2022 with 965.4 thousand arrivals, accounting for 26.4% of the total number of international visitors, according to the National Administration of Tourism. The Indian tourist market recorded an impressive growth with 137.9 thousand arrivals, ranking 9th out of 10 markets sending tourists to Vietnam. The average growth rate of visitors is 45%/month. From July 2022 onwards, the monthly number of Indian visitors increased higher than the same period in 2019.
Chris Ely, Head of Hotel Asset Management, Asia-Pacific at CBRE Vietnam, said that the hotel market will soon welcome a strong return of tourists after the pandemic.
In 2023, the Hanoi hotel market is expected to have 8 projects with 1,300 rooms. From 2024 onwards, there will be 60 projects with about 10,300 rooms coming to market.