HCMC hotel room rates up 21 pct

The HCMC hotel market report by Savills Vietnam said the stable Covid-19 situation and accelerated vaccination in the city in the fourth quarter of 2021 gradually revived local tourism.

The average room rate was still 5 percent down from 12 months earlier because five-star hotels had to reduce prices to stimulate demand and three-star hotels cut food prices.

At hotels offering quarantine, the average room rate rose 18 percent quarter-on-quarter to VND1.6 million as international flights resumed to carry Vietnamese citizens and foreign experts.

All other categories of travelers had to wait until January 1 when regular flights resumed to several destinations.

Twenty three hotels offered a total of 2,760 rooms for quarantine, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 55 percent.

The room occupancy rate was 20 percent, down 36 percentage points quarter-on-quarter due to a decrease in demand from enterprises which no longer had to have workers staying at work or commuting to work.

Four-star hotels reported an occupancy rate of 28 percent because of lower rates than five-star hotels, which attracted many business guests.

Savills cited Visa’s ‘Travel in 2021’ report as saying that visitors of Generations Y (born in 1981-96) and Z (1997-2012) would lead the hotel market recovery.

These young customers are ready to travel as soon as the pandemic is under control, and are more active than older generations.

Young people tend to pay online while traveling, showing the need to develop technology platforms to connect with them.

Savills said the effective vaccination campaign has helped the country ease restrictions on movement and resume international commercial flights.

Some 56 percent of foreign visitors in 2019 were Chinese and South Korean. The two countries currently have the highest vaccination rates among Vietnam’s main tourism markets, which will allow its tourism sector to regain some momentum once they resume tourism.

The city Department of Tourism aims to get 3.5 million international visitors this year when the pandemic is under control. But even if the Covid situation worsens, the city can still get foreign tourists through the vaccine passport program.

It has 14,470 rooms in 104 hotels, including 47 percent five-star rooms and 27 percent four-star and 26 percent three-star rooms.