Hotel room tariffs seen declining
04-AUG-2008 Intellasia | Saigon Times Daily page 1
Aug 4, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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High hotel room tariffs in Vietnam are projected to decline by 2010 as new rooms will be put into service then, according to a survey by Grant Thornton.
"We expect room rates will start to godownprobablyby2010," said Ken Atkinson, managing partner of Grant Thornton Vietnam Ltd He explained many new rooms would be put into service in late 2009 and 2010. "So the market will become more competitive."
Miquel Angel Perez, chair of EuroCham Tourism and Hospitality Sector Committee, earlier also said hotel room tariffs would fall.
Grant Thornton's Hotel Survey 2008 shows that Vietnam will have 13,500 hotels of all types with 270,076 rooms in 2010, compared to last year's respective figures of 9,000 and more than 180,000.
The survey found that HCM City had 289 hotels of different categories with more than 13,530 rooms last year, and the numbers had risen to 312 and 14,100 respectively by March this year.
The number of 1-to 5-star hotels in Hanoi is forecast to reach 246 with 14,500 rooms, as shown in the hotel survey of the accounting and consulting firm.
This survey covered 37 hotels with 5,216 rooms across Vietnam. The number of hotels has increased by 147% and hotel rooms have been up by 210% compared to the inaugural survey released in 2005.
The fourth edition of the survey shows there had been a 37% increase in Vietnam's average room rates in the 2006-to-2007 period. But Atkinson pointed out that the current hotel room rates in Vietnam were lower than in Singapore, Hong Kong and Europe, but higher than in Thailand and Malaysia.
The survey indicated Hanoi as the most expensive destination by average room rates in Vietnam, and Da Lat is the least expensive among the surveyed destinations, including HCM City, Phan Thiet, Da Nang and Hoi An.
"I think the fact that there are fewer hotel rooms in Hanoi than in HCM City," Atkinson explained. He added there was a tendency that national conferences were held in the capital city.
On average, hotel guests in Hanoi had to pay US$82.78 more than in Da Lat. This is why the average salary of employees working for hotels in the north is twice as much as that of the hotels in the central region, including the Central Highlands.
The total rise in the average room occupancy from 2003 to 2007 was 142%, with the average number of staff employed per hotel soaring 273% over the period.
HCM City had the highest overall average occupancy rate, 79.32% in 2007 and 76.56% in 2006. But the highest annual increase in occupancy occurred in Phan Thiet with 29.40%.
The number of hotels and hotel rooms has grown steadily in Da Nang. From 2003 to 2007, 65 hotels of different categories with more than 1,600 rooms were added to the less mature hotel industry of the central coast city.
The survey revealed hotels' business guests have inched up 5.26% over the past two-years. The 5-star hotels look to rely more on business travellers as their main source of revenue with 39.65% of their guests, while the 4-star hotels are keen more on tour groups, accounting for 39.59% of the total.
Guests staying at 5-starhotels during the high season would pay US$51.53 more than during the low season, the survey found.
The average occupancy rate at large hotels is 76.21% whereas it is only65.83% and 66.13% for medium and small hotels respectively.
Matthew Lourey, corporate finance director of the company, expected high room occupancy as tourists continued to travel to Asia and Vietnam. Meanwhile, Atkinson said there would be more international travellers to Vietnam as a result of more airlines, particularly low-cost carriers to get new experience in this emerging destination.
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