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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.
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. Source : Ha Yen Other news for Thursday 05 March, 2009
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