Tourism decline hits City hotel market
Tourism decline hits City hotel market
A slump in tourism has hit the HCM City's hotel market, which saw a drop in the average rate of reserved rooms in the first six months of the year compared to the previous five years.
In its recent report, Savills Viet Nam, which provides comprehensive property services, said the hotel market had seen the lowest average room rate in the last five years due to a continuous increase in supply and fierce competition in the market.
For the second quarter of the year, the average room rate dropped 5 per cent compared to the first quarter and 3 per cent year-on-year to VND1.6 million (US$78) per room per night.
According to the report, the city in the second quarter added 540 rooms in the 3-star segment with six new and one refurbished hotels. The 5-star segment had 446 additional rooms from an existing hotel and an upgraded hotel.
As of the end of the second quarter, the city had a total of 106 hotels supplying 13,800 rooms, increasing 6 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 10 per cent year-on-year.
In the first quarter, 3- to 5-star hotels had a soft performance year-on-year.
The average occupancy was 70 per cent, up 2 percentage points quarter-on-quarter but down 4 percentage points year-on-year.
All three grades incurred a year-on-year decrease in occupancy.
The 4-star segment had the highest occupancy drop of 6 percentage points. The 3- and 5-star segment decreased by 4 percentage points each.
The average room rate was VND1.8 million (US$82) per room per night, down 5 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 7 per cent year-on-year.
In the central region, in the first quarter, the average room rate of hotels in Da Nang City dropped 5 per cent against 2014 to VND1.75 million per room per night, while the revenue per available room (RevPAR), a standard industry measure of room utilisation and return, showed a 12 per cent decrease.
The overall occupancy decreased 4 percentage points against 2014 to 48 per cent.
Fifty-six 3 - to 5- star hotels supplied about 6,450 rooms, up 7 per cent against 2014.
According to the 2015 Vietnam Hotel Survey of 60 4- to 5-star hotels conducted by the UK-owned audit and consultancy firm Grant Thornton Vietnam from March to June, RevPAR experienced a slight decrease of 1.8 per cent from US$60.42 in 2013 to $59.31 last year.
The decrease was attributed to a drop of 2 per cent in average occupancy, it said.
Data breakdowns showed that while average occupancy rates of 4- and 5-star hotels rose 6.7 per cent year-on-year in Ha Noi, the rates fell 6.7 per cent compared with the previous year in HCM City.
