Phuong Thao
In the six-day public holiday, from April 28 to May 3, which combined the Hung Kings’ Death Anniversary on April 28, Reunification Day on April 30 and International Labor Day on May 1, vacationers swarmed into tourist attractions across Vietnam. Almost all hotels in popular sites such as Dalat of Lam Dong Province, Cat Ba Island off Haiphong City, and Quang Ninh Province’s Halong Bay, Co To Water Park and Bai Chay Tourist Wharf, were fully occupied between April 28 and May 3, with prices skyrocketing up to three-fold compared to normal rates.
Meanwhile, in the central province of Quang Binh, the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, welcomed a record 35,000 visitors in the four days of the holiday. Ba Ria-Vung Tau, HCMC, and Phu Quoc Island off mainland Kien Giang saw large numbers of tourists as well.
The long holiday should have been a gold opportunity to develop domestic tourism but unfortunately, it exposed shortcomings of the industry. News reports say many hotels and travel firms overcharged guests.
As reported by Lao Dong newspaper, many holidaymakers thronged Danang to watch a spectacular international fireworks display competition. According to an order by the city government, local hotels could increase room rates by a maximum of 50%. Most lodging facilities along the beach were full, with three-star hotels strictly complying with the regulations on transparent pricing. But smaller places were overcharging guests with their prices more than double normal rates.
Believe it or not, hotels, mostly those of 2-3 stars, in the northern upland town of Sa Pa quoted room rates at VND17.3-46 million (US$800-2,130) per night on room booking websites like Agoda.
Tuoi Tre newspaper says that the lack of hotel room rate controls was a failure of Vietnam’s tourism sector since guests often shun those destinations with exorbitant room tariffs.
Do Thi Hong Xoan, vice chairwoman of the Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA), says on Thoi bao Kinh te Sai Gon Online that hotel room tariffs have become unpredictable in recent years. Room rates are sometimes higher than in other regional markets, making it difficult for travel firms to sell their tours.
In addition, a number of hotels lower service quality and undercut room tariffs to lure guests, hurting the prestige of the hotel sector in the country. Many tour organizers have criticized unstable room prices in Vietnam, saying this pricing practice prevents them from luring more vacationers.
Many hotels resort to a tactic of setting high prices at the beginning of year and later offering discounts. But it is too late for tour organizers to lower tour prices. In the meantime, hotel prices are far more stable in Thailand and Malaysia, enabling tour organizers to offer the best prices to tourists one year in advance.
Nguyen Thi Kim Khanh, Hanoi branch director of Lua Viet Tours, says on Vietnamnet that overcharging is the result of an imbalance between demand and supply.
Local media warned of overcrowding at tourist attractions with a lot of travel firms and holidaymakers sharing their bitter experiences. Many people still chose to travel on holidays as they rarely had such a long holiday. Therefore, they had to pay higher prices than on normal days for hotel, food and transport services. Visitors that fail to set up travel plans long before holidays are often overcharged, she adds.
However, Nguyen Tien Dat, vice director of TransViet Travel, says that overcharging by hotels and transport firms is unacceptable.
“I strongly oppose such unprofessional practices. Those enterprises have no business ethnics and long holidays cannot be chances for them to overcharge clients. What they do badly affects the reputation of other hotels and companies and weakens the local tourism industry. Government agencies should intervene by imposing heavy fines on unethical business practices but tourists should also avoid traveling to overcrowded places on holidays,” he says.
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