Lack of rooms, not small thing!
| 10:06' 20/06/2007 (GMT+7) | ||
Foreign tour operators complain
The famous travel magazine TTG has recently published quite a heavy criticism of the business style of some hotels in Vietnam. Here are some quotations:
Australia-based Travel Indochina product manager, Mr Eric Finley, said: "We have been marketing Vietnam for more than 13 years and have never seen anything like this. When negotiating rates for 2008, we had some hoteliers insisting on immediate rate increases, and increases of 50% on existing bookings. Other companies report hoteliers have insisted on reducing allotments dramatically, some cutting allotments in high season altogether."
He said that if hoteliers continued with this strategy it would cost Vietnam’s entire tourism industry across the board, and recovery time from such trauma in other markets had "taken years".
Phoenix Voyages Groups president, Edouard George, said: "The behaviour of some leading hotels is seriously jeopardising the future of inbound agencies, both in terms of employment and profitability... The hotels should realise inbound agencies are working and preparing travel plans a year in advance.”
He said inbound operators were forced to quote "blindly" as a result, and had to turn down several groups "not because the hotels are full, but because they refused to sell their rooms to inbound agencies”.
Focus Asia’s sales and marketing director, Patrick Gaveau, said: "Vietnam has been successful at attracting tourists; it is a safe, exotic and price competitive destination. Now, we wonder if hotels’ outrageous price hikes and the declining appeal of the damaged environment combined with the poor maintenance of landmarks and sites may damage Vietnam’s credibility in the long run."
Destination Asia’s managing director, Paul Levrier, said: "Within the space of this first quarter of the year, we are already seeing our long-term clients search for alternative destinations in the region after being frustrated with the hotels’ approach to business and the lack of ethics applied."
On TTG, many foreign tour operators said that Vietnam was now outside the market as some hotels announced they would apply the price of $100 for a three-star room for the 2008 tourism season.
What do local tour operators say?
June and July are the time for negotiating the prices and offering tours for the next travel season among local and foreign travel companies.
A representative of Saigontourist said: “Foreign partners always complain because the offered price increases 20% annually. It is very difficult to negotiate with them. The tour price increases continuously because the increase of room prices. Some hotels have announced a 50-60% rate increase for rooms in 2008. Some hotels in Hanoi even refuse to negotiate for tour travelers.”
A representative of DL Exotissimo, which focuses on European travellers, said: “The current room prices of Vietnam are higher than neighbouring countries like Thailand and China up to 20%-50%.”
DL Exotissimo’s Chairman Tran Khang Thuy said that as the political situation in Thailand was unstable, the number of foreign visitors coming to Vietnam was increasing clearly.
Holding this opportunity, Vietnamese hoteliers ought to join hands with travel agents to advertise Vietnam’s tourism but they allege the increase of power, water and food prices have pushed up room rates. They even neglect contracts that they signed with travel companies one year ago.
Director of the MICE Travel Centre, Le Hoang Yen, complained: “It is normal for hotels to increase room prices. For example the Legend Hotel offered US$80-90/person/night in 2006 but now the price is double ($120-180/night). At the Caravelle the price has gone from $120/night in 2006 to $200/night in 2007. At this pace, it is not strange to see the room price in Vietnam in 2008 at $300/person/night.
“Even when we had signed contracts already, hotels still canceled the contract with thousands of reasons or put our visitors into rooms of lower prices, breaking our contracts. It is too tiring for travel agents now when it is difficult for us to gain a big contract but our efforts may turn to zero if hotels announce they have raised room prices or have no rooms. How can international meetings change their schedule? Frequent room price changes also annoy travellers. Because of this we have had to recently cancel the tour of a group of nearly 400 visitors.”
(Source: Viet Nam Net) |
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