gloomy situation
The announcement of a 5-star hotel with more than 1,000 rooms located on the shore of Ha Long Bay to stop operations from April 1, 2025 after 5 years of operation, although not giving a reason, hotel traders believe that the gloomy business situation is affecting many hotel investors.
According to statistics, the whole city currently has nearly 700 registered accommodation establishments with over 23,000 rooms. Not to mention that there are about 2,000 rooms of hundreds of overnight ships on Ha Long Bay and a series of shophouses waiting for customers, along with many hotels under construction.
Just counting the number of hotel rooms in Ha Long that can welcome about 4-50,000 guests at the same time. Meanwhile, only on peak days of the tourist season can the above figure be reached, while on other days, the number of overnight guests is very low.
The island is about the center of Bai Chay tourism center, with many hotels closed. On Hau Can Street, Dia Chat Hotel has been closed for a long time, is currently abandoned, littered with garbage and weeds. Once one of the most luxurious hotels in Ha Long, located right at the intersection of Hoang Quoc Viet Street, Lotus Hotel has deteriorated due to many years of not operating, because the revenue is not enough to cover expenses.
Some hotels, even after being built, are still not put into operation due to concerns about losses. Many projects started when the market was still vibrant are now abandoned because investors did not dare to continue to invest, due to the completion cost of up to tens of billions of VND while the number of guests was small and room prices were competitive. A typical example is the high-rise hotel on the hill at the end of Hau Can Street, with a view of Ha Long Bay, the frame has been completed but construction is still stopped.
The race for great price reduction
According to hotel traders in Ha Long, small hotels can try to maintain because of lower costs, but for large hotels, it is better to close because of low operating capacity while the price is cheap.
The massive construction of hotels leads to a fierce race to lower room prices. 3-4 star hotels in Ha Long only range from 700,000 - 1,000,000 VND/room/night, equal to the price of 1-2 star hotels in some other localities.
Many hotels are willing to reduce prices further to attract customers, with the motto of using less interest but using more to compensate.
However, the price reduction means a decrease in quality because many other services will have to be cut, only maintaining the service staff at a minimum level and when there are many customers, there will be a shortage of human resources.
At the workshop " Optimizing price strategies and sales channels" related to the hotel industry in Ha Long, recently, experts and managers were worried about the situation of competing to greatly reduce room prices in Ha Long.
According to Mr. Jimmy Nguyen - Senior Business Development Manager of SiteMinder - competing to lower room prices will affect the brand positioning of Ha Long's calendar and in the future, it will be very difficult to increase it again, because increasing prices will require increasing service quality and adding more products.
Mr. Ngo Phuoc Linh - Executive Director of the Global Tourism Promotion Organization (GTDO) - said that instead of competing for big discounts, we should work together to increase the quality of services and experiences for tourists, so that tourists feel that "hotels are not just a place to sleep". This is also a way to contribute to making Ha Long have 4-season tourism.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang - Revenue Director of Sun Hospitality Group - called on the hotel business community in Ha Long to join hands to keep their brand and position the market, instead of constantly competing for prices as at present.
