Customers willing to pay for rooms without staying overnight just to get a place to watch the parade
Ms. Phuong Lien is the owner of a homestay on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street (Van Mieu Ward, Hanoi). Since the beginning of August, her family's homestay has regularly received booking requests on online platforms.
"My house is located right on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. From above, the apartment is only a few steps away to the road where the parade blocks pass, so the rooms have been fully booked from August 31 to September 2.
After knowing the schedule for the rehearsals, the number of guests booking rooms in the days before the festival increased significantly, some guests asked us to pay the room fee 3 times, and not sleeping overnight, just hoping to rent a house to book a place to watch the parade," said Ms. Lien.
According to some homestay owners on Nguyen Thai Hoc and Kim Ma streets, the booking schedule has been full since the beginning of August. room rental prices also have a large difference, many places have increased prices by 300% compared to normal days.
"Compared to normal days, during the National Day holiday on September 2 this year, our room rental prices have increased significantly, sometimes increasing by 3 times during peak times. However, many customers are still happy to accept it because of its convenient location, and can walk to the main streets to watch the parade," said another homestay owner on Phung Hung Street.
Not only homestays, mid-range hotels around Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarter are also in a state of scarcity of rooms. Many accommodation service businesses also offer incentive packages with experiences such as walking tours in the old town, enjoying Hanoi cuisine, to increase attraction for tourists.
The increased demand for accommodation during major holidays reflects the special appeal of the parade event. This is also an opportunity for the inner-city accommodation service industry to affirm its advantage in terms of quality and capacity.
Not only in the area around the old town, homestays in some districts far from the center have also increased in price and are constantly running out of space for rent.
"Since the end of July and the beginning of August, there have been customers booking homestays, so now some apartments with 1 bed, 2 bedrooms, 3 bedrooms have all increased in price by 1.5 to 3 times but still have no rooms", said Ms. Minh Nguyet, owner of a homestay chain in Tu Liem and Tay Mo wards.
High room prices, customers upset because they were canceled
Ms. Bui Lan Anh, Phu Tho province (character's name has been changed), booked a room early in Hanoi to watch the parade since the end of July, but near the day the hotel reported the problem of the room being canceled: "My family booked an apartment near Kim Ma street more than a month ago via the application. However, just three days before going to Hanoi, the homestay owner called to cancel due to a technical problem. When I checked again, I found that apartment was re- listed for one and a half times the price.
Many other tourists are in a similar situation. The reason is said to be the sharp increase in room prices during the holidays, many business owners want to cancel old bookings to resell at higher prices. This causes customers to be passive, forced to urgently find rooms or accept higher costs than expected.
According to current regulations, intermediary platforms are responsible for protecting customer rights, including refunds or support for replacement accommodation. However, many people believe that compensation in money cannot fill the interrupted experience, especially before the large-scale parade and parade event in the A80 grand festival.
"complaining about being canceled by hotels and accommodation establishments to increase prices is very time-consuming, only customers are angry with people, because they have lost money to book rooms close to the date and are passive. The event only takes place once every few decades, I hope there will be more strict management so that no one has to endure the cancellation of the room like me," said Ms. Lan Anh.
