Hotel business positive in first quarter

Business performance of four to five-star hotels in HCMC in the first quarter was positive with revenue per available room up 10% compared to 2009’s last quarter, according to a Savills Vietnam Ltd. report.
Savills estimated that more than 2,800 four to five-star rooms would enter the market in the next few years.
The report added that revenue per available four to five-star hotel room was about US$73, an increase of nearly 10% compared to 2009’s fourth quarter. Revenue per available room has increased since the third quarter of last year until now, after a low period in 2009’s second quarter.
Savills said the average rate for a five-star room was US$124 per room/night, US$83 per four-star room, and US$51 per three-star room while average room occupancy at three to five-star hotels increased from 65% in the last quarter of 2009 to 72% in the first quarter of this year.
The company said HCMC has 60 three to four-star hotels with around 8,800 rooms, while no new four or five-star hotels entered the market this quarter.
Truong Vinh Tho, head of the Hotel Management Division under the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism told the Daily last week that the city would not open any four-star or five-star hotels this year.
However, he said that there is currently enough accommodation in HCMC to service travelers, and that many projects to build or upgrade quality hotels are behind schedule.
“It takes investors at least two to three years to build a hotel in the city due to problems with site clearance to make space for new projects. As such, not many new hotels can enter the market in the next few years,” Tho said.
He also said that the low growth rate of the city’s inbound sector in 2008 and the decline in 2009 had made some investors reconsider or slow down hotel development projects in Vietnam.
According to the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, around 637,900 international visitors have flown to HCMC already this year, up 12% year-on-year, along with a small number of other overland and sea travelers.
The growth rate of foreign visitors to HCMC is lower than the entire country’s total 32.6% growth rate though.
The city’s tourism department expects only 2.8 million foreign visitors, up 7% year-on-year.