The domestic market saw contrasting performances in the hotel segment in the large cities of Ha Noi, Da Nang and HCM City, foreign property service providers in Viet Nam said.

A view of Pullman Saigon Centre in HCM City's District 1. According to Savills Vietnam, the city's three-star to five-star hotels continue to have soft performances y-o-y.  

In Ha Noi, the hotel segment had its high season in Q1/2015, Savills Viet Nam said in its report on the Ha Noi real estate market.

The average occupancy rate decreased by three percentage points quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), but increased three percentage points year-on-year (y-o-y). Five-star occupancy declined five percentage points q-o-q, while four-star occupancy increased one percentage point q-o-q. Three-star occupancy remained unchanged.

The average room rate increased five per cent q-o-q, and four per cent y-o-y. All grades recorded a positive average room rate change q-o-q, it said.

"The average revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased one per cent q-o-q and nine per cent y-o-y," Savills Viet Nam said.

In Q1/2015, the number of occupied rooms increased by one per cent q-o-q and 13 per cent y-o-y. Five-star hotels accounted for 55 per cent of the market share, while three and four-star hotels claimed 22.5 per cent of the market share.

"In spite of decreasing q-o-q in occupancy, the hotel market recorded positive movement in the average room rate," Do Thu Hang, head of research and consultancy in Savills Viet Nam, said. "The hotel market performance is expected to improve in the last three quarters due to tourism-promotion activities in Ha Noi and visa exemption policies for international tourists."

In Da Nang, the long Tet holiday helped to improve the room rates and occupancy rate in most hotels and resorts. Therefore, all segments saw an increase on a y-o-y basis, CBRE Viet Nam's quarter report on the Da Nang property market said.

The high average room rates at Novotel Premier Han River Hotel and A La Carte Hotel partly raised the RevPar of the five-star city hotels and four-star city hotels significantly by 66 per cent y-o-y and 29 per cent y-o-y, respectively.

In the next quarter, due to holidays and the peak season, Da Nang's hotels/resorts would achieve much higher average occupancy rates, CBRE Viet Nam said.

"Hosting APEC 2017 is good news for Da Nang City as this is a chance to promote the city's image to the world, promising greater number of visitors from various countries and positive impacts on the city's hospitality market," Duong Thuy Dung, CBRE Viet Nam's associate director, research and consulting, said.

Existing international operators are expanding their market share in Da Nang through new developments such as Fusion Suites (Fusion) and French Village (Mecure and Ibis). In the near future, Melia Da Nang (Melia) and Hilton, which are new operators, will also enter the market.

Soft performance

Meanwhile, HCM City's three-star to five-star hotels continued to have a soft performance y-o-y, Savills Viet Nam's report on the HCM City real estate market in the first quarter of 2015 said.

The average occupancy was 70 per cent, up two percentage points q-o-q, but down four percentage points y-o-y. All three grades suffered a y-o-y decrease in occupancy.

The four-star segment had the highest occupancy drop of six percentage points y-o-y. The three-star and five-star segments decreased by four percentage points y-o-y each.

The average room rate (ARR) was VND1.8 million per room per night (US$82/room/night), down five per cent q-o-q and seven per cent y-o-y.

In 2015, the HCM City hoel market is expecting a large amount of supply from four new five-star projects, increasing the total stock of this segment by 22 per cent y-o-y.

This will directly put pressure on the performance of the five-star segment, and partly affect the performance of the overall market in 2015.

As of Q1/2015, there were 22 three-star to five-star hotels in the future list, supplying approximately 5,300 rooms to the market. Ten projects with more than 2,300 units are expected to be launched in the next three years. 

VNS