Many hotels in Nha Trang City are facing slow sales due to oversupply and dubious services.

Many hotels in Nha Trang City are facing slow sales due to oversupply

According to Nguyen Thi Le Thanh, deputy head of Khanh Hoa Province Department of Tourism, there are 39,400 hotel rooms in the province, an increase of 10,000 rooms compared to 2017. An inspection in late 2018 shows that the prices of the rooms were 56% lower than the listed prices and the occupancy rate was only 45%.

Thanh said the number of visitors dropped because of unfavourable weather in late 2018 while supply suddenly increased. The province had 650 businesses offering accommodation and 29,000 rooms in 2017. The numbers increased to 750 for accommodation and 39,000 rooms.

"Several years ago, Nha Trang faced a shortage of accommodation facilities after a surge in visitors. However, large projects led to oversupply," Thanh said.

Many self-proclaimed four-star hotels actually haven't been inspected and don't meet requirements. Those hotels have lowered their prices to attract customers in a tough time but their service quality and Nha Trang's tourism sector have been badly affected.

Nguyen Ngoc Huong, director of Viet Promotion Company, said some years ago, hotels were mostly fully booked by Chinese and Russian tourist groups so domestic visitors had been actively avoiding Nha Trang.

The regular hotels are also facing fierce competition from condotels. Nguyen Van Thanh, deputy head of Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa Tourism Association, said with the same services, a condotel costs only VND500,000 (USD21.5) to VND1.5m, 50% cheaper than a hotel room

In order to deal with the situation, the Department of Tourism has launched an inspection to prevent hotels from randomly claiming stars. However, they need directives from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to deal with the condotels.

"The hotels must improve services and be more active in promotion. The local authorities have held over 10 events to promote Nha Trang tourism but the service providers were not very enthusiastic," Thanh said.

Nguoilaodong/Dtinews