According to AirDNA, the homestay market in Vietnam, understood as houses with rooms for lease to travelers, is booming. In the last two years, the list of homestays available to lease on Airbnb and HomeAway soared by 452 percent. There are 50,000 homestays on online room booking channels.

Most homestay owners in Vietnam lease an entire house. More than 52 percent of homeowners rent the whole house, nearly 44 percent rent separate rooms and 4 percent share rooms.

The rent of entire house is $69 per day on average, while the rent of one separate room is $31.

However, not all investors can earn money from homestay services. There are tens of thousands of homestays throughout the country, but 10 largest markets (HCMC, Hanoi, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa, Quang Nam, Lam Dong, Vung Tau, Kien Giang, Quang Ninh and Thua Thien-Hue) account for 93 percent of total supply and 98 percent of total revenue.

The annual revenue is $41.6 million in HCMC,$19.5 million in Da Nang, $13.3 million in Hanoi and $7.6 million in Khanh Hoa province.

HCMC is the city with the biggest supply of homestays, accounting for 37 percent of total supply. However, the number of rentals in Da Nang, Quang Nam and Vung Tau are where the rental are the highest.

In Da Nang, the average rent of entire houses is the highest, $61 (from April 2018 to March 2019).

The AirDNA report found that the majority of guests at homestays in Vietnam are foreign travelers. 66 percent of guests at homestays are from Singapore, Seoul, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Sydney. However, the biggest source of travelers is HCMC.

Duong Minh Binh, chair of CBT Travel, a consultant on homestay development, said homestay owners should pay attention to the sources of guests from large cities.

“In 2013-2015, the guests from the region accounted for 5 percent of total guests, but the figure has soared to 30 percent,” he said.

CBT Travel’s homestays are available in over 20 cities/provinces, mostly in the north.

Urban areas have the best revenue but rural areas have seen an increase of 111 percent in demand.

Despite the high demand, the revenue of homestays in rural areas accounted for 2 percent of total revenue last year, about $3million.

Chi Mai 

Experts see problems in ‘homestay rush’

Problems have arisen after a hot development period of homestay service over the past few years. Many homestays have shut down, while existing homestays have kicked off unhealthy competition by slashing rents.

The future of homestays in Vietnam

The number of people coming to Vietnam combining business with tourism has increased significantly in recent times, and is one of the reasons for arrival numbers to jump in recent years.