Before the holiday season, hotels in Dong Hoi City are competing to raise prices.

Room rates doubled

One day in early April, Thanh Nien reporters received a call from a relative "calling for help" because they could not book rooms at many hotels in Dong Hoi City, so they went to investigate directly.

Indeed, although there are still 20 days left until the holiday, many hotels (3 stars and above) in Dong Hoi City have started to be fully booked. R. Hotel (4 stars, located on Truong Phap Street), T.D Hotel (3 stars, on Dong Hai Street, Hai Thanh Ward)… have no more vacant rooms during the holiday.

The receptionist at R. Hotel said that the room rates during the holidays have increased slightly from VND700,000/night to VND1 million/night for a basic double room. Meanwhile, the receptionist at T.D. Hotel said that on average, the room rates will increase by about 20%. "There are rooms here that cost up to VND3.5 million/night during this holiday," said the receptionist at T.D. Hotel.

Hotels along Truong Phap Street (Dong Hoi City, Quang Binh) are either fully booked or have very high prices for the April 30 - May 1 holiday.

On the afternoon of April 8, Thanh Nien reporters "knocked on the door" of the receptionist of R. Hotel (on Bach Dang Street, Nam Ly Ward, Dong Hoi City) and learned that this accommodation facility still has rooms available for the April 30 - May 1 holiday. However, the price offered by the receptionist is much higher than usual. Specifically, a double room costs 1.8 million VND/night, with an additional charge of 450,000 VND/person. The receptionist said that the normal price here is about 1.4 million VND/night...

But the most "shocking" thing is AL 2 hotel (on Truong Phap street, Hai Thanh ward). This is a 3-star hotel, located on the way to Nhat Le beach. When we went to book a room, the receptionist said there were still rooms available for the holiday and wrote the room price on an A4 sheet of paper: double room for 4 people for 2 million VND/night, double room for 2 people for 1.5 million VND/night, including breakfast.

When reporters questioned the high price, the receptionist explained: "Our prices will be posted on holidays." Notably, the listed prices of AL 2 Hotel on April 9 ranged from VND790,000 to VND1 million/room/night for all room categories. Thus, the prices for the April 30 - May 1 holidays will double the normal prices.

A piece of paper with the room price for April 30 - May 1 that the receptionist at AL 2 hotel quoted to the reporter (photo cut from clip)

Talking to Thanh Nien reporter , the director of a 3-star hotel on Nhat Le beach said he was not surprised by the "dancing" of room prices in the area during the holiday, because it happens every year. Taking advantage of the increase in the number of visitors, many local accommodation establishments have been doing business in a quick-fix manner, shouting prices and ripping off customers.

"The unreasonable price increase that does not go hand in hand with service quality not only affects the tourism environment of Dong Hoi City, Quang Binh in general because it creates unpleasant experiences for tourists, but also affects honest businesses," he said.

AL 2 hotel price list on April 9

Negotiate with customers or increase prices unreasonably?

Information from the Tourism Management Department (Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Binh) said that as of April 10, many 3-star hotels and above in Dong Hoi City were almost fully booked for the holiday.

A leader of the Tourism Management Department explained that the seasonality of tourism has affected accommodation prices at different times. "Accommodation owners have different periods of demand stimulation. During the low season, they lower room prices, and during the high season, they increase prices to compensate for losses. However, price increases and decreases must be listed and agreed upon with guests from the beginning to avoid unreasonable price increases and price gouging," he said.

According to this person, setting room prices at certain times is the right of the accommodation establishment owner, operating according to the market mechanism, "willing buyer, willing seller" between them and the guests. State management agencies cannot intervene but can only inspect and impose penalties in cases where the accommodation establishment owner sells goods at prices other than the listed price, without prior agreement with the guests. However, this person also admits that arbitrary and excessive price increases will generally affect the local tourism environment...

Authorities encourage hotel owners to list prices at reasonable levels to create a good environment for local tourism.

Mr. Dang Dong Ha, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Binh province, informed: Before the holiday, the department sent a document to tourism service businesses about standard tourist service manners. "Before April 30, we will meet with accommodation, travel, and food service units to thoroughly understand once again," said Mr. Ha. After that, if businesses still deliberately violate, sell services at higher prices than listed prices, cause trouble... then they will be handled according to regulations.

According to Mr. Ha, although the management agency does not have specific regulations on room rates, increasing prices (even with prior agreement) by double the normal day rate to force customers when there is a "room shortage" is a condemnable business practice.

"I have not heard any reports about room rates doubling, but I cannot rule out the possibility. If the owner of the accommodation facility does so, there will certainly be public backlash and the hotel will not be able to survive long," said Mr. Ha.

According to Nguyen Phuc (TNO)

Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/chua-den-ky-nghi-le-khach-san-tai-tpdong-hoi-da-dua-nhau-het-gia-post318673.html