Bustling Tet travel: Everywhere you go, there are full rooms, even the rooms are rundown and customers still accept them

Hội An là điểm đến được nhiều du khách chọn lựa trong dịp Tết vừa rồi - Ảnh: T.T.D. — Hoi An is a destination chosen by many tourists during the recent Tet holiday - Photo: TTD

On the way to spring travel or returning to Ho Chi Minh City for work, many families traveling by private car have chosen "less famous" locations on the tourist map to stop, both to rest and explore new lands, leading to a situation of "full rooms" due to the sudden increase in the number of visitors.

The trend of independent travel with a distance of 300 - 500km from where you live or work, due to expensive airfares while highways have been put into use, is redrawing the way Vietnamese people travel, especially during the Tet holiday.

Hotel rooms on fire, services overloaded

On the morning of February 14 (the 5th day of Tet), Mr. Nguyen Phuc Minh (42 years old, from Quang Ngai) with his wife and two daughters arrived in Tuy Hoa City (Phu Yen) after an eight-hour journey by seven-seater car.

According to Mr. Minh, during Tet holidays, airfares are sky-high, and train and bus tickets must be booked a month in advance, so his whole family decided to travel by car. His family chose Phu Yen as a stopover on the way back to Ho Chi Minh City.

"Going by private car is very convenient, because my family can stop anywhere, visit any tourist attractions along the way, without depending on anyone" - Mr. Minh said and said that he chose Phu Yen to travel on the journey back to Ho Chi Minh City after Tet because this locality has just emerged on the national tourism map.

"We took the opportunity to visit Nghinh Phong Tower Square, visit Ganh Da Dia scenic spot... because we had only seen it through books, newspapers, and social networks before" - Mr. Minh said.

However, Mr. Minh also said that finding a room to stay when coming to Phu Yen was a bit difficult because the number of guests booked in advance almost filled all the hotels, his family had to search hard to find a hotel near the center of Tuy Hoa city.

Meanwhile, after celebrating Tet with his family until the 3rd day, on the morning of February 13 (the 4th day of Tet), Mr. Le Huu Quoc and his wife (from Tien Giang) decided to drive straight from Tien Giang to Phu Yen for a vacation. Thanks to the highway, the time was significantly shortened.

"My family stayed in Tuy Hoa City for two days and one night to visit tourist attractions and enjoy the local specialties. Everything here is fine, but the only difficulty is finding a hotel to stay.

My family arrived in Tuy Hoa on the evening of the 4th day of Tet. The roads here were crowded with cars. Every hotel we asked about was fully booked, so my husband and I agreed to drive a little further out of town to rent a room," said Mr. Quoc.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thanh (42 years old, Ho Chi Minh City) said that his family arrived in Tuy Hoa at 5:00 p.m. on February 13 (the 4th day of Tet) but it was almost 9:00 p.m. before they could find a place to stay overnight.

"Driving from Ho Chi Minh City to Tuy Hoa is very convenient, the specialties are delicious, the people are hospitable. Only finding a hotel room is so difficult, my husband and I drove along Hung Vuong and Tran Phu streets but all the places shook our heads.

Luckily, a friend's house had a spare room so the couple had a place to stay" - Mr. Thanh said.

According to Mr. Dang Hoa - Head of Sales Department of Mandala Hotel & Spa Phu Yen, although the number of guests from travel agencies sending room bookings to the hotel during Tet is not much, the number of individual guests such as self-sufficient families, cross-country tourists, unexpected guests... has increased dramatically during Tet this year.

"The number of guests traveling by car or without prior reservations has increased dramatically, up to about 45%, so hotel revenue has also increased compared to last year," said Mr. Hoa.

Some hotels in Tuy Hoa also said that the number of visitors who did not book rooms in advance increased suddenly, leading to a shortage of rooms at times.

Degraded rooms are also accepted by guests.

Departing from Quang Ngai to Ho Chi Minh City on February 12 (the 3rd day of Tet), Ms. T's family planned to stop in two places: Quy Nhon City (Binh Dinh) and Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa Province) to both rest and travel.

Therefore, Ms. T. booked a room in advance at both of the above locations through a bank's app for 1 million VND/room/night.

In Quy Nhon, everything went smoothly, but in Nha Trang, an unexpected incident occurred. Late in the afternoon of the 3rd day of Tet, when arriving at the MB Nha Trang Hotel (Tran Phu Street) and giving the previous check-in code, Ms. T. was informed by the receptionist that "no code has been booked here" and the hotel was also fully booked.

"The receptionist also said that I was the second person to fall into this situation. Before that, on the morning of the third day of Tet, there was also a similar customer case, but the receptionist could not resolve it because they thought it was the fault of Mytour (a third party service provider - PV)," Ms. T. recounted.

Helpless, her whole family went to look for another hotel. However, it took Ms. T. an hour to find a room but she accepted the price of 2 million VND/night.

Meanwhile, Mr. NVChung’s family (Thu Duc City) also had a tiring night on the 4th day of Tet when they arrived in Tuy Hoa City. Before that, the family booked a hotel room through an online booking app for 1.6 million VND.

"Over the phone, I was told that the room had been booked two days ago and there was no room with my name on it. The online booking application still showed the room price because the system was faulty," Mr. Chung recounted.

That day, the whole Tuy Hoa was full of guests from all over the region. Every hotel we went to said they had no rooms left.

The whole city was filled with cars with license plates from other provinces, most of which were from Ho Chi Minh City. Many families were running around looking for a room to stay because of problems and unexpectedly, during Tet, the hotels were overloaded.

The family of five finally "snatched" a room in the farmstay resort with quite ordinary facilities but the price was up to 1.2 million VND/night.

Hotel staff also could not explain why the city was "full" of rooms in the days after Tet. However, looking at the cars parked all over the hotels, it can be understood that the cities in the Central region with tourist attractions such as Quy Nhon, Nha Trang, Phan Rang... are stops for families.

The booming trend of going back to the countryside or traveling by personal car has caused stops to follow suit, suddenly creating an unplanned peak business season.

The director of a 3-star hotel in Quy Nhon said that from the second day of Tet onwards, the hotel has always been fully booked, even some degraded rooms have been put into use because the guests agreed.

"Guests are mainly families and groups of friends who come together to celebrate Tet and stop here, so most of them only stay one night. They also do not care about breakfast or other entertainment services in the hotel. This is a phenomenon that has not happened in previous Tet seasons," he said.

International visitors increase

The Tet holiday recorded a high number of international visitors in many localities: Da Nang is estimated to welcome nearly 177,000 arrivals; Hanoi is estimated to welcome nearly 103,000 arrivals, 2.2 times higher than the same period in 2023; Ninh Binh is estimated to welcome nearly 100,000 arrivals; Quang Nam is estimated to welcome 97,000 arrivals, an increase of 42%; Quang Ninh is estimated to welcome 89,767 arrivals; Ho Chi Minh City is estimated to welcome 75,000 arrivals, an increase of 15.4% over the same period in 2023.

In addition, some localities have seen the number of visitors increase many times over, such as Kien Giang, estimated to welcome 44,370 arrivals, 4.8 times higher than the same period in 2023; Lam Dong is estimated to welcome 20,000 arrivals...

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the number of international visitors will continue to increase compared to the 2024 New Year and the same period in 2023 thanks to the effect of favorable visa policies, the right direction in restructuring the tourist market, the efforts of businesses, localities and widely deployed promotion and advertising activities.

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