Guests staying at Azerai La Residence Hotel, Hue

Solve the problem of "room shortage"

In early April 2025, when asked about the room booking situation for the April 30 - May 1 holiday, Mr. Ho Dang Xuan Lan, Chairman of the Hue City Hotel Association, happily said that the capacity of many hotels will be filled. The above information is good news for Hue tourism, but in reality, it also raises a concern that is considered an annual problem during peak season - that is the situation of "room shortage".

The shortage of hotel rooms in Hue during peak season has been a problem for many years, often reported by tourists during long vacations. Recently, during the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day holiday, many tourists came to Hue to participate in the VnExpress Marathon Hue 2025 but had difficulty finding hotel rooms. Ms. Le Kieu Oanh, 27 years old, shared: "I have been to Hue many times and encountered a similar situation. Because I planned late, I could not book a room in time. When the day came to go to Hue, there was no accommodation as expected."

It is not difficult to understand why Hue often has a "room shortage" during peak times. As of the first quarter of 2025, the city has 887 accommodation establishments, with nearly 14,100 rooms and nearly 22,650 beds. Of these, there are 199 hotels (accounting for more than 22% of the total number of accommodation establishments) with more than 8,500 rooms (accounting for more than 60% of the total number of rooms) and nearly 14,100 beds (accounting for more than 62% of the total number of beds). There are 24 3-5 star hotels with 3,430 rooms (accounting for more than 91%) and nearly 5,400 beds (accounting for more than 90%) out of a total of 33 star hotels with 3,754 rooms and 5,950 beds.

Compared to more than 10 years ago, the number of high-star hotels in Hue has not changed much. In 2024, in addition to the 3-star SBH Gloria Hue Resort, Hue tourism will have 2 more hotels recognized by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism as meeting 5-star standards, namely La Vela Hue Hotel (June 2024) and Langco Bay Retreat Resort Hotel (October 2024), bringing the total number of 5-star accommodations in Hue to 10. This is still a rather modest number compared to Hue's tourism potential.

In fact, in contrast to the slow growth of hotels and accommodation facilities, the number of visitors to Hue is on the rise. In 2024, the tourism industry will welcome nearly 3.9 million visitors, an increase of nearly 22% compared to 2023; including nearly 1.4 million international visitors, an increase of nearly 16% compared to the previous year. In 2025, the initial target set by the tourism industry was to strive to attract about 4.8-5 million tourists, but the actual developments made the leaders of the Department of Tourism optimistic and commented that the estimated number will be more than 6 million visitors.

The current trend is that tourists do not like to stay in motels. On the contrary, the majority of tourists prefer to stay in 3-5 star hotels. The number of tourists is increasing but the scale of hotels is slowly increasing, which is a concern and needs to be resolved soon so that Hue tourism can make a strong breakthrough in the near future.

Visitors to Hue on holidays are very crowded.

Call for investment

With his passion for developing tourism in the ancient capital, Mr. Nguyen Huu Binh, Director of Century Hue Hotel, also has concerns about accommodation services in Hue. Mr. Binh believes that service infrastructure must meet the development requirements of tourism. Along with travel and transportation, accommodation services are the pillars in tourism development. Accommodation services must be of a high standard and meet the requirements to retain tourists. The current difficulty is that although the situation of "full rooms" is common during peak times, holidays, and weekends, the capacity cannot be filled during the middle of the week. That is also the reason why investors have to calculate very carefully when investing.

In fact, the room fund of hotels has not met the requirements, making it difficult to create a competitive advantage. Looking at neighboring localities, thanks to the large room fund, the units are quite proactive in welcoming guests, introducing stimulus policies to attract guests in the context of fierce competition in tourism and the problem of retaining tourists is increasingly difficult. Currently, Hue is also interested in MICE tourism (a type of tourism that combines relaxation with organizing events, conferences, seminars, awards, etc.). The requirements of this type of tourism are to serve a large number of guests, so it requires a large number of rooms and large halls. This is one of the limitations of Hue tourism.

To solve the problem of accommodation services, it is important to have attractive mechanisms and policies to attract investment. According to the leader of the Department of Tourism, Hue City is focusing on implementing many solutions to further improve the business environment, enhance competitiveness, and create favorable conditions to effectively attract investment capital into the tourism sector. In 2025, efforts will be made to attract investment in 3-5 projects to build 5-star hotels and tourist resorts.

Currently, in Hue City, there are a number of high-quality hotel construction projects that are urgently completing the remaining stages to put into operation soon in the near future, such as: Dong Duong Hotel Project at 2 Hung Vuong Street, Thuan Hoa District; Hue Square Hotel Project at Le Loi Street, Thuan Hoa District... In addition, another project on a 5-star international standard hotel in Eco Garden Hue urban area (Thuy Van Ward, Thuan Hoa District) is also being planned by investors to be built to supplement the number of high-class accommodation rooms for Hue City in the near future.

Article and photos: HUU PHUC

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/du-lich/dau-tu-dich-vu-luu-tru-de-giu-chan-du-khach-153081.html