"New look" for homestay

(QBĐT) - After a period of rapid and unoriented development, the homestay system in the province has had new development directions, more suitable to the trend of modern tourism , making efforts to catch up with changes from reality. "Long journeys reveal good horses", if homestays innovate, adapt flexibly, improve service quality, focus on skills and expertise of human resources, they will certainly be ready for the long journey, overcoming difficulties and challenges. However, on that journey, it is still necessary to promote connections and support, especially in the way of developing sustainable tourism, towards green growth.

The captain's Garden House is the third accommodation facility built by Mr. Hoang Quang Trung (born in 1983, Bao Ninh commune, Dong Hoi city) in Bao Ninh commune in the past 5 years. Originally a photographer but passionate about tourism, especially when he saw that the commune still did not have a proper homestay, Mr. Trung decided to contribute capital with friends to build Barefoot Homestay in 2017. The initial success of the homestay has accumulated for him a lot of valuable experience, especially the skills of serving tourists, grasping trends and managing this new tourism model. Next, he confidently opened "The captain's Garden House" with 6 rooms also right in the coastal commune of Bao Ninh.

Homestay really helps him satisfy his passion for tourism. Besides ensuring service quality, he determines to do the job with all his heart, so that tourists feel "coming here like coming home". He enthusiastically advises guests on destinations, cuisine , and supports other services...

He shared: “Working as a homestay, I don’t dare to go further than 1 kilometer, because whenever a guest needs support, I will be there in time.” The relationship with the guests is also maintained regularly, guests staying more than 3 days will receive local specialties from the homestay; if there are any problems, he always puts himself in the customer’s position, resolves the conflict quickly, and is most beneficial for the guests. Thanks to that, the homestay is loved, recommended “by hand” and has very good room utilization efficiency.

Homestay is a type of accommodation chosen by many tourists when coming to Quang Binh .

Still wanting to experiment with newer accommodation models, in 2024, he invested in building “The Captain's Garden House” in a new style, a separate villa for guests to rent as a package. The model has a spacious garden, swimming pool, modernly designed rooms with its own aesthetic. Only in operation for 3 months, but the model has recorded the love of tourists traveling in groups, families, needing long-term stays and creating comfort during the service use.

Although he hands over the keys to the guests, Mr. Trung still regularly supports, advises on destinations, cuisine, even goes to the market with tourists and designs meals according to diverse needs.

Mr. Trung shared that through the process of running a homestay business, he realized that one of the most important factors is the skills and experience of the homestay owner. In addition to being trained and educated, homestay owners also need to regularly accumulate experience, improve their skills and constantly learn and update their knowledge to meet the changes in current tourism trends.

Having gone through the Covid-19 pandemic with many difficulties, Lucky Homes (Phong Nha town, Bo Trach) has made many innovations to suit the needs of tourists. Ha Khiem, manager of Lucky Homes, said that the homestay has been in operation since 2019, the result of Khiem's ​​parents and handed over to their children to manage. The homestay has 10 rooms with guaranteed service quality, providing additional meals according to tourists' needs...

Ha Khiem, who majored in tourism, has many advantages in promoting and introducing homestays and supporting training and improving skills for staff. Currently, although living in Japan, Khiem still participates in remote online management, supporting his siblings in the process of operating the homestay. This is the strength of the homestay when it has a professional management method compared to other traditional homestays. Currently, the number of guests coming to the homestay is maintained quite stable and receives good feedback from visitors.

According to Ha Khiem, although he has joined a group specializing in community tourism in Phong Nha town, he still wants to participate in forums and professional conferences on sustainable tourism development to have more opportunities to exchange, learn, and accumulate experience in building community tourism, especially for the homestay model.

Chairman of Phong Nha Town People's Committee Tran Duc Binh said that, like Lucky Homes, 60 homestays in the town (mainly in Phong Nha village, Cu Lac 1, Cu Lac 2, Xuan Tien) are always trying to innovate and change themselves to improve service quality, better serving the needs of tourists. However, compared to the previous period, the number of homestays in the area has decreased by 5, mainly due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, lack of capital to maintain and people switching to other industries.

In early July, the Department of Tourism coordinated to organize a workshop on developing rural tourism and community tourism in Quang Binh, in which homestay and farmstay were among the topics that were mentioned a lot. According to the Department of Tourism, Quang Binh is one of the localities with a large number of homestays and farmstays with more than 100 homestays distributed in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang area, Dong Hoi City and Le Thuy. Many homestays and farmstays are well-invested, have swimming pools and professional services.

In addition to innovating traditional homestays, many new types of homestays, keeping up with the trend, have been boldly deployed and promise to bring success in the future, especially with the cooperation of tourism businesses, such as: Rural Homestay (Tan Hoa commune, Minh Hoa) adapting to climate change; Rum Ho Homestay (Kim Thuy commune, Le Thuy) preserving the unique culture of the Bru-Van Kieu people...

However, there are still unsuccessful homestays due to many different objective and subjective reasons. According to Chairman of the People's Committee of Hung Trach Commune (Bo Trach) Le Ngoc Son, from 13 homestays in the past, now there are only about 6 homestays operating in the commune. Of which, homestays that were previously maintained effectively are now continuing to operate well, some homestays are operating at a low level, very few homestays have innovated and invested in expansion. In addition, some community tourism models that were very attractive to tourists in the past cannot be maintained, such as: Dong Soi Farm, Star Lake Hill... In the immediate future, the local government continues to encourage and create maximum conditions for people in homestay business and propose capital support to develop community tourism.

Having gone through the difficult period of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fact that homestays in the province are still operating shows strong efforts in the journey to adapt to changes in tourism trends, keep up with innovation and meet the needs of tourists. In this journey, homestay owners, especially in remote, disadvantaged and special areas, still need active support from many sides, especially in training, fostering and improving the qualifications of human resources and promoting, introducing and applying digital transformation.

In addition, strengthening connections and actively innovating, keeping up with new tourism trends in homestays themselves also play an important role. In particular, creating a unique mark, highlight, preserving and promoting indigenous cultural values ​​is the "golden key" for homestays to affirm their position in the hearts of tourists.

Mai Nhan

Source: https://www.baoquangbinh.vn/kinh-te/202407/khoac-ao-moi-cho-homestay-2219933/