Luxurious hotels are no longer only meant for foreigners or cash-rich customers in Vietnam

High-end hotels and restaurants in Vietnam are receiving more and more local customers, including not only high-income earners but also those who know how to make the best use of discounts and promotions.

Services ranging from food, healthcare, swimming pool to entertainment have brought more choices to the list of recreation for the Southeast Asian country’s middle-income earners.

Change in consumption style

As Vietnamese people has growing demand for better services and willing to spend big on them, luxurious hotels are no longer only meant for foreigners.

Five-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City say they have witnessed an increase in the number of local customers in recent years, with the Vietnamese spending almost as much as European visitors.

Seventy percent of customers at restaurants and rooftop bars in the Hôtel des Arts Saigon are Vietnamese, a representative of the hotel said.

In such destinations as Hanoi, Da Nang and Phu Quoc, there are months that Vietnamese tourists made more stays than international visitors, Tao Van Nghe, an expert in hospitality, said, citing data from high-end hotels.

With food safety remaining an issue in the country, more and more Vietnamese now prefer eating, rather than just staying, at five-star hotels, which offer rich cuisines at competitive prices, according to Nguyen Thi Khanh, deputy chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association.

The growth of Vietnamese guests to high-class hotels has also driven hospitality firms to create more diverse services in cuisine and entertaining alongside with accommodation, said Ngo Thi Xuan Thu, head of marketing and communication at Caravelle Saigon hotel.

Attractive promotions

Vietnamese are also replacing foreign guests to become the target consumers of top-notch hotels by making good use of promotions offered by these facilities.

Bars and restaurants at hotels in Ho Chi Minh City are drawing many Vietnamese holidaymakers with several attractive promotions during the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

For example, the rooftop bar of Rex hotel in District 1 offers 15-percent discount on foods and buy-two-get-one-free promotion for drinks during 9:00 pm to 3:00 am of the next day every day. Likewise, restaurants in New World Saigon sell three bottles of fresh beer for only VND199,000 (USD$8.56) and offer a 11 percent discount to regular customers.

Grand Hotel is also more competitive than not as it introduces a combo of six cans of beer and a sausage at VND350,000 ($15.05).

Not only World Cup promotions, five-star hotels also organize many special events on important holidays to attract Vietnamese guests such as Valentine's Day, International Women Day, Christmas and New Year occasions.

Some hotels often invite famous chefs in the world to come and prepare European and Asian dishes, while other attract Vietnamese customers through membership cards or loyalty cards.