Leading hotel management brands set foothold in Vietnam

Four Seasons, a leading hotel management group, has made it to Vietnam

Since the start of this year, a number of new brands have landed in markets across Vietnam, such as Mandarin Oriental and Movenpick in Ho Chi Minh City, and Best Western Premier in the central province of Quang Binh.

Earlier, renowned brands had made forays into Vietnam’s hospitality industry, such as Ozo and X2Vibe in Quang Nam, Double Tree by Hilton in Halong city, Vung Tau, and Hanoi, Four Seasons in Quang Nam and Hanoi, and Glow in Danang.

In late May 2018, Aman Resorts, a premier resort chain, has officialised its presence in Vietnam through joining hands with local partner Novaland Group to put the Azerai luxury hotel chain into operation.

Azerai Can Tho was selected by US newspaper The New York Times as one of the premier resort venues for visitors in 2018.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the world’s leading hotel management brand and the owner of nine well-known hotel brands, including Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Staybridge, has shaken hands with major Vietnamese developer Sungroup to become the manager of InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, a resort venue featuring 180 rooms, five villas, and more than 20 suites in Danang city.

In addition, IHG has teamed up with local partner BIM Group to manage InterContinental Phu Quoc on the Pearl Island (Phu Quoc).

AccorHotels, another leading hotel management brand which manages nearly 4,000 hotels in 92 countries, including well-known brands like Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, and Mgallery, now manages more than 20 hotels in Vietnam.

Similarly, Hyatt, a major hotel group, has left its mark on a raft of projects across Vietnam, such as Park Hyatt Saigon and Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa or Park Hyatt in Hanoi.

Notably, for the first time in Vietnam, Wyndham Hotel Group which owns nearly 8,000 hotels in 73 countries, has been cooperating with PPC An Thinh Vietnam Infrastructure Investment and Development JSC to deploy Wyndham Soleil Danang, and Swiss-Belhotel & Resort in Cam Ranh city in the south-central coastal province of Khanh Hoa, which is developed by Cam Lam Investment Limited.

In the words of Nguyen Viet Tao, deputy general director of JW Marriott Hanoi, hotel management is not simply standards and conventional skills, it requires skills and know-how in which local firms still have little experience.

Therefore, hiring foreign management groups, particularly renowned ones, is a smart option.

According to Dang Quang Thai, general director of Hoang Minh Financial Investment JSC, the developer of Swiss Belhotel & Resort in Cam Ranh (Khanh Hoa province), it is by no means easy to have in place a professional operating and management system, promoting the brand abroad and capturing customers’ trust.

“With a track record of several hundred years in the field, leading hotel management brands often secure large regular customer volumes. Thereby, linking global brands to the hotels is one of the key factors to attracting customers, which can ensure stable revenue,” he said.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Vietnam is placed sixth among the world’s 10 fastest growing tourism markets. Last year, Vietnam greeted more than 12.9 million international visitors and 73.2 million locals, generating VND510 trillion ($22.6 billion) in total tourism revenue.

In the first quarter of this year, more than 4.2 million foreign visitors came to Vietnam, a 30.9 per cent jump on-year.