Feast services brings big money to hotels

According to Do Thi Hong Xoan, Chair of the Vietnam Hotel Association, there are about 13,000 hotels nationwide, including 425 high grade 3-5 star hotels. Only the luxury hotels have diversified sources of income, from accommodation to feast services, conferences and health care. Especially, the main income of hotels comes from accommodation and feast services.

In general, a hotel has three restaurants, including a buffet, a restaurant specializing in serving national dishes, and a fine dining. Therefore, there are about 1275 restaurants.

According to Xoan, the restaurants can bring 30-40 percent of the total turnover of hotels. The guests, who come to hotels to enjoy cooking here, are mostly local residents. Meanwhile, the guests, who stay at the hotels, tend to go out for meals in order to learn more about the culture and the cuisine of Vietnamese people.

However, the proportion tends to increase to 50 percent in the last two years, when accommodation services have been not really good due to the low hotel room occupancy capacity.

John Gardner, Manager of Caravelle Hotel said that in recent years, Caravelle organizes 20-30 different feast programs. He said that feast services have been bringing high incomes even though the input costs of the services have been increasing due to the high inflation.

According to him, feast business accounts for 35 percent of the total revenue of the hotel.

Joerg Becker, Chef of New World Hotel, also said that the hotel room occupancy capacity has been lower then expected recently due to the high inflation. However, the hotel’s feast services have been prospering thanks to the increasing number of MICE (meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition) guests and Vietnamese guests.

“We organize 6-10 special feast programs every year,” he said, adding that the hotel can attract many Vietnamese guests recently, who regularly return after the programs to place orders.

A new trend?

Duong Bao, Director of Duong Huynh ad firm, said that she usually goes with her husband and friends to five star hotels in HCM City or provinces to enjoy meals. Bao said that the hotels can offer delicious and hygienic meals. Especially, Bao and her business partners want to have meals in a quiet atmosphere, which can be found only at the luxurious hotels.

Tuyen, the owner of a wooden furniture shop on Cong Hoa Road, also said that her family regularly comes to Atrium buffet at Legend Hotel on weekend.

Representatives of some five star hotels say that from now to the end of 2011, they will continue attach much importance to feast business. 42.6 percent of the hotels surveyed by Grant Thornton said they are planning to upgrade the hotels’ utilities and services, including feast services, the next two years. Especially, 4-5 star hotels plan to launch many other kinds of services.

Real estate management firms have predicted that the hotel room supply would increase considerably in the time to come. In 2011-2012, the market is expected to have 750 5-star hotel rooms, 628 4-star rooms and 170 3-star rooms. From 2013, HCM City will have more than 15 hotel projects.

These include the project on expanding Majestic hotel. Que Huong-Liberty and Invesco are building Novotel Saigon Center in district 1, which is expected to have 252 rooms and become operational from mid 2012. Pullman Hotel by Accor with 310 rooms would be put into operation in 2013. Meanwhile, Ben Thanh Corporation and Accor will join forces to build ibis Saigon Center, to be operational in 2012. Tien Phuoc has kicked off the Le Meridien hotel project in district 1.

TBKTSG