Hotels on Bui Vien Street become hostels and apartments for rent by month

West Bui Vien Street has dozens of hotels and motels with a variety of rental prices. The decrease in international tourist arrivals caused the business activities of these accommodation establishments to be strongly affected.

After more than 2 years of the pandemic, less than half of the hotels and motels on the main road as well as in the alleys of Bui Vien have reopened. Many places are still closed or have paid ground, converted business types.

Some hotels in alleys 28 and 40 on West Street are now inns and rooms for rent by the month. There are not many Western guests yet, hotel owners seek to change from rooms to rent to attract locals and domestic tourists.

Ms. Vy, owner of Thao Nhi hotel, said that after reopening at the beginning of the year, tenants are mainly domestic tourists and usually only relatively crowded on weekends. “However, there is never a time when we are fully booked. The rent is currently 30-40% lower than before the epidemic. Because the house is here, I don’t have to rent space, so I dare to reopen, trying to get a job. As for those who have to rent space, they really don’t dare to come back now.”

Sao Nam Hotel is located in alley 28, used to have many regular customers who are foreigners who often come to Ho Chi Minh City to travel. Due to the epidemic, the number of visitors has decreased significantly, so this place now combines the hotel business model and the monthly apartment rental. The new group of customers that the hotel targets are those who work in the downtown area. “Rooms haven’t changed much, but we have added a shared kitchen area and adjusted the rent for long-term residents,” the hotel owner said.

Many premises that used to be bars, pubs, restaurants, and hotels on Bui Vien Street are in the process of being repaired and constructed. Some places return premises after a long period of closure because of the epidemic.

Mr. Nguyen Trung, owner of a hotel on Bui Vien Street, said that after more than 2 years of closure, everything from infrastructure to rooms and equipment was seriously degraded. Although he was still hesitant to return to the service and tourism industry, Mr. Trung decided to invest in rebuilding a 6-storey hotel because he could not continue to leave the premises vacant.

“Now, if we want to return to business, we have to repair almost everything, reinvest everything. Losing revenue because of the epidemic, we have to continue to spend money to repair it, not knowing when the industry can recover. restored as before,” said Trung.

Not only accommodation, other services at Bui Vien such as tour booking, visa, restaurants, bars also depend mainly on international visitors. These businesses often link together to share a customer base and only really boom in activity when international tourism is active again.