The promoters of the Vietnam Grand Prix are urging hotel owners not to take advantage of visitors to the new Formula 1 race by charging exorbitant rates.
Vietnam Grand Prix Corporation CEO Le Ngoc Chi told RaceFans they are co-operating with local official and hotel owners to prevent high price rises.“We are working with the city of Hanoi and all the hotels to try to stabilise the hotels’ prices so that when people come to Vietnam, it’s reasonable,” she said. “Of course you can’t expect the same price but it should be reasonable and we are working very hard on that.”
Vietnam will be the first new country F1 has visited calendar since Azerbaijan joined the schedule four years ago. Promoters Vingroup have studied how other races have prevented high room rates from deterring visitors.
“We, coupled together with Formula 1, referenced all the other countries and see what would be acceptable in Vietnam ,” said Le. “Because sometimes hotels have the tendency to just try to reap as much as they can.”
“They don’t have to do anything,” she added, “there’s absolutely no risk whatsoever at all. So we just think that in our mind that they should contribute to this.
“The city of Hanoi and the government have done so much. We as Vingroup have put out a lot of work and funding to make sure this event happens. Hotels and other stakeholders in the society should also be a part of it too – they don’t just sit there and just try to profit.
Le urged hotel owners to think of the long-term potential of the event, which will be held for the first time in April this year. “They can still profit but it should be reasonable so people will come back,” she said.
“We have a lot of conferences with the hotels and tell them that they need to think for the longer term. This is for us but also for them, too. They need to make it sustainable. They can reap the award for many years to come or they just reap it one time this year. So that’s what we tell them.”
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DAllein (@)
15th January 2020, 8:41
Mmm… may I voice my doubts it will work.
If they are not speaking about Hostels (nothing against, but not everyone likes this type of accommodation), there’s very little hope for prices not to increase “unreasonably”.
petebaldwin (@)
15th January 2020, 10:07
The thing with Vietnam is that almost everything you buy there is unreasonably cheap! It’s absolutely insane how far your money goes. They could put the hotel prices up 10x and it would be massively cheaper than getting a hotel near a European race.
mJ
15th January 2020, 13:04
Unless you’re Vietnamese.
Locals should be able to afford and attend their own race. That’s fundamental.
DAllein (@)
15th January 2020, 15:31
This!
Chaitanya
15th January 2020, 16:32
+1 .
Only Facts!
15th January 2020, 9:44
Depending of what you call “reasonable”, of course. If you mean leveled with international prices, it will be around $300 for mid level chain hotels, what may still be an enormous increase if their regular price is $100, but still ok for F1 standards.
I have no reference of hotel prices in Vietnam, but if you take Vegas and Rio as an example, prices can increase up to 5 times during special events.
It’s supply and demand. They can try to “reason” hotel business not to be too greedy, but at the end the only thing that really works to lower prices is empty hotels.
Peter Johnson
15th January 2020, 10:36
I’m heading to the inaugural grand prix of Vietnam, and from Brisbane, flights, air b&b, grandstand ticket food etc should be $1500 in oz dollars all up. Got two days spare to see the sights.
OlPeculier
15th January 2020, 11:27
The hotel I stayed in last time I was in Hanoi is booked out for the Sunday, but the Friday and Saturday prices are very similar to what I paid.
As @petebaldwin says, Vietnam is an insanely cheap place, and there is something strange in keying in a string of 0’s on the cashpoints to get money out!
I hope it all works out. I’m planning on going to next years.
Sad F1 Fan
16th January 2020, 1:46
How hard could it be to keep anything reasonable in communist Vietnam… ?
Oh wait…