You are planning a Vietnam Tour on your own? After setting your timetable, hotels booking is the next step before finding the detailed everyday activities. These Vietnam Hotel Booking Tips are essential to any independent travelers to find the best hotel for their demand!

1: Rate Tips:

Channels to get best deals:

–  Do Not spend so much time to check the rates between similar middle-man channels such as: Booking.com, Agoda.com or Expedia.com. You should only look at one you have used and got promotion points as it is an agreements between the hotel and these channels to keep No Rate Disparity. So just one is enough.

– For the 3* hotels and lower, you’d better contact to the hotel directly or a Vietnam Local Tour Operator who you also want to arrange the tour services with because the hotels have to pay commissions through the middle man channels  and it is always cheaper to a local. All booking channels rank hotels providing highest commission rates to be on top of the list so booking through the international Middle Man channels is like the last choice to get the cheapest. 

– For the 4*, 5* and higher, the best way is to find a Vietnam Local Tour Operator for your hotel booking. The hotel is always providing the same price through middle man channel and it will be pointless getting a direct deals with them as their policy. However, finding a local tour company also means that you should make sure about the TYPE OF ROOM the company offers. Remember to book with channels those have the Online trademark with reviews. 

Time for the best deals:

– Vietnam generally has Peak season and off season and each area will have a different time for Peak and Low season. For example: In Halong city, the hotel will provide a Winter Sale Off as very few Vietnamese will go to the beach and stay in the hotel for that time. But the cruises in Halong Bay will be actually charging Peak Season prices. 

– Book early as possible for luxury hotels and closer to the departure time for the 3* and lower hotel. It is always correct that the 4, 5* hotel will offer better discount for early booking. But for small hotels in area with hundred of hotels, you should not book too far and too close. Generally, 02 to 03 months earlier than your arrival is a recommended time for your booking. If you book too far, you may miss the hotel promotions (unless you choose a specific hotel). With the hotels of just lower than 20 rooms, it is very easy for small businesses to change their rate plan.

Example in 2014, the Boutique hotels in Hanoi offered the rate of Christmas time quite high in the Summer as they believe that the number of tourists will be increasing. However in the peak seasons, they see that the volume is not enough and they lower down the rates in September and October. But close to the Christmas dates, when they are almost full, they still want to promote their hotel and maintain the rankings on the middle man channels then they push the prices to around 10 times more expensive. It is the reason why you can see a 3* hotel quote 300$ for a night which is as expensive as Sofitel Metropole – the top luxury hotel in Vietnam.

2.  Location – Fanciness – Accommodation

Before you set up your base, you should look up carefully these 3 parts as it is the differences of hotels. Activities in the local areas that you want to do it by yourself is the key to choose the location. If everything can be covered in your local tours, you should choose a nice hotel that offer better fanciness and services those you can enjoy such as Swimming pools, Gyms… If you choose to walk out of your hotel room most of the time, these facilities are not usually needed.

To know this, you have to be seriously study the local area of the visit (or you can ask for suggestions from the local operator). Only with this you can find a good hotel for yourself.

3. Notice to Free Days.

If you are going to set free days in the middle of your journey to explore a local more or simply to recover and prepare for the next move, you should get a better hotel than you normally get in your rest of the trip. You should always remember the Swimming pool if it is in middle of Summer in the North or you are in the South.

4. Non-refundable deals & Cancellation Policy

Promotions with Non-refundable deals are so common nowadays but you should aware that your activities should be well fixed and also take serious look at the Cancellation Policy of the booking.

5. Quote Everything in Local VND (Vietnam Dong).

Vietnam is the country with weak currency and the inflation rate is very high. You should quote yourself payment system with local currency – not USD and that will bring to you better benefits especially when you travel much later than your booking. Once you do this,  you can even pay less when the currency changes.

We do hope that the above Vietnam Hotel Booking Tips will be useful for your Vietnam tours. VTT as a local tour operator can arrange all the hotel bookings in Vietnam with the best lower rate than any middle man channels/