Hostels provide low-budget accommodation for visitors who are happy to sleep in a shared dorm room with others or sometimes have a private room. 

Da Nang now has over 10 hostels with a total of 6 to 9 rooms each, and visitors to the city usually spend 2 or 3 nights staying in them.

Barney's Danang BackPackers Hostel in Son Tra District is a typical example.  The hostel, which overlooks the romantic Han River, welcomes between 18 and 20 foreign travellers every day.

The hostel owner Vo Thi Thanh Loan said, “My Italian husband is very interested in backpacking travel, and he used to stay at many hostels around the world.  Realising the increasing demand for hostel accommodation amongst backpackers, my husband and I decided to open a hostel after settling down in Da Nang”.

Mrs Loan added, “Young travellers need to have good integration skills when staying at a hostel because they will share their living space, including sleeping rooms, bathrooms, toilets, and kitchens, with many other people”.

Visitors at a local hostel

Like Backpacker Hostel in Thanh Khe District’s Nguyen Tri Phuong is another example.  The hostel opened in the city in October last year, and it is now a popular address with domestic and foreign travellers to the city.

The hostel mainly receives European guests during the peak tourist season from September to March.  In summer, around 70% of the guests staying here are domestic tourists, mainly from Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City.

One of the hostel’s English guests, Mr David, said “I am very interested in staying at hostels during my vacation because of their reasonable prices and great convenience for my travel purpose.  I am deeply impressed by the clean environment of Da Nang in comparision with that in other localities in Viet Nam and neighbouring countries”.

The hostel’s owner Tran Duc Thong, said “Hostel accommodation will attract a great deal of attention from domestic and foreign visitors if it is developed on the right track.  Da Nang is seeing an increasing number of hostels but there is still no relevant agencies responsible for managing the quality of services”.

Mr Thong stressed the need for the city to establish a hostel association in order to ensure the best management of this kind of accomodation service and to give effective support to local hostel owners, as well as to avoid anti-dumping problems which have adversely affected the city's tourism environment.

Chairman of the city’s Travel Association Cao Tri Dung, said “Da Nang is making every effort to diversify its tourism services and products, and to limit the impact of seasonality in tourism.  Therefore, new hostel accommodation is very suitable for the city’s tourism development strategies”.

Chairman Dung added, “The focus should be on creating detailed plans for the development of tourism services along the banks of the Han River and some areas along My Khe Beach, and encouraging the operation of hostel accommodation in these areas.  Importance should be attached to issuing the city’s standards for this new service to ensure the best quality for customers, and its effective management work”.