How to find a room to rent on September 1 when many places are "sold out" on the occasion of National Day September 2

Contact the hotel directly to reserve a last minute room.

With online booking channels reporting full bookings, calling the hotel directly is still an effective way. Many last-minute cancellations give you a chance to keep your room. Negotiating directly with the manager or receptionist also increases the success rate. Some guests even share that calling directly can bring results up to 85%.

If your hotel is fully booked, get on the waiting list to be prioritized when cancellations happen. In the meantime, book another hotel with a free cancellation policy to avoid being caught off guard. Alternatively, you can negotiate a higher room type if the standard rooms are full.

Flexible negotiation:When contacting directly, don’t be afraid to ask about different room types. The room you want may be sold out, but the hotel may have a higher-end room that’s not listed, or a VIP suite.

With an unlimited budget, you can negotiate an upgrade to a higher-class room or add-on services to convince the hotel. Some high-end hotels even keep 1-2 “backup” rooms that are not sold online for the hotel owner or VIP guests at the last minute.

Leverage relationships in the tourism industry

In addition to booking directly, you can go to a travel agency or a large tour company such as Vietravel, Saigontourist, HanoiRedtour. These units often reserve room blocks for group tours and can resell unused rooms.

If you have connections within the hotel, take advantage of personal contacts. Managers or internal staff can sometimes be flexible in their support. Regular guests are often given priority when rooms become available due to cancellations.

Exploiting “loopholes” on OTAs

Each hotel allocates rooms to many different OTA channels, so it may be full on Agoda but still available on Expedia or Trip.com. Using aggregator search engines like Google Travel, Trivago helps you compare easily.

In addition, less popular OTAs such as Mytour.vn, Vntrip.vn or international platforms such as Priceline, Ctrip are also places where you can find vacant rooms. In particular, Facebook groups for renting homestays and serviced apartments in Hanoi are also flexible channels during peak seasons.

Alternatives: serviced apartments, homestays, hostels

If traditional hotels are full, you can turn to homestays, serviced apartments or mini hotels. Many beautifully designed, fully equipped homestays listed on Airbnb still have rooms available.

In addition, modern hostels and dormitories in Hanoi's Old Quarter such as Little Charm and Hanoi Buffalo Hostel have private rooms or dorm beds, providing temporary accommodation at cheaper prices. Apps such as Go2Joy also allow last-minute bookings of motels or mini-hotels.

Enjoy premium booking services and insider privileges

When budget is no object, take advantage of premium concierge services and under-the-radar membership perks:

For the wealthy, concierge services from luxury credit cards (Amex Platinum, Visa Signature, Mastercard World Elite) or 5-star hotel membership programs such as Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, IHG Rewards can open up more opportunities.

High-end networks like Virtuoso or AMEX Fine Hotels & Resorts often reserve certain rooms for special guests, even when the hotel announces “full availability.”

These units have their own network and international relations with 5-star hotels. Often, they can have a room available that is not usually seen by guests.