Renting Ao Dai, Parking Lot to Earn Millions on Tet Holiday

Parking fees are 4-5 times higher than usual, and the cost of renting ao dai for taking photos is also 50,000 to 100,000 VND, but these services are still crowded with customers during Tet.

On the second day of Tet, Ms. Thai (Long Bien, Hanoi) took her whole family to Hoan Kiem Lake (Hanoi) for a spring outing. She stopped at a parking lot on Hang Gai Street and was told the parking fee was 50,000 VND per vehicle, 5 times more expensive than usual.

“I usually bring my children here to play, and parking on Nguyen Xi Street is only 10,000 VND, but the price increases 5 times during Tet, which is really... too expensive,” said Ms. Thai. Even though she was “ripped off”, she had to reluctantly park because “otherwise I wouldn’t know where to take my bike.”

Although the parking fee was not inflated as much as in the Hoan Kiem Lake area, Mr. Phong (Khuong Dinh, Hanoi) still had to pay 20,000 VND to park his motorbike at Phuc Khanh Pagoda when he and his family went to the pagoda on the afternoon of the second day of Tet. According to Mr. Phong, paying a high parking fee is not as annoying as being solicited, as soon as he saw a customer, a few people immediately came to "invite" him to park. In addition to the motorbike parking fee doubling, the car parking fee in this area has also been increased to 80,000-100,000 VND per motorbike, but the space is limited and customers have to walk quite a distance to get to the parking location.

In downtown areas, spontaneous motorbike parking shops have sprung up, charging 20,000 VND per motorbike.

Making a fortune from parking services is not only in prime locations like Hoan Kiem Lake, but also in areas around shopping malls, parks, etc. It is also very profitable. Mr. Toan - the owner of a parking lot near a shopping mall on Tay Son Street (Hanoi) said that on average there are about 300-400 parking lots per day, but during Tet it can be up to 600-700 parking lots. With a price of 10,000 VND per parking lot, double the normal price of the year, minus the parking lot rental fee and labor cost, Mr. Minh earns an average profit of 3-4 million VND per day.

In Hai Phong, on central streets near the city's Opera House such as Tran Phu, Nguyen Duc Canh or Tran Hung Dao, spontaneous parking spots have also sprung up like mushrooms.

This year is the second year that Ms. Hoan's family (Nguyen Duc Canh, Hai Phong) has opened a car parking service during Tet. This seasonal job helps her family spend a lot during Tet but is also very hard. Last year, from just the 29th of Tet to the 6th of the Lunar New Year, her family earned nearly 20 million VND. With the price of parking motorbikes and electric bicycles at 20,000 VND per bike, Ms. Hoan estimates that this year's revenue will only be around 10-15 million VND because there are fewer Tet holidays than last year and no fireworks on New Year's Eve also causes her car parking shop to lose revenue.

“From 9am until late at night, all three members of the family are constantly on duty outside the house, waving for customers to park their cars. Although it is hard work, it helps the whole family earn millions of dong every day,” Ms. Hoan said.

In addition to parking, the service of renting Ao Dai for taking photos also makes a lot of money during Tet. Wearing Ao Dai to take photos during the Spring has become a "trend" among young people in Hai Phong for several years now. A familiar place that young people often visit is the central area of ​​the City Opera House.

Renting modernized ao dai for photography is booming this Tet holiday. The rental price for each ao dai is 100,000 VND for adults and 50,000 VND for children.

Taking advantage of the ao dai costumes of the family photography shop, to satisfy the needs of tenants, Ms. Thoa (Tran Phu, Hai Phong) invested in dozens of new modernized ao dai and traditional dresses. With the advantage of being right opposite the City Opera House, her ao dai rental and sales shop is constantly crowded with customers. Each ao dai for children costs 50,000 VND to rent, and 100,000 VND for adults, earning her millions each day.

While trying on her daughter’s ao dai, Ms. Hanh (Ly Tu Trong, Hai Phong) said that the mother and daughter wanted to capture the image of the New Year in traditional ao dai, so they chose to rent one to take pictures with their daughter. “Renting an ao dai is both quick and affordable. It only costs 100,000 VND per rental with no time limit during the day, so you can take pictures as much as you want, much more economical than spending millions of VND to buy or make one,” Ms. Hanh calculated.

According to Ms. Thoa, most of the customers who come to rent are young people, even foreigners. During Tet, red and yellow ao dai are the most requested to rent, because these are two colors that are believed to bring good luck in the new year and also help the owner stand out among the blooming spring flowers.

According to VNE