The vacancy rate in the central Vietnam destinations of Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, and Phan Thiet is hovering around 50 percent on average, according to Agoda, a global online accommodation reservations provider.

On Traveloka, one of the leading flight and hotel booking platforms in Southeast Asia, a number of places in the ancient imperial capital of Hue like Gold Hotel Hue, Hotel La Perle, Cherry Hotel, and Huong Giang Hotel still have rooms for VND600,000 ($26) to VND1.4 million ($60) per night.

In Da Nang, the occupancy rate is abnormally low due to the city’s shortage of water. High salinity levels in the Cau Do (Red Bridge) River, the main source of freshwater for a million residents and tourists in Da Nang, mean the city can only meet 70 percent of its water needs.

Some hotels are refusing to accept bookings because they do not have enough water. At Melia Danang Beach Resort, the number of room bookings by Vietnamese between August 30 and September 2, the National Day, is only 10 percent.

Some hotel managers in Da Nang, a top tourist attraction, said tourists booking hotel rooms during the holiday weekend are mainly from South Korea, Japan and mainland China.

Da Nang is well-known for its beautiful beaches. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong.

The average occupancy rate of hotels in Vung Tau, a popular vacation destination in southern Vietnam, is also 50 percent, while it is 85 percent at some high-end hotels and resorts like Pullman, Malibu and Green Hotel.

Tu Le, a teacher working in HCMC’s District 1, said she booked two rooms facing the sea at Leman Cap Resort & Spa in the southern beach town, and the rates were not much higher than normal.

Bookings seem tougher at hotels in Da Lat. Most hotels and resorts in the Central Highlands resort town have been fully booked up ahead of the holiday.

Bao Lam, 32, a bank employee in Ho Chi Minh City, said he was unable to get a family room in a luxury hotel in Da Lat.

Nomad Home Dalat and Elegant Dalat Hotel, two of Da Lat’s most popular hotels, only have one or two double rooms available and they cost around VND1.2 million ($52) each per night, according to Booking.com, a travel fare aggregator and travel metasearch engine for hotel reservations.

Da Lat was once a summer hideout for French officials during the colonial time who built villas in the hills to escape the heat and humidity of the lowlands. Photo by VnExpress/Tran Quang Anh.

Pham Van Bay, Deputy Director of Vietravel Hanoi, said since the National Day holiday this year is not long, most people have opted for domestic tours, with northern mountainous destinations like Moc Chau, Sa Pa, Cao Bang, and Ha Giang being very popular.

Pham Cao Vy, chairman of the Sa Pa Tourism Association, said most hotels have kept their rates unchanged though it could be a bit difficult for travelers to find a place.

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and low-cost carrier Jetstar Pacific have said they would add a total of 240,000 seats on domestic routes from August 30 to September 2 to meet the increased travel demand.

A video capturing the beauty of Vietnam from north to south

Dak Nong Province has suffered the most in terms of human casualties, losing at least five people since Wednesday, the Central Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said Saturday.

Other provinces in the region, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Lam Dong, have reported one death each, while Kon Tum has confirmed two deaths.

The severe flooding has submerged more than 3,000 houses and more than 20 hectares of rice, agricultural crops and killed hundreds of poultry fowls in the Central Highlands and southern provinces, with total damage estimated at VND992 billion ($43 million).

The Central Highlands region produces most of Vietnam’s coffee, a major export item.

On Friday afternoon, many communes in Bao Loc Town, Lam Dong Province, were still surrounded by muddy waters. Many houses had collapsed or were badly damaged.

Rescued from her flooded house on Friday, Tran Thanh Thuy, 14, was waiting for the rain to stop to return home.

“The heavy rain began early and went on until 9 a.m. and the flood waters were coming very fast. In a little more than two hours, the water flooded most of my house and all four of us in the family had to climb upstairs,” Thuy said.

After hours of panic, they were rescued by soldiers in a canoe and taken to their relatives’ house.

Thuy’s house was one of 800 that were flooded in Bao Loc following severe flooding on Thursday.

Many streets in the popular resort town Da Lat, which is more than two hours drive away, were also flooded. Landslides from over 10 kilometers of Bao Loc Pass on Friday also disrupted traffic between HCMC and Da Lat.

In Dak Lak Province, the flood waters started receding on Friday after flooding 800 houses. Local residents have begun returning home to clean up.

Greenhouse effect and deforestation

Agricultural greenhouses in Da Lat, October 2018. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

Nguyen Van Son, director of Lam Dong’s Department of Agriculture and Development, said that the flodding in the province was much bigger and more serious than before.

He said that apart from climate change, the severity of the flooding was influenced by the profusion of greenhouses in Da Lat.

Once favored by holidaymakers in tropical Vietnam for its year-round temperate climate, Da Lat, a top holiday destination in Vietnam, was getting warmer at an alarming rate due to the mushrooming of agricultural greenhouses on its outskirts and in nearby areas.

The number of greenhouses in Da Lat and neighboring farming regions has grown by five times over the past five years, said Vu Ngoc Long, former president of the Southern Institute of Ecology.

Official reports have mentioned the total area of greenhouses in Da Lat and its vicinity at around 5,600 hectares, but Long believes the actual number is likely much higher.

However, Dang Van Chien, director of Dak Lak’s hydrometeorology center, said there were many reasons for the worsening flooding situation, but the main reason was deforestation.

The Central Highlands region has lost nearly 358,800 hectares (14 percent) of forests between 2008 and 2015, according to a report by the Central Highlands Steering Committee.

Most trees were chopped down by illegal loggers or cleared to make way for cash crops, roads or hydropower plants.

The southwestern monsoon and tropical depressions in the East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea, have been triggering downpours in the Central Highlands and southern Vietnam, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting had warned.

Natural disasters, mostly floods, storms and landslides, killed 181 people, left 37 others missing and caused losses of around VND20 trillion ($858 million) in Vietnam last year.