Vietnam’s Luxstay has ambitions to take on Airbnb

After Steven Nguyen sold Netlink Online Communications in 2017, an ad tech start-up he’d established a decade earlier, he set his sights on building the next tech unicorn for Vietnam.

Malaysia had Grab, Indonesia had Gojek and Traveloka, while Vietnam had yet to produce another tech unicorn besides VNG. “Grab’s success in the Southeast Asian market showed us that local players can compete and win,” Nguyen told the judges on the Vietnamese version of a popular show for entrepreneurs, Shark Tank.

It still has a long way to go, but his two-year-old start-up Luxstay created a lot of buzz in Vietnam as it looks to challenge Airbnb – the global household name in home-sharing – at least, for now, in Vietnam.

Founded in 2017, Luxstay is an online short-term rental platform and hospitality service, connecting customers looking to rent a property with the property owners. A wide range of accommodation – from flats, villas, entire houses to studios – is available for those looking to stay in some of Vietnam’s top holiday destinations. Currently, Luxstay claims it has about 15,000 listings, with about 20,000 bookings monthly and a monthly growth rate of 20 per cent. Airbnb does not have an official presence in Vietnam but started offering home rental services online since 2015. According to a recent report on Vietnam’s home-sharing market by local tourism consulting company Outbox Consulting, Airbnb currently has about 40,000 listings in the country.

Nguyen said while Airbnb primarily focuses on meeting the demand of foreign travellers coming to Vietnam, there is still plenty of room for Luxstay to serve domestic travellers and reach out to foreign travellers looking for something in ‘under-the-radar destinations’ in Vietnam.