A Vietnamese traveler has been startled to find out that his personal information, including the highly confidential credit account number, had been leaked after making reservations via hotel booking sites. Users of popular hotel booking sites including Booking.com and Agoda are now concerned over the safety of their personal information after a shocking discovery of a local vacationer. Vu Hien, a resident of Ho Chi Minh City, recalled the incident in mid-January, when he booked a hotel for his trip to Phu Quoc, a famous tourist island off the southern province of Kien Giang, via Agoda. After choosing the room, Hien was required to enter his visa account number as confirmation, although he opted to pay at the hotel. Believing that Agoda would “safeguard and encrypt” users’ credit card information as the website promises, Hien followed the instruction without hesitation. “I chose to pay at the hotel. The money in my account was insufficient to pay for the room,” the man added. Everything seemed to be completely fine until Hien checked-in at his resort, when the receptionist took out the piece of paper containing the information of his reservation. The vacationer glanced at the paper and noticed the important data of his credit card, including the card number, name of the holder, verification code (CVC), and expiration date. The resort employee later told Hien that the information was provided by Booking.com. It is extremely risky to disclose such confidential details, Hien stated, adding that bad people could take advantage of the… [Read full story]
Optimistic Outlook For e-Hotel Booking By Pham Le Although the volume of online bookings for hotel rooms in Vietnam are still modest, hoteliers in Vietnam are increasingly focusing on developing this kind of service along with conventional sales channels The Kien Giang-based Saigon-Phu Quoc Resort under the Saigon Tourist management has collaborated with GIATA, a service supplier, to facilitate online bookings for customers using iPhones, via a downloadable software program from the Apple App Store. In order to provide this new service, the resort shifted to use Web 2.0 technology for its website, to complete the second step in a…... [read more]
As reported by newspaper Vietnamnet, the Ministry of Finance has just asked booking sites that allow tourists to book hotel rooms in Vietnam to calculate and pay their value-added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax (CIT). Targeted websites include Agoda, Traveloka, Booking and Expedia. Specifically, the CIT rate is 5 per cent over total revenue. The VAT amount is calculated on the added value that the companies, called “the foreign contractor” by the ministry, make. The tax is declared every time there’s a transaction between the hotel and the foreign booking site and when the contract ends. In case the…... [read more]
The Hanoitimes - With the advent of online booking sites, booking a place for a trip to Vietnam has never been such easy and convenient like that. However, online booking also exists many problems: Sometimes, price of online booking ismuch higher than direct reservation's, hotel information on the website is notthe same as reality, the methods of payment are complex and not secured, theprestige of the site is not high ... And it's time to consider and choose areputable website. These are some experiences in onine hotel booking in Vietnam for you toconsider: 1. Identify information needed To determine destination,…... [read more]
The lawmaking National Assembly (NA) of Vietnam passed a law on Tuesday amending the country’s Penal Code, in which lawyers are required to reveal previously confidential information in cases concerning national security and public order.
The law was passed 434 to 19, with four NA members abstaining from the vote.
With the approval of almost 90 percent of the legislative body, the Law on Amendment of the 2015 Penal Code of Vietnam was passed and will take effect from January 1, 2018.
According to the legislation, lawyers can be incriminated if they fail to denounce their…... [read more]
VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese who used TripAdvisor's Viator tour-booking site are concerned about the news that hackers stole information from 1.4 million payment cards of customers. SecurityDaily said that illegal transactions had been made with some of the stolen cards. The experts Viator hired to estimate the damage caused by the attack said that hackers broke into the internal database of the website and accessed the payment card database which includes information about credit card codes, the numbers of debit cards, expired dates, names, addresses and email accounts of 880,000 customers. The hackers reportedly received 560 types of information from…... [read more]
