An increasing number of people in HCM City have been willing to pay high prices for extravagant celebrations.

High prices for luxury car rentals

The types of services that have caught on include party planning, the leasing of luxury cars and organising private risque dance performances. People have been willing to pay hundreds of millions of VND in many cases.

Leasing luxury cars

Ngo Thi Phuong Thao, Director of a travel firm in HCM City, which specialises in leasing luxury cars for large wedding parties other events, said, “The majority of our clients are wealthy or well-known people or big companies, who will take only the latest models."

Thao said that many of the clients rent a Lexus or a Rolls Royce for road trips, or even just to pick up their friends and ride around for an impressive night out. "Three months ago a man rented a BMW for more than VND70 million (USD3,354) just to impress his girlfriend by driving around the city. He also left a VND2 million (USD95.83) tip,” Thao said.

Demand has been so high that her company has invested almost USD20 million in the fleet, which now included brands such as Lamborghini and Maybach.

Her company has begun to provided a customise cars.

“For a wedding party in Dong Nai Province we painted all the cars with a flower pattern. It took us about 2 days and we charged about VND80 million (USD3,833)," she said.

The company also provides other services, such as party planning. One of the customers, well-known in the real estate community, as well as for throwing enormous parties, said, “I don’t see it as showing off. I've worked hard to earn my money and now I believe I deserve to enjoy it. My friends and family enjoy my parties, and it doesn't harm anybody," he said.

Many other well-to-do-people have the same viewpoint. A business woman, on the board of directors of a large hotel and restaurant chain, recently spent VND730 million (USD34,978) on an engagement party of her daughter. She said, “I wanted to make the day special for my daughter. Really, I don't care what other people think. I want my daughter to feel proud of our family's success."

Burlesque in the boardroom

A growing trend among companies when planning their parties is to hire groups of scantily-clad dancing girls.

Dancing girls adorn big parties

Duy, Director of Dai Duong Communication and Advertisement Service Company of District No. 3, said, “We hire dancing groups to please our clients. The price varies depending on how attractive the girls are."

He said they will sometimes pay as much as VND261 million (USD12,505) if clients are ones who would require music, an MC and dancers who are at least 1.7 metres.

Giau from Coi Event Communication and Entertainment Company in District No. 7 noted that his company often sends clients photos of the dancers and even the MCs before booking. Giau said that some of his clients prefer striptease. For this they are charged VND700,000 (USD33.54) for each piece of clothing that is removed during the show,” Giau added.