Medium-sized hotels have been opened in the Vietnamese countryside to accomodate visitors traveling to areas outside the urban centers such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Victoria Hotels and Resorts, a French company with Vietnamese partners, is responsible for opening the hotels from late 1998 through 1999 in places such as Phan Thiet, 80 miles east of Ho Chi Minh City on the coast and Chau Doc and Can Tho in the Mekong Delta. The hotels have 50 to 93 rooms each and rates average $80 but are frequently negotiable when booked through a travel agent in Vietnam. (David Lamb, Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2000)