Six years after the United States lifted its trade embargo on Vietnam, western hotel chains are fueling a boom in high-end hotels.

Hyatt last year opened its first hotel in the country in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. InterContinental will open its first hotel in 2007 in Hanoi. Accor, with nine hotels, plans four more by 2008. Starwood entered the country in 2003 and operates two Sheratons. Marriott operates two hotels, and Hilton one.

From 2000 to 2005, the number of rooms in Vietnam grew by 72 percent to 95,700, according to the Vietnamese government. Western companies, for the most part, are building business hotels in the two biggest cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Beachfront resorts are slower to develop.

Strengthening business ties with the West and Asia are boosting demand for good hotels. In the first eight months this year, the number of visitors increased 10 percent from a year earlier to about 2.5 million.

Nearly 80 percent of the available rooms in four hotels in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City owned by France-based Accor have been filled this year, largely by business travelers from Asia.

"In the last two years, the growth in occupancy there was higher than any other Asian country," says Accor's Peter Hook. "Vietnam is hot."

The shortage of rooms in Hanoi will be felt in November when the city hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, which will draw thousands of diplomats, journalists and business people, Hook says.

Accor is best known in the U.S. for its Sofitel, Motel 6 and Red Roof Inn brands. Accor owns colonial-style Sofitel Metropole in Hanoi, perhaps the country's most famous hotel — it's where Graham Greene wrote his war novel, "The Quiet American."

Starwood, Hyatt and InterContinental say they are in talks to develop more hotels. Among the areas of interest: coastal resort destinations, such as Da Nang and Nha Trang, and tourism hot spots Hue and Hoi An.

Vietnam also is becoming a hip, exotic destination in Asia. More airlines from Europe and the U.S. operate convenient flights to the country.

Europeans and Asians are still the majority of visitors. But Americans — war veterans, Vietnamese-Americans and beach-seekers — are arriving in growing numbers.

Beyond its Sheratons in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Starwood is in talks with investors for other projects, and considers Vietnam one of the top markets for development in Asia, says KC Kavanagh, a spokeswoman.

With the first InterContinental scheduled to open in Hanoi in the fall of 2007, the company is in talks to gain more hotel management contracts in the country, says executive Paul Logan. The company is considering introducing its Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands.