DoubleDragon prepares first hotel project abroad
Business World
Following the amendments, Hotel 101 Worldwide is now allowed to acquire, invest, and develop real estate properties and ventures outside the Philippines. It also allows Hotel 101 Worldwide to sell, market, and conduct operations and manage projects abroad.
“We have observed that the US has Holiday Inn, Europe has Novotel, China has Jinjiang Inn, Malaysia has Shangri-La, Thailand has Dusit, Japan has Nikko, Singapore has Raffles, but the Philippines has none,” DoubleDragon Chief Executive Officer Edgar J. Sia II said in a statement dated Feb. 14.
“We have also observed that in other countries, many have a strong mindset of gearing their businesses for export. Pursuing business ventures, brands, and concepts that are geared to be exported to the 195 countries globally is truly admirable,” he added.
DoubleDragon’s Hotel 101 brand may now expand either through the company’s own initiatives or through partnerships and joint ventures with other property developers abroad.
The company has filed a concept patent of Hotel 101’s condotel concept. Hotel 101’s units are all identical to allow unit owners “to have an equal share in the revenues of the Hotel 101 property.”
DoubleDragon said it records revenue and income twice through Hotel 101. The company first earns through the pre-selling of the condotel’s units, called the “Happy Rooms,” and then through the recurring revenue of hotel operations.
“We are grateful to the DoubleDragon team who have, over the years, been able to put together, polish, and test the unique and pioneering Hotel 101 hybrid condotel concept and most especially put to life an exportable concept for the world. We are also glad to have been able to file the Hotel 101 concept patent early on,” Mr. Sia said.
Aside from the concept patent, the company said Hotel 101’s trademark and domains have also been secured in other countries.
DoubleDragon will acquire its first property for development by the second quarter of this year. Without disclosing a specific country, the company said the property would be located in Asia and it will be launched by the second half of this year.
The company also said it has identified sites where the hotel brand is “expected to be patronized” both by local and foreign travelers.
“The development and completion of these new Hotel 101 projects will be perfectly timed with the full recovery and anticipated rebound in the tourism industry,” DoubleDragon Chief Investment Officer Hannah H. Yulo-Luccini said.
“We believe in a couple of years, all this pent-up demand for tourism will cause an unseen surge in demand for hotel rooms across the globe,” she added.
The company has 6,165 hotel rooms nationwide, which include those that are operational and projects that are under construction or are in the pipeline for launching for its Hotel 101 brand, Jinjiang Inn Philippines, and the Ascott DD Meridian Park.
DoubleDragon has businesses in hotels; provincial retail leasing through its CityMalls chain; and office leasing through DD Meridian Park complex in Pasay City, a 42-story Jollibee Tower in the Ortigas central business district and The Skysuites Corporate Tower in Quezon City.
The company also has an industrial warehouse leasing business through its CentralHub warehouse complexes, which is a joint venture with Jollibee Foods Corp. It plans to launch an industrial real estate investment trust (REIT) through CentralHub by the second half of this year.
DoubleDragon’s leasable space also includes Robinsons DoubleDragon Square Office Towers in Libis, Quezon City. The space is a joint venture with Robinsons Land Corp.
“The aspiration to expand Hotel 101 outside the Philippines has been there since before, but was further delayed by the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic,” Mr. Sia said.
“Now that the borders have opened up and the COVID-19 pandemic looks bound to end, we believe the elements are already there to finally put forward this aspiration of DoubleDragon to create a global Filipino hotel brand that every Filipino can be proud of, just like the pride that we feel when we see a Jollibee store in other parts of the world,” he added.
DoubleDragon shares at the stock exchange declined 13.45% or P1.38 on Tuesday, closing P8.88 apiece.
https://www.bworldonline.com/doubledragon-prepares-first-hotel-project-abroad/
