With eye on OFWs, Hotel of Asia creates Singapore unit

HOTEL of Asia, Inc. (HOA), a subsidiary of DoubleDragon Properties Corp., will focus on generating international sales for its Hotel101 projects this year.

In a statement on Wednesday, DoubleDragon said Hotel101 Worldwide Private Limited, HOA’s international selling unit, received the certificate of incorporation in Singapore.

“DoubleDragon derives revenues from Hotel101 twice — firstly, from the pre-selling of the units during the construction phase and secondly, once the projects are completed the properties start to generate steady recurring revenues from the hotel operations,” Edgar J. Sia II, chairman and chief executive officer of DoubleDragon, was quoted saying in a statement.

Last December, DoubleDragon’s board of directors gave the go signal for the creation of international wholly owned subsidiaries in Singapore, Hong Kong, Middle East, Japan, London, Italy, and the United States.

The homegrown brand Hotel101 will account for the bulk of the DoubleDragon’s 5,000-hotel room target by 2020. DoubleDragon’s other hotel brands include Jinjiang Inn, Skysuite, and Ascott-DD Meridian Park.

Currently, DoubleDragon has 876 operating rooms across five properties in the country, and has another 4,207 rooms in the pipeline.

For this year, Hotel101 expects to pre-sell six hotel projects, which are located in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, Davao, Boracay, Bohol, Palawan, and Cebu. In the next two years, the company expects to fully sell the P14.53-billion Hotel101 unit inventory.

Mr. Sia said Hotel101 units are an ideal investment for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who would want to reinvest in the country but do not have the time to manage their investments.

“Hotel101 will offer them a steady stream of recurring income backed by condominium unit titles that allows them to participate both in the robust long-term prospects of the real estate industry as well as the rapid growth in tourism in the Philippines,” he said.

DoubleDragon’s net income rose 19% to P966.02 million in the first nine months of 2018, following a 16% jump in gross revenues to P4.72 billion. —