Hotel 101 embarks on global expansion

DoubleDragon Corp., through its Hotel 101 brand, is targeting to acquire its first property development in Asia by the second quarter of the year.

It is also looking at launching the project in the second half, the company said in a disclosure yesterday.

DoubleDragon chairman Edgar “Iniap” Sia II said the idea is to establish Hotel101 globally as the homegrown Filipino hotel brand.

“We have observed that the US has Holiday Inn, Europe has Novotel, China has Jinjiang Inn, Malaysia has ShangriLa, Thailand has Dusit, Japan has Nikko, Singapore has Raffles, but the Philippines has none. 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,” Sia said.

DoubleDragon, the holding company of Sia, has already shortlisted sites in the region where Hotel 101 is expected to be patronized by local and foreign tourists, as well as Filipinos who visit that country for business or leisure.

The first Hotel 101 project outside the Philippines is also expected to give Filipino investors a chance to make their first offshore real estate investment with affordable payment terms for their hybrid condotel Hotel 101 investment.

The company’s offshore subsidiary, Hotel 101 Worldwide Private Ltd. has completed the change of its principal activities on Singapore’s Regulatory Authority.

Thus, the change and update of its primary and secondary activities now allows it to conduct acquisition, investment and development of real estate properties and ventures, as well as conduct real estate sales, marketing, operations and management of the group’s projects outside the Philippines.

Sia said this is a step toward DoubleDragon’s aspiration to export the Hotel 101 brand and concept globally.

The expansion may be done directly by Hotel 101 Worldwide or through partnerships and joint ventures with other property developers in other countries.

The Hotel 101 concept allows DoubleDragon to generate revenue and income twice, first from the pre-selling of rooms. After the project is constructed, it will generate long term recurring revenue from hotel operations.

Last year, Hotel 101-Manila achieved an average occupancy rate of 96.03 percent.

“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.