Hostel chain finds home in PH
Lub d, which means “a good night’s sleep” in Thai, plans to make its presence felt in key destinations in the Philippines.
On most days, the sleek, modern and yet warm and cozy lobby of the newly opened Lub d hostel on Makati Avenue hosts something akin to an international convention, albeit a more relaxed and convivial one, with guests from around the world coming together in their temporary home away from home.
And over a game of foosball, cocktails or a steaming cup of coffee, these guests get a taste of Filipino hospitality and what the Philippines can offer them during their temporary stay either for leisure or to explore possible areas for investments.
A community is born and it is that opportunity to offer strangers from here and abroad a safe, clean and affordable place where they can build memories that drew entrepreneur Patrick Pesengco to venture outside his comfort zone and invest in the hospitality business for the first time.
Lub d is under a 50-50 joint venture called Under Sleep Well More Fun Corp. with the Narai Thailand group, which operates Southeast Asia’s largest chain of hostels under the Lub d brand.
Lub d means “a good night’s sleep” in Thai and was named Bangkok’s top hostel when it opened in 2008.
It took some convincing, but Pesengco was eventually able to entice the Narai Thailand group to invest in the Philippines.
Pesengco first explored the possibility of going into the hospitality industry in 2013, prompted by the robust growth of the Philippine economy as well as the hostel concept, which was slowly gaining popularity in the country.
Pesengco, whose group of companies include the Hobbes and Landes speciality shops and Nespresso, always had the conviction to promote the best of the Filipinos among the international community, and he felt bad that the country was not normally viewed to be a safe and wonderful place to visit.
Thus when the idea of going into the hospitality industry crystallized in his mind, he did not lose much time turning the idea into reality.
“I decided to explore the possibility of venturing into hospitality as this is one of the very few industries where we can truly promote the best of us Filipinos to foreign guests when they visit the Philippines,” he said.
For inspiration, he studied the landscape in Thailand, where the hospitality industry is quite mature.
He checked CNN Travel 2013 Best of Bangkok and he saw that Lub d was the only one listed under the budget category and it was mentioned that it was a hostel.
“I researched more on what a hostel is all about as hostel isn’t that popular yet in Philippines. I discovered then that a hostel creates a community among guests within its surrounding and promotes the local culture where the hostel is in,” he said.
Without knowing anybody in the organization, he wrote to Lub d, and after a few weeks, executive director Winn Wanakasemsan responded.
He thanked Pesengco for his interest and said that they did have plans to expand outside Thailand but that it did not have any immediate plans to go to the Philippines.
Pesengco would not be deterred, however, so he wrote again and was told a few months later that the founder of Lub d was traveling to Singapore.
As luck would have it, he was going, too.
“I managed to meet the founder Suvit Limvattanakul in Singapore and he also showed much appreciation for my interest to introduce Lub d in the Philippines. He was very genuine and nice enough to say that they were not ready yet for such a partnership, though they did have plans to launch Lub d outside of Bangkok. He even showed me a list of countries where he intended to expand Lub d. The Philippines was mentioned as a place of interest but not a priority then. We finished the meeting well, and we became good friends. He was one of the nicest persons I ever met in my entire life,” he said.
Perhaps because they hit it off well, the Lub d founder changed his mind and went to the Philippines with his cousin to meet Pesengco and his family and explore the Philippines.
“The rest is history and it’s all by grace,” Pesengco said.
Lub d Makati, with its 233 beds with three distinct room types, is on its fourth month of operations and the occupancy rate at this very early stage has been promising, Pesengco said.
The investment has been significant but Pesengco said he was taking the long view.
“It is the part of doing our share in promoting the best of Filipinos that truly inspired me,” he said.
Other entrepreneurs are inspired, too, with some landowners expressing sincere interest to also operate a Lub d in their areas.
Pesengco said the group was excited to pursue and explore such interests with them.
“If it is God’s will, we hope to have 10 to 12 Lub d in the Philippines,” he said.
