Global hotel chain eyes bigger PH presence

Global hotel management group Carlson Rezidor wants to operate within Metro Manila a second luxury Philippine hotel under the Radisson Blu brand, amid plans to add upscale co-branded residential buildings to its portfolio.

The Philippines is among the five priority markets of Carlson Rezidor in this region, said the hotel group’s Asia-Pacific group president Simon Barlow, who was in Cebu City for a conference among regional general managers and property owners held at Radisson Blu, a property owned by the SM group.

“If I project myself five years from now, I can see the Philippines being a real cornerstone of our growth in this part of the globe,” Barlow said in an interview with the Inquirer.

Carlson Rezidor also recently signed an agreement with SM group to develop more mid-scale hotels under the “Park Inn by Radisson” brand across the country. The first of these mid-scale hotels opened in Davao early this year and the next will rise in Clark, Pampanga, by 2016. Additional sites are eyed within Mall of Asia, North Edsa and Iloilo. Five more sites are under development in line with the stated goal to grow this brand within the next five to eight years.

“We’re sending people to fast-track and see the viability of each site. We keep on looking,” said SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. president Elizabeth Sy, adding that each Park Inn property would require P500 million in capital outlay from the SM group.

Barlow said one of the strengths of Carlson Rezidor’s relationship with the SM group was this ability to develop multiple hotels in the mid-market segment, which would defray operational costs with the use of a group approach to managing clusters of hotels. This, in turn, boosts efficiency and gives a more rapid return on investment for the owners, he said.

Payback period for a Park Inn Hotel typically takes four or five years, faster than the turnaround for the more upscale brands, Barlow said.—Doris C. Dumlao