Global hotel chains expanding in PH

Marriott Hotel Manila

Integrated resort and gaming developer Travellers International Hotel Group expects to open two new luxury hotels—355-room Hilton and 390-room Sheraton—at Resorts World Manila (RWM) in Newport City by the fourth quarter of 2017.

At the same time, Westin is also expected to reenter the Philippine hotel market by 2018 with the opening of a 600-room hotel at Travellers’ second integrated resort complex Bayshore City Resorts World. Also at the Bayshore project, another upcoming hotel brand is luxury Japanese hotel operator Okura.

Apart from these new hotel brands, Marriott is expected to expand its capacity by 228 rooms with the construction of a new wing at the five-year-old RWM.

Travellers said Monday that all these hotel operators were recently honored for having the best loyalty programs in the world, citing a survey jointly conducted by US business magazine Fortune and Travel+Leisure magazines. Travellers thus suggested rosy prospects for the existing and upcoming operations of these hotel groups in the Philippines.

Based on the survey, Marriott was cited for having the best hotel loyalty program in the world while Starwood’s and Hilton’s ranked second and third, respectively. The survey results, recently published by Fortune in its first Business Travel Trend Report, also cited the top five amenities most valued by experienced travellers, namely in-room technology or Wi-Fi, room comfort and design, loyalty program, late checkout and early check-in, as well as customer service.

“Sheraton and Hilton will be an exciting addition to Resorts World Manila, which we target to complete by the fourth quarter of 2017. And Bayshore City Resorts World, which will have a Westin, is expected to open by the fourth quarter of 2018,” Travellers president Kingson Sian said.