DoubleDragon steps up Hotel 101 offering

MANILA, Philippines – Property developer DoubleDoubleDragon Properties Corp. has intensified the offering of P16.1 billion worth of real estate inventory under its condotel-for-sale business with the opening of a dedicated sales lounge that also functions as a showroom and conference area in Pasay City.

To date, the company has booked P2.56 billion in sales from its newly launched Hotel 101 Fort and Hotel 101 Davao properties.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, DoubleDragon said it recently inaugurated its Hotel 101 sales lounge at the ground floor of DoubleDragon Plaza at DD Meridian Park, Bay Area, Pasay City.

The Hotel 101 sales lounge houses a training center, various meeting and conference rooms, the ‘Happy Room’ model unit, scale models of the upcoming Hotel 101 projects and other discussion areas catering to Hotel 101 buyers and unit owners.

Hotel 101 is the flagship homegrown hotel brand of DoubleDragon and will comprise more than 80 percent of the 5,000 hotel rooms that the company targets to have in its portfolio by 2020.

“Our economy is doing great as affirmed by S&P Global Ratings which recently upgraded the Philippines’ credit rating a notch higher. This gives us more confidence to further expand and grow our businesses across the country. If you look at the economy and its people as a whole, I truly believe there is no other country in the world that has better prospects in the next decade other than the Philippines,” said DoubleDragon chairman Edgar Sia II.

“Hotel 101 provides the optimum balance for DoubleDragon as our offices, malls and warehouses are recurring revenue sources which start pouring in upon their respective completion, while for Hotel 101, DoubleDragon derives revenues twice- firstly, from the pre-selling of the units during the construction phase and secondly, once the project are completed the properties start to generate recurring revenue from hotel operations,” Sia added.

DoubleDragon currently has 876 operating hotel rooms across five properties nationwide and has secured another 4,375 new hotel rooms, bringing its total portfolio to 5,251 hotel rooms today.

The group has already exceeded its target portfolio of 5,000 hotel rooms.

The portfolio includes eight Hotel 101 projects located in various locations in Metro Manila, Fort, Davao, Boracay, Bohol, Palawan and Cebu.

The company earlier set up Hotel 101 Worldwide Private Ltd. in Singapore and is looking to set up additional international wholly-owned selling arm subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Middle East, Japan, London, Italy and the US to focus on the international sales of Hotel 101 projects in the Philippines starting this year.

“The new projects of Hotel 101 is expected to bring in P16.1 billion in cash flows over the next two years which is why the company has focused on building a strong workforce of now 101 in-house sales personnel dedicated to selling the new projects of Hotel 101. The company has also developed a wide network of licensed real estate brokers and agencies which we have partnered with both locally and abroad to develop our sales channels further. Hotel 101’s ‘Happy Room’ is truly a unique real estate investment which is why it has been well received by the market in such a short span of time,” said DoubleDragon chief investment officer Hannah Yulo.

The first operational Hotel 101 is 518-room Hotel 101 Manila which is enjoying year-to-date occupancy of 88.4 percent.

Hotel 101 Manila is the #1 most booked hotel in Pasay City and #2 most booked hotel in Metro Manila, according to online platform Booking.com. Hotel 101 Manila is also the #1 most booked three-star hotel nationwide, according to Expedia.com.  /g