DoubleDragon primes Hotel 101 for international expansion
Holding firm DoubleDragon Corp. has taken a vital step toward the overseas expansion of its Hotel 101 hybrid condotel business as it prepares to acquire and launch the first site outside the Philippines this 2022.
DoubleDragon has amended the primary purpose of its Singapore-based subsidiary, Hotel 101 Worldwide Private Ltd., to empower this unit to conduct acquisition, investment and development of real estate properties and ventures, as well as conduct real estate sales, marketing, operations and management of projects outside the Philippines. The amendment has been approved by Singaporean regulators.
Based on the company’s disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, expansion activities may be done directly by Hotel 101 Worldwide or through partnerships and joint ventures with other property developers in other countries.
“We have observed that the US has Holiday Inn, Europe has Novotel, China has Jinjiang Inn, Malaysia has Shangri-La, Thailand has Dusit, Japan has Nikko, Singapore has Raffles, but the Philippines has none,” said DoubleDragon chair Edgar Sia II.
“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,” he added.
Acquisition schedule
With the easing of COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions, DoubleDragon expects to acquire its first property for development in Asia by the second quarter of 2022, and launch this by the second half of 2022, the disclosure said.
DoubleDragon has shortlisted overseas sites where Hotel 101 is likely to attract local and foreign tourists as well as Filipinos who will visit that country for business or leisure.
“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. We believe in a couple of years, all this pent-up demand for tourism will cause an unseen surge in demand for hotel rooms across the globe,” said DoubleDragon chief investment officer Hannah Yulo-Luccini.
Investment opportunity
The first Hotel 101 project outside the Philippines is seen to give Filipino investors a chance to make their first offshore real estate investment with affordable payment terms for a hybrid condotel.
The concept patent of Hotel 101’s pioneering condotel concept has already been filed while Hotel 101 trademark and domains have been secured in various countries. The Hotel 101 app for both Apple iOS and Android will be launched soon.
Based on the Hotel 101 concept, all the units are identical, allowing all unit owners to have an equal share in the revenues of the property. This asset light concept allows DoubleDragon to generate revenue and income twice, first from the preselling of the units, and once the project is constructed, from recurring income from hotel operations.
The condotel’s prototype, Hotel 101-Manila, achieved an average occupancy rate of 96.03 percent in 2021.
