SM group earmarks P7B for hotel expansion plan

The group of retail tycoon Henry Sy is investing some P7 billion to scale up its hotel portfolio over the medium term, which will include its flagship luxury hotel that will rise within the Mall of Asia (MOA) complex and five new Park Inn Hotels in various countryside locations across the Philippines.

SM Hotels executive vice president Reynaldo Villar said the group has made plans to build a five-star 400-room hotel within MOA and roll out five new Park Inn Hotels adjacent to selective SM Malls within the next six to seven years.

The upcoming five-star hotel in MOA, which will be completed by 2015, will require about P4.5 billion in investment, said SM Hotels vice president Christina Bautista. She added that each new Park Inn Hotel would require P500 million in new investment. This will bring to P2.5 billion the expected capital outlay for the five new Park Inn Hotels.

“In true SM fashion, we couldn’t do it until we have the right model,” Bautista said, adding that the group developed such prototype in the first Park Inn Hotel that will open in Davao this February. “What SM has done with the malls in the countryside we would like to do too for the tourism industry all around the country where the malls are.”

By 2013, SM Hotels will have more than 1,000 hotel rooms in its portfolio with the opening of the 204-room Park Inn Davao and the expansion of Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay. With the addition of a new wing, Taal Vista now has 260 rooms. Other hotel properties under the SM Group are Pico Sands Hotel in Hamilo Coast with 154 rooms and deluxe hotel Radisson Blu in Cebu with 400 rooms.

The hotel and convention segment is the smallest among the SM group’s core businesses for now, set up only in 2008-2009, but it is growing rapidly. This year, the unit has turned profitable, Bautista added. In the first nine months, the group’s consolidated revenues grew by 37 percent over last year.

Apart from its hotel portfolio, the group also has 24,000 square meters of leasable exhibit space at the SMX complex in MOA. It has another 7,000 sqm in Davao while the next SMX will open in Aura, Fort Bonifacio, with 5,000 sqm next year.

For the flagship luxury hotel in MOA, Bautista said this would be managed by an international hotel brand.

After the opening of Park Inn Davao next year, five more new hotels were being planned under this brand, likely with about 150 rooms each, Bautista said. The group was looking at about 20 sites but would narrow its choices. Once a site has been identified, she said it would take about 18 months to develop each new Park Inn Hotel.

The price point for Park Inn, likewise under the Radisson group, is between P1,500 and P2,000.

“We’ll look and see where the demand is. Right now, you don’t have too many places to stay (in the countryside) that are convenient, hassle-free and at a good price,” Bautista said.

Four of the additional Park Inn Hotel projects, she said, might be able to break ground by the first quarter of 2013.