DoubleDragon to launch three hotels this year

DoubleDragon Properties Corp. plans to launch three hotel projects this year that are expected to generate up to P11 billion in revenues.

DoubleDragon said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it would start the pre-selling activities for the three new Hotel 101 projects including Hotel 101-Cebu, Hotel 101 Resort-Boracay and Hotel 101-Libis.

The three hotels will offer a total of 2,251 rooms to interested buyers.

“The Hotel 101 model has proven to be truly resilient, even in these circumstances it was able to deliver as much as 6.72 percent gross annual yield to its original Hotel 101-Manila unit owners, which is much higher than most corporate bond yields last year,” said DoubleDragon chief investment officer Hannah Yulo-Luccini.

“The completion of these new Hotel 101 projects will be perfectly timed with the full recovery and anticipated rebound in the tourism industry in the Philippines. 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 country,” Yulo-Luccini said.

The Hotel 101 model, a 3-star affordable hotel, was able to maintain high occupancy during the pandemic as it provided accommodation to employees of business process outsourcing companies.

The hotel rooms were designed to have the amenities of a studio unit, equipped with kitchenettes in each room, which makes it suitable to long staying guests.

The company said the Hotel 101 concept allows it to generate revenue and income twice, first from the pre-selling of the condotel units, then after the project is completed as it starts to generate long-term recurring revenue from hotel operations.

“As far as we are aware, Hotel 101 is the only hotel concept of its kind in the world, the patent documents for Hotel 101's unique and pioneering concept has already been filed,” said DoubleDragon chairman Edgar Sia II.

Hotel of Asia is one of the major subsidiaries of DoubleDragon, aside from DDMP REIT, CityMall Commercial Centers and CentralHub Industrial Centers.

“We envision DoubleDragon to soon become an investment holding company with several subsidiaries in multiple sunrise industries, and as the ultimate parent company, it will usher its subsidiaries to eventually conduct IPOs one by one when the right time comes,” Sia said.