DoubleDragon Corp., the listed conglomerate of tycoon Edgar “Injap” Sia II, is looking to bring its Hotel101 concept outside the Philippines and make it the the country’s first homegrown Filipino global hotel chain.
The global patent application of Hotel101 condotel concept has already been filed, Sia told The STAR in an interview.
The expansion will be done through partnerships and joint ventures with other developers abroad, possibly in the region and then to Europe and US as well.
“We aspire to make Hotel101 the first homegrown Filipino hotel chain brand operating in various parts of the world. The expansion may be through partnerships and joint ventures with other developers in other countries. The pioneering concept of Hotel101 which is a hybrid condotel is like a close-looped AirBnB,” he said.
The company will soon launch the Hotel101 App for both Apple iOS and Android.
Sia said that while Filipinos are known for being highly hospitable, there is no homegrown global Filipino hotel chain brand.
“The U.S. has Holiday Inn, Europe has Novotel, China has Jinjiang Inn, Malaysia has Shangri-La, Thailand has Dusit, Japan has Nikko, Singapore has Raffles, but sadly Philippines has none,” he said
Sia said it’s time that a Filipino company pursues that aspiration of creating a homegrown Filipino hotel brand that is recognized globally and eventually would bring honor and pride to Filipinos.
Hotel101 is part of DoubleDragon’s four core pillars of growth. The others are City Malls in provincial city centers; office buildings portfolio namely the 42-storey Jollibee Tower in Ortigas CBD, DD Meridian Park complex at the Bay Area, The Skysuites Corporate Tower in QC, and soon Robinsons DoubleDragon Square Building in Bridgetowne Libis; and its CentralHub chain of industrial warehouse complexes.
Moving forward, Sia said the group is in the strengthening and preparation stage, so that it can quickly capture compelling opportunities that will present itself in the next many years down the road.
“Being clearly aware that the new global economy in the next few years will surely make some businesses and industries become irrelevant, we will make sure that what we will embark on are sunrise businesses. We would rather choose smaller operations now but would become massive in years to come than huge established operations now but are bound to become irrelevant eventually,” Sia said.
He said that he and DoubleDragon co-chair Tony Tan Caktiong deeply analyze all the business that the group will embark on.
