RLC set to open 1st budget hotel

MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Land Corp. will open its first budget hotel next month and intends to build two more next year to take advantage of the synergies with affiliate Cebu Air.

The group’s value-hotel chain, called Go Hotels, will have its pilot site in Robinsons Pioneer CyberGate complex in Mandaluyong City. Scheduled for opening on May 19, Go Hotel-Pioneer will offer 225 rooms with sizes ranging from 16 square meters to 22 square meters each.

Go Hotels is the fifth hotel property of RLC next to the 285-room Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila, 263-room Holiday Inn Galleria Manila, 210-room Cebu Midtown Hotel and the 108-room Summit Ridge Hotel Tagaytay.

RLC president and chief operating officer Frederick Go said the budget hotel will be a good fit for low-cost carrier Cebu Air and a perfect choice of budget-conscious travellers. The next two sites in the pipeline will rise in Tacloban and Palawan.

In the fiscal year ending September 2009, RLC’s hotel division registered revenues of P1.04 billion or about 10 percent of total revenues.

Holiday Inn Galleria Manila and Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila posted occupancy rates of 77 percent and 72 percent, respectively, in spite of the global economic slowdown that has cut holiday travel.

For its commercial centers, RLC is opening two new malls next year - in Puerto Princesa, Palawan and Pangasinan. For this year, the company has already opened three outlets in Ilocos Norte, Dumaguete and Cebu.

RLC has earmarked up to P9 billion for its capital expenditures this year to further expand its branch network.

The company is also mulling the possibility of introducing real estate investment trusts to raise funds for future projects and boost liquidity.

RLC is  the second largest shopping mall developer in the country with 29 malls nationwide.