Park Inn Davao posts high occupancy rate

DAVAO, Philippines — The hotel venture of SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) in Davao region is already bearing fruit given good patronage that is seen to further improve.

Just five months into operations, Park Inn by Radisson is already one of the top performing hotels in Davao City, a  company official said.

Park Inn is currently the third top hotel in Davao City in terms of revenue per available room (RevPar), said Park Inn general manager Geir Sikko. RevPar, a key performance test in the hospitality sector, is measured by multiplying a hotel’s average daily room rate by its occupancy rate.

Specifically, Park Inn’s RevPar stands at P1,673, next only to the P2,114 of Marco Polo Davao and P1,782 of Microtel, Sikko said.

Average hotel occupancy of the 204-room Park Inn is 66 percent, strongly competing with the 68 percent of the 245-room Marco Polo Davao and the 75 percent of the 51-room Microtel.

“We are gradually increasing our market share as we have good conversion and returning guests from our corporates and group residential meetings,” Sikko said, adding that Park Inn also managed to increase its average rates.

In March, SMHCC opened Park Inn, its fourth hotel in the Philippines. It is the first “next generation” mid-scale Park Inn by Radisson hotel brand to be established in Asia-Pacific.

Park Inn is banking on the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) industry to further improve the hotel’s performance.

“The opening of SMX Davao Convention Center shall encourage more MICE events within Mindanao region and feeder markets from Manila and Cebu,” Sikko said.

This will result in more domestic and international flights and tourist arrivals to Davao City, Sikko said.

SMX Davao, which opened in September last year, offers a net leasable area of 6,488 square meters (sqm) for MICE events and other functions. It is the second largest convention center of SMHCC, next only to the 18,941 sqm net leasable area of SMX Center Manila.

Sikko said the hotel guests enjoy “one-stop convenient location to shop, dine and attend a business conference” given Park Inn’s proximity to the airport and the SM Lanang Premier Complex, which houses SMX Davao.

In 2012, domestic arrivals jumped 40 percent to 1.48 million from 889,645 in 2011 while foreign travelers climbed 27 percent to 81,911 from 59,859 a year ago, data from the Davao City tourism office showed.

Park Inn is the second Radisson hotel in the Philippines that is being managed by one of the world’s largest hotel chains, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group.

Aside from Park Inn by Radisson, the mall and banking conglomerate SM also owns and operates Radisson Blu in Cebu, Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay and Pico Sands at Hamilo’s Pico de Loro Resort in Nasugbu, Batangas.