Phinma to break ground for 2 hotels

MANILA, Philippines — Phinma Hospitality Inc., the hotel arm of Phinma Corp., remains hopeful on the prospects for the Philippine hospitality sector as it plans to break ground on two new hotels this year.

“We will at least break ground on hopefully two new hotels this year,” Phinma Corp. president and chief executive officer Ramon del Rosario said.

He identified Clark and Batangas as potential locations for these new projects which will be under the Microtel or Tryp hotel brand.

“I think the one in Batangas is likely to be Tryp, the one in Clark I am not sure,” Del Rosario said.

Phinma Hospitality manages all Microtel by Wyndham hotels in the Philippines.

Del Rosario said the group currently has 17 hotels in the country.

While the country’s hotel market is being challenged by the novel coronavirus (nCoV) outbreak, Del Rosario said the group remains hopeful that this health issue will quickly pass.

“We hope that will pass and not be a lingering problem for our country,” Del Rosario said.

He acknowledged that the hotel industry has been suffering from the nCoV issue the past two weeks, but emphasized that before that, it was an attractive business to be in.

“The business has been showing very good numbers. Occupancy rates have been very good. We have two hotels in the Mall of Asia –  Microtel and Tryp- they have occupancy of about 85 to 90 percent, consistently,” Del Rosario said.

“Tourist numbers have also been very strong so it’s a pity that this has happened but we’re still hoping that this will pass very quickly,” he added.

Colliers International Philippines research manager Joey Roi Bondoc said hotels in Metro Manila are expected to see lower occupancy levels given the imposed China travel ban, as foreign arrivals are expected to go down.

He added that occupancy levels are forecast to drop to 63 percent this year from the 72 percent occupancy rate in 2019.

Last week, President Duterte issued a temporary travel ban from China and its Special Administrative Regions, Hong Kong and Macau, in order to contain the spread of the nCoV.

Bondoc urged foreign-branded hotels to offer lower rates to local travelers, in a bid to attract more domestic tourists as foreign arrivals are expected to slow down.

“I think initially they should test it at 10 to 20 percent (lower than normal rates), and try to compare versus the homegrown brands,” Bondoc said.