Windfall for condotel owners

FILINVEST Land Inc.’s (FLI) condotel development Grand Cenia achieved its highest income growth in the first quarter of 2015 since its operations began in 2012.

Rental income in the first three months this year reached an average of P72,000 for a 22-square-meter unit, the highest revenue growth so far generated for condotel owners, compared to the P47,000 average quarter rental income in 2013 and P55,000 in 2014.

The Grand Cenia condotel units, which were combined through an asset pool, are used as rooms of the Quest Hotel and Conference Center Cebu. The hotel distributes rental income to each qualified condotel unit owner each quarter.

Property Specialists Resources Inc. (Prosper), the condotel management arm of FLI, held a ceremonial turnover of rental income share of the condotel unit owners last Tuesday at Quest Hotel.

Quest Hotel reported it grew by 16 percent from 2013 to 2014. The first quarter revenues grew by 3.2 percent compared to the same period in 2014 and 41 percent compared to the same period in 2013.

Karen Mendoza, executive assistant manager of Quest Hotel, attributed the income growth to the hotel’s healthy occupancy despite the addition of rooms in Cebu’s accommodations sector and the “price war” among city hotels.

The hotel logged 87 percent occupancy for the first quarter of this year, up by nine percent compared to the same period in 2014.

“The hotel’s central location, its service standard and most especially the staff’s passion for service and hospitality continue to gravitate people, both leisure and business travelers, to patronize the hotel,” said Mendoza.

“Our staff continues to be our greatest asset, giving guests not only the service to make them happy and at home but also reasons to come back because they always feel welcome whenever they are in the hotel,” she added.

As of April, Quest Hotel’s occupancy level stood at 74 percent, still higher than usual, despite summer being a low season for city hotels.

“We continue to be aggressive in marketing the hotel, especially among online travel agents and the corporate sector, as these two markets generate the biggest contributions in hotel revenues,” Mendoza said.

Chasing Mice

The domestic market continues to be the hotel’s top market followed by Koreans, Europeans and the Japanese. These guests stay for an average of 2.5 days in the hotel.

“This year we also hope to leverage on the different Mice groups that come to Cebu and most especially we look forward to welcoming the delegates of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) to be able to continue the revenue and occupancy growth,” said Mendoza. (Mice stands for meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions.)

She added that on top of the Apec-related events, the hotel has also been getting numerous inquiries for the International Eucharistic Congress in 2016.

Mendoza noted the hotel has already “soft-blocked” some of its 150 rooms in preparation for the Apec event, for the possible spillover of guests.

“The Apec committee has been here for many times for inspection. What we do know as of the moment is that the Apec organizing committee will be billeted here,” she said.

The increased number of Mice events this year means better prospects ahead both for condotel unit owners and homeowners of Grand Cenia Residences, said Allan Alfon, FLI vice president for Visayas.

He noted that aside from the healthy occupancy level, the stellar performance in the first quarter is also buoyed by the right management of cost, making the hotel operations efficient and competitive.

Officials also said the success of the hotel’s operation also increased the value of investment of the residential units at Grand Cenia Residences located above the hotel.

Julie Cataños, FLI project development officer for Grand Cenia, disclosed there are still 20 units left in the higher floors of the condominium. The current price for a one-bedroom unit is at P7 million; two-bedroom at P9.2 million; and three-bedroom at P15.5 million.

“We are targeting the sell-out of all units before the year ends,” said Alfon.

Quest Hotel is a member of the Aston International chain. It forms part of the 25-storey Grand Cenia located on Archbishop Reyes Ave. across Cebu Business Park.

The property has 119 residential condominium units located in the 18th to 25th floors while 432 condotel units are in the 7th to 18th floors.

In their condotel system, the units are assigned back to the hotel operator for 25 years and a unit owner has 14 days to use the unit per year. The hotel handles the sales and marketing as well as maintenance of the units.

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph