By Stella Arnaldo / @Pulitika2010 / Special to the BusinessMirror
WITH just a simple snip to a blue ribbon and a champagne toast, the newest luxury hotel in the Philippines, Conrad Manila, quietly opened its doors to the public on Wednesday.
A fully owned property by the SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) and managed by the worldwide Conrad Hotels and Resorts brand, the 347-room Conrad Manila is setting out to be “the most iconic hotel in the country,” said SMHCC President Elizabeth T. Sy in a press briefing following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, led by her mother Felicidad and brother Hans, president of SM Prime Holdings Corp.
The hotel is uniquely shaped like a ship and, with the stunning Manila Bay and its mesmerizing daily sunsets as backdrop, it serves as anchor to the SM Group’s lifestyle city-themed Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Martin Rinck, president for Asia Pacific of Hilton Worldwide, the parent firm of Conrad Hotels and Resorts, said the brand is constantly looking out for opportunities for expansion, especially now with the Philippines hosting more of its managed properties.
“It all comes down to finding the right partners in the right location, in the right development opportunity, and those, I will say, the stars need to align. If you take the example of this property [Conrad Manila] where we have a fantastic partner in SM, we have a great up-and-coming location in Manila and the bay area, the stars do align, and huge business fundamentals of additional tourists coming into the Philippines,” he said. “If it is the same in another destination, [whether] it be another property with SM or another partner, if we feel the Conrad brand is the right brand to deploy at that point and time, we definitely will look into it.”
Two Hilton-managed hotels will be opened by the end of 2018, one at the Resorts World in Parañaque and the other at Clark in Pampanga. In an earlier interview with SMHCC officials, there were no indications, however, that the company was going to invest in putting up another Conrad hotel after the MOA property, choosing instead to focus on midsized hotels. (See “SM hotel unit to focus on mid-range market,” in the January 27, 2016, issue of the BusinessMirror.)
Yet, Rinck confirmed that there were feelers and ongoing discussions with other groups in the Philippines for another Conrad-managed hotel, but he stressed there was nothing definite to announce yet. “We are always in dialogue to look at opportunities [here in the Philippines].”
In a separate interview, Conrad Manila General Manager Harald Fuerstein expressed optimism that the hotel will be able to quickly build up its clientele, as it rides on the rising visitor arrivals and the Philippines’s growing economy.
“I don’t want to sound overly optimistic and overconfident, but I have a very good solid feeling that we will not have a very major challenge [to building our clientele]. But we have many good ingredients in place; we’ve got a great buoyant economy, we’ve got a lot of interest in the Philippine market from the outside, and the people in the Philippines are looking for something new all the time. Over the recent months we have been preparing for the opening, we’ve experienced so much interest already from people asking us ‘what’s the Conrad going to be about, when will you open, what can we expect, what’s the experience going to be like’—there’s been a lot of interest. I fully expect that it will be reasonably quick for us to build the business.”
Rinck added that the hotel also has access to the 55 million members of Hilton Worldwide.
The main target clientele of Conrad Manila will be the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market, events, locals looking for “staycations,” as well as travelers from “inter-Asia —Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea and China,” Fuerstein said.
Sources intimated that until the very last minute, the hotel was still moving in furniture, finishing touches were still being made in several rooms, the check-in system was being installed, and the like, although none of the frenzied activity was evident on Wednesday.
“That’s what we do whenever we open a hotel, everything comes together,” Fuerstein explained. “As with any project big or small, there will be a few last-minute touch-ups. Also in a hotel opening, as it builds up toward the actual day [of the opening], activity gets a little bit more frantic. But you know we’ve got it all done. We’re pretty relaxed today, so we’re all ready to go. We got it done, that’s the most important.”
Conrad Manila was built at a cost of P6.5 billion, with 250 employees currently employed. SMHCC has a 10-year partnership agreement with Conrad Hotels, which is renewable.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes