New int’l hotel chain to open in Cebu

WITH foreign tourist arrivals to the country reaching 3.1 million  as of September or a 9.08 percent year-on-year, an international hotel chain hopes to get a slice of the market by opening in Cebu by December.

Best Western Plus Lex Cebu will open with 83 rooms on Escario Street, Cebu City.

“This is the second hotel in the country carrying the Best Western brand with Best Western Premier now operating in Manila. This is the first in the country carrying the Best Western Plus brand category,” said general manager Bernard Neil U. Tanchan.

The property will be developed and managed by Tanchan Business Ventures, Inc. which was engaged in the cold storage business in Cebu before they decided to  invest in tourism.

For their first hotel, the Tanchan group invested at least P150 million.

Tanchan said they see Cebu as a growing market that will benefit from the entrance of another international brand.

“Best Western is the largest hotel chain with over 4,000 hotels worldwide which uses a unified webportal for bookings so that way we are already marketed among  customers. When they look for Cebu, they can already see our property,” said Fay Paras, Best Western Plus Lex Cebu consultant.

Paras said the brand is positioned as the best alternative for first-class hotels.

Room rates are from P3,200 to P3,800 with function rooms good for a meeting of 180 people.

The group is looking at expanding to other key tourist destinations like Palawan within the next five to seven years.

Other Best Western properties are also set to open in Pampanga, Boracay and Bohol under another developer.

Cebu still needs more international hotel brands to help promote Cebu as a destination, according to Marco Polo Plaza’s Hans Hauri, president of the Hotel Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu in a previous interview./Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap