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SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017
Business
Ray S. Eñano, Editor / Roderick dela Cruz, Issue Editor business@thestandard.com.ph
ROCKET GUYS SHAKE PH HOTEL INDUSTRY
wo young Frenchmen, working for Rocket Internet SE of Germany, are shaking the Philippine accommodation industry, offering budget hotel rooms in premium locations such as Manila, Cebu and Boracay for as low as P850 a night.
“Our mission is to be the best budget hotel brand in the Philippines and in general Southeast Asia. What is happening in Southeast Asia is that traditionally, budget hotels are either unprofessional or expensive, and so we are coming with a disruptive brand that is essentially rationalizing the market,” says Nathan Boublil, the 31-year-old co-founder and global managing director of Zen Rooms. Zen Rooms, which has venture capital company Rocket Internet as a major investor, is a network of branded budget hotels that offers cheap prices and guarantees highquality standards such as free Wi-Fi, clean comfortable bed, cool air-conditioning, hot shower and 24/7 customer care. Boublil says Zen Rooms aims to disrupt the Philippine hotel industry. “I don’t know why it has not been disrupted before. It is full of inefficiencies and that is why the prices are so high. The value for money ratio is one of the worst in Southeast Asia,” he says. “First and foremost, it is our company culture. Our investor, Rocket Internet, has the culture of speed, culture of disruption. We move fast and break things. The founder of Rocket Internet operates this way and we definitely operate this way. All our team is young and energetic and working very hard. That’s the difference from the traditional budget hotel market,” he says. He says the word Zen refers to the state of being stress-free. “It is all about budget stay, but with the quality that is guaranteed. You have that reliability of standards in all of our locations. Zen means peace. It is quiet and stress-free. You know that when you book a room through Zen, you will get best value-for -money, so it is stress-free,” says Boublil. “Today, Zen Rooms operates in 1,000 locations in Southeast Asia. We started the company in Jakarta 18 months ago. Now, we are one of the main budget hotel brands in Indonesia,” Boublil says in an interview in Makati City. Zen Rooms appointed Benjamin Nicolas, a Filipino-French executive as country manager for the Philippines last year. Within sixmonths of launching, Zen Rooms grew the brand to cover 600 rooms in Manila, Angeles City, Cebu City, Boracay, Palawan and other key areas, making it one of the five largest budget hotel operators in the country, and challenging the leadership of other brands such as Go Hotels and Red Planet. Boublil says the plan is to double the number of rooms within the next six months, making it the third largest budget hotel operator, and emerge as the largest brand by 2018. “Now, we have more than 600 rooms in 100 locations. You can find Zen wherever you travel in the Philippines. A big push is going to happen,” he says. “We went live six months ago in the Philippines, first in Manila, then expanded to key cities and more are to come. We are opening in Palawan in two weeks.” Aside from the Philippines and Indonesia, Zen Rooms is also present in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Brazil. Boublil describes the budget hospitality market in the Philippines as quite inefficient. “The prices are high for standard of quality. We come in with competitive prices.
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DISRUPTORS.
Zen Rooms global managing director Nathan Boublil (left) and country manager for the Philippines Benjamin Nicolas
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PLDT LAUNCHES ‘NEGOSYO’ PACKAGE MILLIONS of Filipinos continue to work overseas to help provide a better life for loved ones and to secure for themselves a comfortable, more stable retirement life in the future. In the 2015 Global Pinoy Entrepreneurial Survey conducted by PLDT Global, majority of the Filipino respondents expressed their aspiration of owning a sustainable business to help augment their income and support their dependents in the Philippines. Results showed that the top three businesses that they would like to invest in are e-loading stations, food carts and water refilling stations. PLDT Global Corp., through its Smart World brand, has come up with a solution to answer the wishes of overseas Filipinos and their families—the Smart Negosyo Package. The Smart Negosyo Package is a load retailer business for families of Filipinos working abroad. It comes with a retailer SIM, mobile phone, retailer manual, and retailer merchandise, that can be purchased for $64 for kits with P2,000 worth of e-load, and up to $128.00 for kits with P5,000 worth of e-load. Overseas Filipinos can purchase and also reload their Smart load retail kit online via the Smart World Store (www. smartpinoystore.com). They can pay directly online using a debit or credit card or pay in cash through the PayRemit outlets in UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Once the order is confirmed and paid for, the retailer kit will be delivered directly to the address in the Philippines provided by the buyer. “This special Negosyo package was designed with the overseas Filipinos in mind. We have proven over the years that the e-loading business is a sound business model, and also lucrative because the product being sold is like a basic commodity for most Filipinos. This is a good investment that can empower Filipino expatriate workers and their families to shore up their income while working abroad,” said Kat Luna-Abelarde, president of PLDT Global Corp. “With over 12 million overseas Filipinos celebrating the holiday season in the Middle East, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, United States, and United Kingdom, this is a practical gift that they can share with their families in the Philippines,” said Abelarde. The Smart World Store is an online portal that allows overseas Filipinos to buy gifts for their loved ones back at home, ranging from affordable negosyo packages, gift checks, to the latest gadgets at flexible and secure payment options.
AYALA LAND RAISES FUNDS TO STEP UP SUPPORT FOR MILITARY ORPHANS AYALA Land Inc. continued to raise funds for children of fallen Filipino soldiers over the holidays by distributing greeting cards, which represent cash donations to Help Educate and Rear Orphans or Hero Foundation as a “gift of hope” to corporate partners and clients. The ALI-Hero Christmas card project has generated millions of pesos in funding for the orphans’ education. “We remain committed partners of the Hero Foundation, sharing its goal of providing military orphans with quality education and honoring
our fallen heroes by creating a bright future for their children,” said ALI human resources and public affairs head Eliezer Tanlapco. ALI shared Hero Christmas cards with its clients and partners with the aim of raising more awareness and financial support for the children. The company had already raised over P2 million in donations for the Foundation through the cards since 2010, but ramped up promotions in 2016 to turn over close to P4 million more. Established in 1988, Hero Foundation is a non-profit
organization that provides educational assistance in the form of stipends to children and dependent siblings of Filipino soldiers killed in actionor totally incapacitated while in line of duty. The educational stipends from the Foundation help augment their resources, allowing the children to finish their schooling and pay for other school-related expenses such as uniforms, meals, transportation and school supplies. ALI has been a partner of Hero Foundation from the beginning, being one of the first companies to pool its
resources for the soldiers’ children. Jaime Zobel de Ayala was a founding member, while his son Fernando Zobel de Ayala, chairman of the board of ALI, also heads the foundation’s current board of trustees. Through the years, ALI has sustained its support for the foundation by providing annual monetary donations, and more importantly, by encouraging employee volunteers and other companies as well to share their time and talent with the orphans. Aside from these, ALI also offers internship
and employment opportunities to the Foundation’s scholars at various Ayala Land companies, and makes Hero donation boxes available at Ayala Malls nationwide. ALI’s continued support for Hero Foundation reinforces its commitment to local economic growth and nationbuilding. As a leading developer of sustainable estates, the company not only builds properties that help enrich quality of life, but is also actively engaged in various social development initiatives to reach out to more Filipinos.