Nov. 08–Montara Hospitality Group, a local boutique resort owner, is expanding its business into hotel management, planning to manage at least 10 properties by 2017.
Established in 1999, the group owns two luxury boutique hotels: Trisara Phuket and the Boathouse Resort on the Beach in Phuket.
Its two brands for hotel management are Trisara for mixed-used properties and Montara for boutique hotels.
The company prefers to focus only beach properties.
Chairman Narong Pattamasaevi said the group decided to expand to the hotel management business because of strong demand from clients after visiting its hotels. Privacy and individual services are attractive points for its beach hotels.
“Our clients are millionaires. They have money and land. They dream of owning a beautiful resort that can generate money. In fact, they could choose international brands but they said they can’t reach these executives while they can talk with us as friends. This is why they are interested in our brands,” he said.
Montara does not guarantee a high yield per year but is confident it can generate an internal rate of return higher than the industry average in Asia, which stands at 12%.
The company expects to manage 10 properties by 2017 including four properties under the Trisara brand and six hotels under the Montara label. Three management agreements are slated to be secured next year.
The first property will be located on Koh Samui or Phuket. If they can open in both locations they must penetrate foreign markets such as Indonesia and Japan.
Mr Narong said the company prepared a budget of 2.4 billion baht for joint ventures in case some clients are interested.
This year Montara expects revenue from Trisara Phuket to increase by 10% to 440 million baht and Boathouse to rise by 20% to 240 million. The average occupancy rate will be 60% this year, up from 58% last year. Repeat guests make up 40% of the total.
The company increases its room rate by 5% per year and will do so again in the low season of 2014 before jumping double digits in the high season, thanks to improving economies in Europe and the US.
The average room rate at Trisara is US$850-900 per night and Boathouse $300.
Trisara and Boathouse are well-known among high-end tourists in Europe, the US, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, as the company promoted the brands for more than 10 years via international high-end travel agents.
Thai visitors make up less than 10%, but the company started to promote its properties among locals, especially expats living in Bangkok, hoping to bump up local guests to 10%.
