First guest to the Tune Hotel Quezon City in the Philippines

Red Planet Hotels' CEO, Tim Hansing and Hotel Manager Sherry Bartolome welcome the very first guest to the Tune Hotel Quezon City in the Philippines. Mr Moniriraad from Sydney in Australia is a Tune Hotel regular in Asia and was delighted the brand is expanding in the Philippines. Mr Moniriraad checked in during our event for more than 70 media to announce Tune Hotels is now the largest internationally-managed hotel brand in the Philippines.

8-10-2013

 

 

(From L to R) CEO of Red Planet Hotels Tim Hansing, Mr. Mr Moniriraad from Sydney, our first ever guest and Hotel Manager Sherry Bartolome — at 100 Timog Avenue, Barangay Sacred Heart, Quezon City 1103 Philippines.

Tune Hotels plans 100 Indian hotels

http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/tune-hotels-plans-100-indian-hotels/

Malaysian hotel group Tune Hotels have announced an aggressive roll-out plan for India with a target of 100 new hotels over the forthcoming years.

The first 100-room property will open in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on April 1st 2013 and will reflect the core principals of the Tune Hotels brand – international class accommodation that offers great value and great savings.

Tune Hotels have identified the Indian market as a huge opportunity and will be looking to bring their unique set-up to the tourism market. Most hotels in India tend to have 100 rooms per property, but Tune would look to have between 100 and 200 rooms.

The brand will also look to focus on the Indian wedding market which offers huge potential for the visiting friends and relatives market and the opportunity to house a full family in one single hotel. 
  
Mark Lankester, chief executive, commented: “We are delighted to be opening in Gujarat and have a full strategy in place.

“Normally we would target larger locations, such as Delhi in this instance, but when we looked at the background and history of Gujarat, we identified that it is the best performing economy in the whole of India.”

“If you look at one state which has more citizens living abroad, it is Gujarat, with one million in the UK and US respectively.

“This is a huge market, and as such, the strategy is for five or six hotels to ideally open in Gujarat in the next three years to target the opportunities that arise with the VFR and business traveller markets.”

The Gujarat hotel will be closely followed by a 120-room hotel in Bhiwadi, Haryana, by the end of 2013 and a 200-room hotel near the New Delhi Railway Station in early 2014.

Besides Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai are the other major capitals that Tune Hotels are looking to confirm a presence.

Others in the pipeline are in Neemrana and Jaipur in Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Punjab and Bhavnagar, Gujarat.

Tune Hotels on exponential growth path

NEW DELHI, Feb 21 (Bernama) -- Tune Hotel Group is set to grow exponentially from 2013 onwards with hotels mushrooming in India, Middle East, Australia, Japan, as well as, the African region, says Chief Executive Officer Mark Lankester.

By end-2013, Tune Hotel would be present in eight countries, he said. "Currently we are in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and United Kingdom. India will be the sixth market followed by Australia and Japan," he said in an interview with Bernama.

In India, the first hotel would open in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in April, followed by Melbourne, Australia, in November and one more in Japan, he said.

Next year, Tune Hotel would also open its doors in Mekkah, Madinah and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, he said.

"We are looking at Europe as well. We are looking at Italy and we are finalising a deal in Vienna, Austria, amid the huge tourist potential there," he said.

In the African region, Tune Hotel is keen to enter Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, he said, adding that the value hotel chain had already signed a deal in Nigeria.

"There is oil money in Nigeria. The economy is growing fast. There is huge demand amid a population 160 million people but there is no supply and the fact that there are no big international brands in the country it is a great time for us to gain a foothold there.

"We love countries that offer high room rates," said Mark.

He said Colombo, Sri Lanka, also offered good opportunity and Tune Hotel was eyeing that market too.

"In Colombo, we are looking but we have not got anything substantial as yet," he said.

Besides expanding into new territories, Tune Hotel is also keen to grow in its existing markets.
"Only by expansion you will benefit from the economies of scale," he said.

Currently, there are 11 hotels in Malaysia, five in United Kingdom, three each in Indonesia and Thailand and four in the Philippines.

In Malaysia, hotels will open in Melaka, Alor Setar, Cyberjaya and KLIA2 ( 400 rooms) and in United Kingdom while one more hotel would be located in Canary Wharf, he said.

"The total number of hotel rooms will change rapidly from now onwards as we have plans to open one to two hotels every month," said Mark.

He said the key aspect was to continuously expand without over-stretching as campaign, advertising and brand building was equally important.

Asked on competition, he said there are rivalry at every place but it is all about offering the right product and services priced reasonably to attract customers.

Going forward, Mark said there was potential for Tune Hotel to go into full-fledged hotel services.
Although he did not provide a timeframe, he noted that at some stage it would make sense to offer a four-star hotel facility.

"By then, we would have built up certain amount of expertise. Just like how after AirAsia, AirAsia X came about," he added.