Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
They’re not dragons for nothing.
Filipino entrepreneurs Edgar ”Injap” and Tony Tan Caktiong, both born in the Year of the Dragon, again reached a new milestone on Friday, June 27, with the public listing of their property firm DoubleDragon’s hospitality business, Hotel101 Global Holdings Corporation (Hotel101), at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in New York.
With its business partner, JVSPAC, the listing of Hotel101 — stock symbol HBNB — is a first for a Philippine company on Nasdaq, the second largest stock exchange in the US. Among the famous companies on Nasdaq are Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet (Google), and Meta, Netflix, and Walmart. Its shares will begin trading on Nasdaq on Tuesday, July 1.
What’s the significance of this event for ordinary Filipinos who don’t buy and sell stocks?
The listing allows Hotel101 to raise money from the US capital market, which will help it achieve its ambitious goal of having one million hotel rooms in 100 countries across the globe.
Hotel101 is a Philippine brand, and Sia and Caktiong want to make it a global brand, especially in the 3-star hotel category. They want to cash in on the global tourism business as more people around the world join the ranks of the middle and upper classes who are traveling for pleasure and business.
In her speech at the opening bell ringing ceremony on Friday morning (Friday night in Manila) in New York, Hannah Yulo-Luccini, CEO of Hotel 101, said the milestone was a “testament to the unwavering spirit and dedication of our [Hotel 101] team,” and a “bold step towards building a global legacy.”
Yulo-Luccini cited Sia and Caktiong “whose vision, grit and relentless passion have carried us to this extraordinary stage.”
“Today, we carry the pride of our nation and showcase the warmth, excellence, and heart of Filipino hospitality to the world. This moment is for every Filipino who dreams big,” she added.
“This is a historic moment for DoubleDragon, becoming the first-ever Filipino company with a subsidiary [Hotel101 Global] listed and traded on the Nasdaq. It reflects the strength of our vision and the dedication of everyone who has helped bring Hotel101 to this global stage. And we’re just getting started — with a globally scalable model and a long runway ahead, we aim to redefine the industry and become a leading global hospitality brand working towards our vision of an inventory of 1 million Hotel101 rooms globally,” Sia said on Friday. You can watch the historic ceremony below:
Small beginnings
Caktiong has already made the Philippines proud for what he’s done with Jollibee. From a small ice cream parlor in 1975, this Filipino chemical engineer led and transformed Jollibee into the leading fast-food restaurant in the Philippines, trumping global giant McDonald’s Philippines. It’s also the “9th strongest restaurant brand” in the world, according to the latest ranking of world brand valuation firm Brand Finance, a list that includes US multinational giants McDonald’s (4th), KFC (7th), and Wendy’s (8th). (READ: Don’t be scared to make mistakes – Jollibee founder)
The Jollibee Group, with its signature dish ChickenJoy, is on track to becoming one of the top five restaurant companies in the world. It already has 19 brands with 9,400 stores worldwide, operating in 32 countries and territories. (READ: Jollibee takes over Tim Ho Wan in march to be one of top 5 food companies in the world)
Sia likewise started small, setting up a single chicken barbeque restaurant Mang Inasal in Iloilo City in 2003. He was then only 26 years old. Seven years later, at only 33 years old, he sold 70% of it to Jollibee Foods for P3 billion, and he would go on to become the youngest Filipino billionaire on Forbes Asia’s listing of world billionaires.
And the two friends are doing with Hotel101 what they’ve accomplished with Mang Inasal and Jollibee.
In the Philippines, publicly listed DoubleDragon already has over 1,400 hotel rooms across its operational hotels, which include Hotel101 Manila and Hotel101-Fort. Its other hotel properties are JinJiang Inn in Makati, Ortigas, and Boracay, plus Injap Tower in Iloilo City.
Hotel101 Cebu, Hotel 101-Libis, and Hotel101 Davao are under construction, while five more Hotel101s have been identified: one in Palawan, Bohol, Boracay (New Coast), Cagayan de Oro, and Baguio.
Abroad, a Hotel101 is being built in a 9,000-square-meter property in Niseko, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It will have 482 rooms. DoubleDragon hopes Filipinos, now among the top foreign travelers in Japan, will patronize Hotel101-Niseko when they visit Hokkaido. (READ: Konnichiwa! Why Japan has set a new record in visitor arrivals, and what we can learn from it)
Many Filipinos who want to experience snow now travel to Japan during the winter season, with Sapporo City in Hokkaido as a rising destination. Since January, Cebu Pacific has been operating thrice weekly non-stop Manila-Sapporo flights (New Chitose Airport). Sapporo is known for its snow festival held every February. It was also made famous by the highest grossing Filipino indie film, Kita Kita, which was shot in Sapporo and other areas in northern Japan. (READ: Cebu Pacific to offer direct flights to Sapporo beginning January 16)
There’s also a Hotel101 being built in a 6,593-square-meter lot in the Valdebebas area in Madrid, Spain. The hotel will have 680 rooms and is set to be completed in December 2025 in time for the F1 Grand Prix in Madrid. Sia and Caktiong had a topping off ceremony in their Hotel101-Madrid last April.
DoubleDragon described the topping off as a “milestone Filipino moment in Spain,” and said the hotel would become “one of the top 5 largest hotels in Madrid.” Spain is the world’s second biggest tourist destination next to France with over 93.8 million tourist arrivals in 2024; France was number one with 102 million.
A 3,647-square-meter site for the first Hotel101 in America has been also identified in Westlake North District in Los Angeles, Calilfornia near the LA Dodger Stadium. It will have over 600 rooms as well as a convention center.
According to DoubleDragon, these first three overseas Hotel101s will “serve as bridge projects to jumpstart the transition of Hotel101 to transcend beyond these first three countries and become a global brand with a truly unique business concept that can be planted in over 100 countries.”
Its roadmap is to have Hotel101 in 21 other “priority countries” (other than Philippines, Japan, Spain, USA) for its expansion namely: United Kingdom, UAE, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mexico, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, Italy, Germany, France, and China.
Last May, Hotel101 signed a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Horizon Group to develop up to 10 hotels in the Middle East kingdom.
Filipinos who have money for investments can join Sia and Caktiong in making Hotel101 a global brand by investing in its “condotel” business. Hotel101 units are pre-sold and the owners get a condominium title. Hotel101 manages the hotel and then shares part of the hotel revenues with the owner. Sia believes it is this “unique and novel concept” that will allow it to “successfully expand globally.”
Sia and Caktiong are showing that Filipinos can also be excellent owners and managers of a Philippine hotel, just as thousands of Filipino overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have shown that they can be reliable hotel receptionists, bellboys, waiters and waitresses/food servers, housekeeping staff, baristas, and other workers in the hospitality industry.
Soon, when Hotel101’s doors open overseas, the Philippines will join the ranks of nations with multinational hospitality brands. Among the famous ones are Marriot, Hilton, and Hyatt. We can proudly say and recommend to our friends abroad that they can try Filipino hospitality in Hotel101.
Hotel101 is a symbol of Filipino excellence in business, and in a depressing political climate where political leaders are failing us, this listing on Nasdaq is much-needed good news. – Rappler.com
