Five-star comfort for budget travelers

CEBU, Philippines - With the goal to provide five-star comfort service to the budget-conscious travellers, Cebuano-owned Genus Tandem Development Ventures Incorporated, recently opened a 43-room boutique business hotel.

The company is real estate development arm of the Gandionco and Genson families, the force behind the Mang Tinapay chain of bakeshops around the country.

The Genson family invested P8 million for the Pillows Hotel, which capitalizes on “pillow” as a catching proposition to attract travelers looking for comfortable accommodation that is easy on the budget.

The eight-storey, 43-room boutique business hotel recently been opened in Cebu located in Governor M. Roa Street, formerly known as Kamuning Street at the Capitol Site, near Cebu Doctors Hospital. 

Hotel general manager Joan Paula Zanoria said that the hotel will set its own unique service, where comfort is a serious business therefore not compromised.

Aside from the modern and sophisticated facilities of the hotel, Zanoria said the hotel also makes it a point to provide the best linens and pillow brands in all of its rooms.                

With the changing travel dynamics today, she said travellers nowadays do not pay for luxury just to stay in a hotel, but they usually pick and book for hotel accommodation just to have a safe place to "sleep", that's why the bed-and-breakfast accommodation is now flourishing.

But Pillows Hotel goes beyond the idea of merely providing “bed and breakfast”, instead it is being developed to introduce a trend in affording the mainstream travelers or the budget conscious visitors to experience comfort without spending too much.

She said the company diversified and ventured into the hospitality business to capture the promising growth of Cebu’s tourism industry.

“We will take advantage of our location and we hope to attract not only business and leisure travelers but also medical tourists,” said Zanoria.

The location, which is only a few meters away from a world-class hospital facility --Cebu Doctors Hospital, also inspired the company to make it as an accommodation extension for both foreign and local tourists.

"We aim to become the premium business hotel that offers first class care/service without harming one's pocket, " said Zanoria, who formerly was an executive of an international resort located on Mactan Island.

Pillows Hotel has five standard rooms (19 square meters), 23 superior rooms (21 sq.m) nine deluxe rooms (30 sq.m) and six suite rooms (36 sq.m) that can accommodate up to five persons. Hotel rates inclusive with breakfast start at P1,400 to P3,400.

“The hotel has designed every detail for a good night’s sleep as each of the rooms has specially designed microfiber alternative down pillows from Canadian linen,” Zanoria said.

Guests who have particular pillow preferences can choose from the hotel’s different type of pillows like orthopaedic pillows, memory foam pillows, anatomic pillow and foam pillows.

The hotel also features an all-dining cafe run by Lady O. It will also have a workout fitness gym located at the seventh floor which will open by the first quarter of 2015.

Starting off with its flagship "hotel of its kind" in Cebu, Zanoria said the company is planning to establish similar projects in other parts of the country, specifically in locations where the company already has a landbank, such as in Mandaue City, and Capiz, Aklan.

As specializing has become a "buzz word" in any business venture today as competition is tougher, Zanoria said the hotel brand is expected to revolutionize the affordable accommodation facilities segment, wherein comfort, luxury-feel service is not always synonymous to high rates or price.  (FREEMAN)