00:00 Well, they say nobody does hospitality like Filipinos do.
00:03 This boutique hotel brand seeks to provide guests with that one-of-a-kind experience.
00:09 The Henry Hotels and Resorts Innkeeper, Hanky Lee, joins us now in the studio.
00:14 Hanky, great to have you with us.
00:16 It's been a long time coming.
00:17 Exactly.
00:18 We've been talking about this interview for two years now.
00:19 Exactly.
00:20 It's been a long time.
00:21 Thank you for having me, Rico.
00:22 Thank you very much.
00:23 So, why are you called the innkeeper and not the CEO, the chairman, the president, and
00:27 founder of Henry Hotels?
00:30 All those high-polluting names, right?
00:32 So why innkeeper?
00:33 Yeah.
00:34 Why innkeeper?
00:35 Well, basically, a lot of the properties that we operate right now are on the intimate side,
00:39 on the smallish side, right?
00:42 When you say, "Innkeeper," it connotes being small.
00:47 It also connotes the person being a gracious host, that the person, the innkeeper, knows
00:52 you by name.
00:53 You're not a number.
00:54 So that basically kind of encapsulates why I want to be called the innkeeper.
00:59 It's very personalized.
01:00 Yes.
01:01 Like a butler, right?
01:02 Gracious host.
01:03 A gracious host.
01:04 Gracious host is what we call it.
01:05 I'm really curious.
01:06 You came from the food industry, and now you're in the tourism industry.
01:09 What made you cross over?
01:12 Okay, so it's like this.
01:15 When I was in the food industry, I was going all over the Philippines, opening stores.
01:21 And going around the Philippines, I saw basically the beauty of the Philippines from up north,
01:26 from Baguio, Lawag, and all the way south to Davao.
01:30 And seeing, wow, there's so much opportunity.
01:33 I'm an entrepreneur, right?
01:34 So there's so much opportunity in either hotels or resorts.
01:37 Because I used to stay there when I traveled the whole of the Philippines.
01:41 And that was what brought you the inspiration to start Henry Hotels and Resorts?
01:47 Yes.
01:48 And after I had the opportunity to sell my brand, which I co-founded with two other friends,
01:55 I said to myself, "No, I need to go into hospitality."
02:00 And your first Henry Hotels and Resorts is in Manila.
02:03 Is this along Harrison?
02:06 Actually Rico, that's the second.
02:09 The second?
02:10 That's the second.
02:11 The first one is actually the Henry Hotel Cebu.
02:15 That was the first.
02:16 And then the second that opened to much acclaim was the Henry Manila.
02:20 Henry Manila.
02:21 Yes.
02:22 Right?
02:23 Henry Manila, Henry Cebu, of course those were the two bulwarks, right?
02:27 The two main hotels.
02:30 But how did you fare during the pandemic?
02:34 Oh my, wow, wow, Rico.
02:37 The pandemic was really one of the hardest times of my life, right?
02:41 So from that was March of, sorry, February of 2020 was really where everyone was so excited.
02:49 All our sales were like highest.
02:53 Then pandemic came, lockdown came.
02:56 And all I saw were really zeros.
02:58 And that was really one of the toughest times of my life.
03:01 I had to rethink if I really wanted to continue this business or not.
03:05 But here I am today because I have recommitted to that.
03:09 Because our country actually is so beautiful from what I call the hardware, which is the
03:15 different locations that we have, the different islands, to the software, our people.
03:20 So Manila, Cebu, where have you now expanded the Henry Hotels and Restaurants?
03:26 So we've expanded.
03:27 During the pandemic, we were a bit busy.
03:29 So we expanded to four more locations.
03:31 So that's in Dumaguete.
03:33 That's in Laia, Batangas.
03:35 We opened in Miranila, Quezon City.
03:37 And then the last is we opened in Bacolod.
03:40 And then currently, we have four other projects in the pipeline.
03:44 Wow.
03:45 And are all of these hotels company-owned?
03:50 How does the system work with Henry Hotels and Restaurants?
03:53 Do you just manage these properties or do you also own them?
03:59 So think of it this way.
04:00 We are a local management company.
04:02 So what we have is a brand and what we have is expertise in terms of running the properties.
04:08 So basically, what we do is we tie up with hotel owners or resort owners.
04:15 And basically, we tell them, "We'll take away the headache from you.
04:18 We'll manage it for you.
04:19 We'll put in a brand that means something, that stands for something, and we will make
04:24 it turnkey.
04:26 No more headaches for you from housekeeping to front office to maintenance.
04:31 We'll take care of everything."
04:33 Because of course, you have all the global brands here in the Philippines.
04:36 You have the Peninsula, you have the Hilton, you have the Hyatt, you have the Shangri-La.
04:41 Shangri-La.
04:42 Sheraton.
04:43 The Sheraton.
04:44 A lot.
04:45 But what is the edge?
04:46 Of course, these are the big hotel brands, but you have the boutique brand.
04:51 What is the edge of Henry Hotels and Resorts vis-a-vis all the other small franchise brands
04:59 that are also in the country?
05:00 Rico, we're very intentional.
05:04 Like what I said, we know who we are.
05:06 And basically, we have three brand pillars.
05:10 It's our three piece.
05:11 One is sense of place.
05:13 It's about character and soul.
05:15 It's about each place is like no other.
05:17 Each place is different.
05:18 Bacolod is different from Dumaguete, and it's also different from Mira Nila.
05:22 And then the second is leveraging on the Filipino people.
05:28 We think of Filipinos as basically unpolished diamonds, and we're here to polish them and
05:34 make them into world class, world class workers.
05:38 And then for the third one, it's celebrating the Philippines.
05:41 So as much as we can, we use social enterprise or local enterprise in everything.
05:48 In our coffee, in our cleaning materials, in our bed sheets we buy from local sources.
05:55 And what is the sustainability initiative of Henry Hotels and Resorts in all of your
05:59 properties around the Philippines?
06:02 In terms of sustainability, really, it's our built heritage.
06:05 So if you notice, like Henry Manila is a 1949 compound of old houses.
06:13 You know that.
06:14 I have seen that.
06:15 Yes, you've seen that.
06:16 Intimately Rico.
06:17 So once we come in, we are preventing them from being demolished, and then big buildings
06:29 will be built.
06:30 So it's the same.
06:31 So even in Dumaguete, that used to be an old resort.
06:34 So now we are, that's what I say, our built heritage is being saved because of what we
06:41 do.
06:42 You are expanding very aggressively today and going forward.
06:48 What does it say, Hanky, about the tourism growth in the country?
06:54 That we are very optimistic about tourism.
07:01 I believe in, again, like I say, hardware and software.
07:06 I believe that our country is so beautiful.
07:09 I was able to travel to the Philippines during the pandemic also.
07:13 Sometimes I need to clear my mind, I would just drive.
07:15 I can really see your passion and enthusiasm.
07:18 The beauty of the Philippines.
07:20 It keeps on shining through.
07:24 So it's the beauty of our islands, the beauty of our mountains.
07:28 It's also the beauty of our people.
07:30 So we have the hardware and we have the software.
07:33 Who are most of your guests?
07:34 Are they local or international?
07:37 So right now, because we're coming out of the pandemic, Rico, so most of our guests
07:42 right now are still Filipinos, are still locals.
07:45 Because in terms of the number of tourism arrivals, it is still, in terms of pre-pandemic,
07:51 it's still below forecast.
07:54 So mostly Filipinos.
07:56 And for each of your properties, what is the average number of rooms per property?
08:03 It depends.
08:04 So of the ones that are open, we have some as small as seven suites.
08:09 Seven suites.
08:10 Yes.
08:11 And then as big as 35 rooms.
08:13 What about the one in Boracay that's opening soon?
08:16 So the one in Boracay is 16 rooms.
08:19 So that's...
08:20 Very intimate, very personal.
08:22 That's why I like to be called the innkeeper.
08:23 Not president or CEO.
08:26 Or top hotelier.
08:27 No, no, no.
08:30 What about the boutique hotel in Batangas?
08:33 How many rooms does that have?
08:34 That's also 16 rooms.
08:35 Also 16 rooms.
08:36 That's also 16 rooms, yes.
08:38 Right.
08:39 Very intimate, very personal service indeed for the Henry Hotels and Resorts.
08:46 And what are your goals?
08:48 What is the ambition of Henry Hotels and Resorts and Hanky Lee over the next decade?
08:55 Our battle cry is actually very simple, Rico.
08:57 We want to redefine and elevate Philippine hospitality.
09:01 Now if we can get to 30 properties, that's our ambition.
09:05 If we can get to 30 properties in the next 10 years, we'd love that.
09:09 If we can get to more, we'd like that.
09:11 But we will be focusing actually only in the Philippines because we believe again in the
09:17 Filipino and we believe in the Philippines.
09:19 Hanky Lee, you're indeed a Pinoy pride, spreading the wings of hospitality across the archipelago.
09:26 Thank you so much for joining us on The Final Word.
09:29 the innkeeper of Henry Hotels and Resorts.
Comments