FIH Regent Group (晶華麗晶酒店集團) plans to accelerate the expansion of its Just Sleep (捷絲旅) brand by launching a new overseas franchise model, aimed at raising the medium-priced hotel brand’s total of outlets worldwide to more than 100 in five years.
The group currently operates three brands — Regent Hotels & Resorts, Silks Place (晶英酒店) and Just Sleep — with a total of 16 hotels and one cruise liner around the world.
After officially launching its sixth Just Sleep hotel in Yilan County’s Jiaosi Township (礁溪) yesterday, FIH Regent chairman Steven Pan (潘思亮) said that the medium-priced brand would be the main force to drive the momentum of the group’s expansion.
“Through overseas franchising, we hope the number of hotels under the Just Sleep brand could surpass 100 in the next five years,” Pan told a news conference.
Pan said the group might cooperate with a Philippine land developer in the near future. The first Just Sleep hotel is expected to be opened in the Philippines next year via the franchising model.
In China, FIH Regent might adopt a similar strategy of expansion by collaborating with different land developers, targeting a fast expansion for the Just Sleep brand through the regional franchising model, Pan said, adding that the brand would target first-tier and second-tier cities in China, citing the market’s potential for expansion.
In Taiwan, FIH Regent is scheduled to open two more Just Sleep hotels next year, Pan said. One is to be in Kaohsiung and the other will be in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重), he said.
In addition, the group plans to launch trial operations of another hot spring hotel brand in Jiaosi by the end of this year, he added.
The Just Sleep hotel in Jiaosi, which had a soft opening in February, has had an average room occupancy rate 70 percent, with an average room rate of NT$4,000, FIH Regent said in a statement.
As for the other brands, the Regent Hotels & Resorts would expand into the Chinese cities of Xian and Chongqing next year, with the Silks Place brand to launch a new hotel in Kaohsiung, the statement said.
FIH Regent reported a net profit of NT$299.28 million (US$9.58 million) in the first quarter, or NT$2.56 per share, an increase of 0.86 percent from NT$296.72 million, or NT$2.54 per share, for the same period last year, the company’s stock exchange filing data showed.
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