As the country reopens its borders to international tourists and visitors, CBRE, a leading international property consultant, is enhancing its expertise through Hotel Asset Management as hotel owners seek advice on the upcoming year budget and possible renovations to their assets in light of the potential start to an economic recovery from COVID-19.
Mr. Atakawee Choosang, Head of Hotels, Capital Markets, CBRE Thailand, commented that, "As optimism around recovery in the hotels sector builds, we are ramping up our service offering to help hotel, resort, and serviced apartments owners wholistically view their hospitality assets towards enhancing their P&L and capital value potential. CBRE's hotel specialists have a combination of operational expertise and commercial investment knowledge which comes at the right time when rising vaccination rates and border re-openings in the region are signalling rebound that should drive hotels to open their doors. In prosperous and challenging times, Hotel Asset Management is the practice of managing the yield and capital value of the owner's asset. Our specialists will take a holistic view of the owners' properties to create an overall strategy and execute a sustainable and practical asset plan which answers the owners' investment objectives throughout the asset life cycle. This includes acquisition, capital securitization, repositioning, ad hoc research and consulting and disposal of asset. Now, the process of Hotel Asset Management becomes more urgent and also more important than ever before as hotels may be able to again realize revenue."
In addition, CBRE has recently appointed Chris Ely as Head of Hotel Asset Management, Asia, based in Singapore. With more than 20 years of experience as a hotelier and asset manager, Mr. Ely will lead CBRE's Hotel Asset Management and Operator Selection business within the Capital Markets team. His role will involve working with clients to unlock value from hotel and hospitality assets, enhance profitability and align stakeholders behind investment objectives.
In Thailand, according to CBRE Research, there is room for optimism in the upcoming quarters for the hotel market as seen from the recovery in Q3 2021. Notably in early July, the government has launched multiple travel projects such as the Phuket Sandbox and Samui Plus to lessen the distressed economy and revive the touristic destinations. Consequently, the number of international arrivals to Thailand in Q3 2021 significantly increased, by 123.9% Q-o-Q from 20,275 tourists in Q2 2021 to 45,398 tourists in the quarter. An increase by over 100% Y-o-Y from zero tourists in Q3 2020 to 45,398 tourists in Q3 2021. Meanwhile, the occupancy rate of Bangkok hotels in Q3 2021 was 21.6%, reflecting an increase of 7.9 percentage points Y-o-Y.
While there were no new hotels opening in Q3 2021, resulted in the total hotel supply in Bangkok remaining at 76,712 keys. By 2023, CBRE Research estimates that there will be 11,000 more keys adding to the total hotel supply, increasing 14.4% to nearly 88,000 keys.
"With this expected increase in the future hotel supply, CBRE continues to expand our hotel service offerings to meet anticipated owners' service demand throughout the real estate from the development of the asset to operations and asset enhancements to potential exit. Our role in Hotel Asset Management will involve working with clients to make sure their hospitality assets and profitability are in tip-top shape. The important question now is how and when our clients' asset values can be restored to the pre-pandemic levels." Mr. Atakawee concluded.