Director Ronnie Tiotuico of the Department of Tourism Region 3 and Dennis Wright, senior vice president for operations of Red Planet Hotels, developer and operator of Tune Hotels, cut the ceremonial ribbon to officially open the limited-service hotel brand.
Photo Courtesy of Jimmy Pingul
ANGELES CITY – Something tall is in fine Tune in this city, and it has boosted the yet emerging local skyline viewed from Clark Freeport’s main Roxas highway.
It’s the 10-story Tune Hotel that opened on Don Juico Ave. here last Feb. 10, the latest of a chain of hotels sought by tourists in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. It has 160 rooms.
It is part of the plan of Tune Group, a conglomerate co-founded by Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun, chief executive officer and deputy chief executive officer of AirAsia, to invest some $70 million for the construction of seven such hotels in the country, said Tune Hotels chief executive officer Mark Lankester.
Lankester said Tune Hotels chain pioneered the concept of “empowering hotel guests” by giving them the option to pay only for hotel amenities they choose under a “pay-as-you-use” scheme.
This, amid the common convenience of “5-star beds, power showers, clean environment, 24-hour security and convenient locations,” she said.
The Tunes Hotel-Angeles is the first in the country, but other Tunes Hotels are soon to open in Cebu City and Ermita, Manila and more are to be constructed in Makati City, Cagayan de Oro City, Quezon City and Paranaque City.
Lankester said that the location of Tunes Hotel in this city’s tourist district is near “tourist attractions, entertainment, food and beverage, and shopping centers.”
“Guests can even just walk to these destinations,” he said.
Lankester noted that Tunes Hotel “presents a good opportunity to introduce our brand to the market and offer an alternative to travelers” as he noted that “while the Philippines has a lot of opportunities for leisure tourism, hotel rooms here are still expensive.”
He said that at Tune Hotels, guests have more options to save on cost by opting not to use the TV set or the air conditioning unit.
Last year, Tune Hotels was named among the Top 20 Most Innovative Brands by Indonesia’s top marketing communications publication MIX Magazine while Tunes Hotel-Westminster in London was awarded a Certificate of Excellence by the world’s largest travel website TripAdvisor.com.
The guide portal About.com also ranked Tune Hotel-Westminster as top among the Top 10 Cheap London Hotels.
