Dusit or New World? Which 5-Star Hotel is Ayala Land Looking to Acquire?

Ayala Land Hospitality, the hotel and hospitality arm of Ayala Land Inc., is looking for a new partner to operate a 500-key property in Metro Manila it plans to acquire soon.

According to Anna Maria Margarita B. Dy, ALI president and CEO, the company plans “to acquire a 500-key, five-star hotel in Metro Manila (and form) new hotel partnerships.”

Although Dy did not identify the hotel, rumors within hospitality circles have narrowed down the possibilities to either New World Hotel or Dusit Thani Manila both of which are located within the sprawling Ayala Commercial Center in Makati City.

ALSO READ

11 Luxury Hotels Built in Manila in 1976: What Happened to Them?

These 10 Developers are Building Over Half of All New Hotel Rooms in the Philippines

With 598 rooms, New World Makati seems to be the prime candidate, especially after news spread of the financial challenges its parent company New World Development Co. Ltd. is facing. Although New World’s lease contract with ALI won’t expire until 2039, a well-placed source within the local real estate industry said the hotel purchase would play into the property developer’s ongoing redevelopment program, which includes the current renovation of its leasing spaces and mall in Greenbelt 1.

Other sources have intimated that although New World may still retain management of the five-star Makati hotel, it might eventually be rebranded as a Rosewood Hotel. New World Hotels and Resorts is now a part of the Rosewood Hotel Group, an international hospitality company privately owned by Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises. The Rosewood brand refers to the group’s one-of-a-kind luxury hotel that reflects the location’s unique history and culture.

In 2024, New World Development reported a core operating profit from continuing operations of some HK$6.9 billion ($885.6 million), down 18-percent from 2023, owing to a 34-percent drop in revenues to HK$35.78 billion ($4.6 billion).

The other hotel possibility that ALI might acquire is the 500-room Dusit Thani Manila, whose lease contract with ALI expires in 2027. The Thailand-based hospitality company is said to want to retain ownership of its hotel, sources have said that ALI had also discussed with them the possibility of purchasing the hotel building, but eventually allow Dusit to retain management of the property. Opened in the late 1970s, the property was previously known as Manila Garden and Hotel Nikko before being rebranded into a Dusit Thani Hotel in 2008. 

In 2024, Dusit International reported cutting its loss to 237 million Baht ($7.2 million) in 2024, from 570 million Baht ($17.3 million) in 2023. In the Philippines, the firm has expanded its footprint by lending its management expertise to several hotel developers, including properties in Cebu and Davao.

ALI already has partnerships with global hospitality companies, including the Accor Group (Fairmont and Raffles Makati) and IHG Hotels and Resorts (Holiday Inn and Suites Makati). 

The property developer reported spending P600 million in the first quarter of 2025, as it continued to renovate and invest in more rooms. There are 4,058 hotel rooms in the company’s pipeline, “88 percent of which will rise in our estates,” Dy said. 

Four hotels are currently under renovation, she added, “three of which were fully closed for faster project delivery. Excluding these hotels, hospitality revenues rose 25 percent, year on year.

ALI Vice President for Leasing and Hospitality Mariana Zobel de Ayala said the current hotels under renovation—Seda at the Abreeza Mall in Davao and Cagayan de Oro, and Lagen Resort in El Nido—will be reopened by the third quarter of 2025. Holiday Inn Makati is the fourth property to be tackled: “We are phasing the renovation,” she said. “We’ve already begun with the rooms.”

Dy added that five more hotels are scheduled for renovation by the first quarter of 2026, although she declined to identify them.

Meanwhile, Ayala Land Hospitality reported a 10-percent increase in revenues to P2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2025, year-on-year, on the back of higher occupancy and room rates.

“Occupancy and room rates continue to be very healthy,” said Augusto Bengzon, chief finance officer and treasurer of ALI during a recent invesors’ briefing. “The average occupancy for all our hotels is currently at 70 percent, five-percentage points better than last year, and 56 percent for our resorts, on par with prior years' levels.”

ALI’s hospitality arm has a total of 4,264 rooms, of which 600 are branded under partner hotel-management firms, while 3,268 are under ALI’s own Seda hotel brand. The rest of the keys are under the resorts — El Nido (184), Lio Bed and Breafasts (50), and Sicogon B&Bs (102). It is also scheduled to open a new 276-room Mandarin Oriental Makati in 2026.