Megaworld Hotels & Resorts (MHR) is the Philippines’ largest hotel operator with 8,500 room keys across 13 hotels and seven brands. The hospitality chain bagged the 2024 World Travel Awards for the Philippines’ Leading Hotel Group award. In the recent PropertyGuru Philippines 2024, Megaworld’s portfolio was recognized with a Sustainable Design Award for its green features and building certifications for sustainability.
MHR’s adaption of environmental sustainability is already in place and recognized, alongside the Sampaguita project, its signature brand of service, and a key program in the company-wide sustainability campaign, MEGreen.
Inspired by the nation’s national flower, the sampaguita symbol signifies Megaworld’s signature brand of service, promoting social sustainability that meets the needs of its stakeholders, including employees, clients, suppliers, and local communities.
“As a homegrown brand, we take pride in the Sampaguita project launched last year. Our project is quite a ‘baby’, but we have been able to ingrain the values of love, honor, dignity, and healing to our associates because we believe there's no sustainability project that we can sell or we can use in our organizations if our people do not have a strong buy-in it. It really starts with our people,” said Cleofe C. Albiso, Megaworld Hotels & Resorts managing director.
“Our associates our simple sampaguita pin, which is a reminder of the core values of the Sampaguita project with the last petal carrying the colors of our flag, red and blue, and, of course, the symbol of the sun,” added Albiso who also underscored how a Filipino brand can instill local pride into the hospitality and tourism development sector. “We could not think of a better way to communicate the Filipino culture, creativity, and talent, demonstrated across all key areas in our hotels.”
The Sampaguita project is showcased in Megaworld’s hotel operations through the five senses: sight, taste, sound, smell, and touch.
As a Filipino brand, Megaworld advocates wearing the national costume, particularly on Filipino Fashion Mondays, in its hotel properties. In certain periods, OPM and harana are played in most establishments as part of their music styling.
Guests enjoy the sweet and calming sampaguita scent that lingers indoors. MHR had consumed 4,254 liters of the signature Cool Sampaguita scent in all 12 properties.
Dwellbeing, a sustainable social enterprise, created 3,054 gallons of sampaguita scents to meet the demand. “With our partnership with Dwellbeing, MHR’s purchases have also fed 4,785 families in Tondo, Manila through the Project Pearls Foundation,” said Albiso.
To help revive the industry, MHR also led the planting of 2,500 sampaguita seedlings across five townships of Megaworld Corporation.
In its food and beverage offerings, the sampaguita is a featured component and treat. “Our F&B Council has been very focused in developing products that use not only just the sampaguita, but also local produce and endemic ingredients so we can also push forward the product of our local farmers,” shared Albiso. A total of 175 kilos of sampaguita has been utilized in food and beverage orders since its launch. The Sampaguita menu has already earned P4.3 million in revenue across all properties.
MHR also launched the Sampaguita Experience room package with a sleep therapy program. This offer earned P604,122 total revenue in the first month after its introduction.
“It is so difficult to do a sustainability project if you do not take care of our bottom line. So far, after a year of execution and with contributions from the Sampaguita Project, we reached a 39 percent increase in total gross revenue across all our hotels. This will enable us to give more to our shareholders.”
The Manila Bulletin Sustainability Focus Session was held in collaboration with Megaworld Hotels and Resorts, AboitizPower, Arthaland, Ayala Land, RLC Residences, Shell, SM Development Corporation (SMDC), and the University of Santo Tomas.