Harry Triguboff’s Meriton is now Australia’s biggest hotelier
Apartment developer Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Serviced Apartments business has taken over from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as Australia’s biggest owner of hotel rooms.
It’s all thanks to Meriton’s new 36-storey, 254 suite serviced apartments tower on Church Street, Parramatta.
It has a total of 4403 suites across 17 apartment towers in Sydney, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.
And the company is planning to open a 29-story full-service hotel apartment complex with 218 suites in Arthur Street, North Sydney, later this month. That will take its holdings to 4621 suites when Meriton’s latest offering in North Sydney is finished later this month.
Other developments now being planned are in Sussex Street in Sydney and in Surfers Paradise. Meriton plans to open them in 2017 and 2018.
Over the last two months, it has opened three apartment hotels and one of its newest locations, Sydney Airport Mascot, is currently running at 92 per cent occupancy with a rate of $193.
That is an extraordinary achievement for the billionaire property developer who started out just 12 years ago.
Meriton Serviced Apartments general manager Matthew Thomas said the company was aiming at providing a quality offering.
“Our serviced apartments have been very well received by travellers and I think it’s the fact we offer such a high quality and a real consistency whether you’re travelling interstate, or just from Sydney to Parramatta,” Mr Thomas told The Australian.
Meriton is forecasting exceptionally high income in North Sydney with rates as high as $300 per room and a 92 per cent occupancy rate.
The key here, Mr Thomas said, was the company’s strategy of building new hotels rather than buying and renovating existing properties.
Becoming Australia’s fastest growing hotel operator is no small feat coming at a time when the industry is being squeezed by digital economy businesses such as Airbnb.
by Leon Gettler, October 10th 2016
