MEGAWORLD Corp.’s hotel chain Megaworld Hotels & Resorts has vaccinated 95% or 1,154 of its hotel-based personnel working across its 11 properties amid the pandemic.

“Herd immunity in all our hotel properties across the country has always been our ultimate goal to ensure not only the safety and well-being of our staff but also of all our guests who stay in our hotels,” Megaworld Hotels Group General Manager Cleofe C. Albiso said in a statement on Monday.

Among those vaccinated are employees from front offices, housekeeping, food and beverage, engineering, sales and marketing, finance, executive, human resources, and security personnel.

The group has 11 properties, namely: Richmonde Hotel Ortigas in Pasig City; Quezon City’s Eastwood Richmonde Hotel; Richmonde Hotel Iloilo; Savoy Hotel Manila and Belmont Hotel Manila in Newport City; Savoy Hotel Boracay and Belmont Hotel Boracay in Malay, Aklan; Cebu’s Savoy Hotel Mactan; Twin Lakes Hotel in Batangas; Hotel Lucky Chinatown in Manila’s Binondo; and Kingsford Hotel in Parañaque City’s Entertainment City.

All of its hotels received the “Safety Seal” certification from the Department of Tourism, validating that all properties are compliant with the minimum public health standards.

Twin Lakes Hotel and Belmont Hotel Boracay are now open to guests for leisure and “staycations,” where the group said it saw “sustained bookings left and right.”

“This is a good sign to the country’s tourism industry because we can still see that travel remains one of the things people are willing to spend on even during a pandemic,” Ms. Albiso said.

Meanwhile, its other hotels are for Filipino and foreign guests required to undergo the mandatory quarantine after arriving in the country.

The group’s portfolio currently has around 4,000 rooms across the country’s key tourism destinations. It plans to add more hotel properties within the next five years, naming Boracay, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, and the Manila Bay area’s Entertainment City as its targets for expansion. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte