Most hotel owners want to enrol in the asset warehousing programme to mitigate the financial impact from the pandemic, which is worse this year than 2020, according to the Thai Hotels Association (THA).
THA conducted a survey and found the combined asset value of hotels wanting to enrol is 82.4 billion baht, with properties valued at 100-500 million baht having the strongest demand, said THA president Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi.
The outstanding debt for all the hotels surveyed stood at 32 billion baht, with most of them being classified as mid- to upper-tier hotels. Roughly 45% had debts worth 50 million baht or less.
"This scheme allows hoteliers to preserve ownership for the future because they have an option to buy back the asset at a reasonable price when they regain a healthy financial status," she said.
The survey received responses from 198 hotels with a supply of 23,499 rooms, and 40% were fully open for business. Another 14.7% had half of their services available. Some 33.8% were partially open, offering less than 50% of their normal operations, while 11.6% were temporarily closed.
Mrs Marisa said asset warehousing allows hotel owners to avoid selling their entire properties to foreign investors, as overseas groups are actively approaching hoteliers for valuable deals, hoping to gain a high return on investment when international travel resumes.
This scheme is also attractive to property owners because leaving their assets with banks means their existing debts are cleared, whether from loans used for construction or from previous borrowing, she said.
"Almost 80% said they agreed to lease the property back from the bank and operate their services as usual. I believe banks will not go against this idea because owners are the ones who know best how to manage or select a management team to run the hotel," said Mrs Marisa.
The cabinet last week approved financial relief measures worth 350 billion baht to cushion the impact on the business sector, of which 100 billion is earmarked for asset warehousing.
Under this programme, owners can buy back their assets from the bank within five years at a price no higher than the transferred price plus a carrying cost of 1% per year. If owners want to lease their assets back, the rental should be deducted from the price of buying back the asset. Banks cannot collect a maintenance fee if owners agree to maintain that asset by themselves while leasing it.
