Our opening of the resort has gone great so far, but we quickly have hit a ceiling and limit on our progress by only having 3 units constructed and available to guests.
From the outset, opening with only 3 units was a conscious choice, as we opted on the side of opening as soon as we were able, rather than waiting to do so when our target number of units (7 to 8) could all be completed. Rather, we chose to finish the full construction of the restaurant area- kitchen-admin house to serve guests and with the 3 first units be able to open, start serving guests and test the proof of our concept and its reception by the public.
The reception of our opening has been a great success! Our limitation now is not being able to handle anything other than very small groups, couples or individual travelers. Families and friends traveling on their own are quite comfortable, but we need to be able to accommodate the slightly larger, quite common groups that will make a big difference in our occupancy and revenue.
Our current 3 units all have relatively spacious interiors that are larger compared to the rooms in other hotels and resorts near us in Palawan. They also have larger patio decks, and have the biggest differentiator of large garden areas around them for really unequalled levels of privacy and space.
So with those units having that premium of space, both interior and exterior, we do not want the new expansion units to compare too unfavorably with them and want them to be similar.
We do, however, need to add a significant enough number of them (4 of them is the plan), to be able to better accommodate more guests at any one time, so they have to fit within a limited area of land.
They also need to be reasonable in cost to build, and with the inflation of costs in materials and labor, any increase in their size could raise the cost substantially.
Long story short, the new expansion units are similar in size, but slightly smaller, than the existing 3 units.
The 3 existing, slightly larger units will be considered premium as they are closer to the beachfront and have more garden space around them. The new expansion units will be positioned as our “Standard Rooms” and offered at slightly lower rates.
As is our regular practice, if we are light on guests, if premium rooms are vacant when a standard room booked guest arrives we will give them the free upgrade to a premium unit closer to the beach if they would like it.
In our Phase 2 expansion design we lay out the new units with the swimming pool to their front which will give them a nice benefit to be able to easily go for a swim only steps away right from their patios. The pool, our plan to include bountiful tropical landscaping, and the perfect angle of the view towards the towering Mt. Capoas to the North should give the units a great ambience.
They will also be close to the new expansion gazebo, giving them easy access to restaurant and lounge space and amenities. Their placement and layout is intended to create a complete resort feeling all encompassed withing this expansion space, wholly independent of the fact that as bonus cherry on top the beachfront is only a few tens of meters away.
The new units will incorporate multiple aspects and lessons we have learned and have validated with our experience building for the beachfront environment so far. Including:
– Large grass roofs with significant overhangs for plenty of sun coverage and a great natural aesthetic
– Good sized patios large enough for hanging a hammock, space for deck chairs and for guests to spread out their belongings.
– En suite bathrooms
– Hardwood mahogany floors, hardwood over-sized natural round tree posts for extra storm-resisting strength
– Landscaping wrapping key visual angles and sides of the units.
This is especially helpful as we already have our own staff, local contractors and own internal experience building units nearly identical to these, so we know how to build them efficiently and successfully.
They will also match and be uniform with our existing units, maintaining a cohesive design throughout the whole resort.
Aspects of the designs that the existing and new expansion units all include are:
– Hardwood floors – existing units use mangium, the new units will use mahogony. They are similar in quality, but the premium price on mahogany proves to be worth it over time for its advantages (slightly less warping, better appearance over time, darker color and more)
– Mahogany slats on the main sides of the units. This is a somewhat unique-to-our-resort style we have really loved and we will continue to use it in the new units.
– Front and rear walls remain white to reflect sunshine heat.
– Raised well above ground level (1.5 meter) for storm resilience, airflow, raised from bugs and critters, termite maintenance and prevention etc.
Welcome to consider a members’ package at Binga Beach to help us succeed and join in that success!
The Bronze Member Package covers the cost of the most important parts of Phase 2 Expansion project, the Mountainview Cabins that will help increase the capacity of our resort from 3 units to 7 and help resolve the issue of us losing out on bookings from groups and events, especially during high season.
Price: $12,500 per unit – 4 units Available
– Construction of 1 brand new Mountainview Cabin unit. Naming rights of the individual unit, it will bear your chosen name with a nice plaque/signage.
– 10 days stay per year, with food and beverages included, every year for 5 years. It is transferable, you can let any of your friends or family use it.
– 5% of occupancy revenue from the one sponsored unit, paid yearly at end of year.
– At the end of the 5 year period, the deposited money returned in full, $12,500.
Our lawyers at LMA Law will provide the contract for your review that ensures our obligation to the details offered here, while also protecting you as the potential partner and member from any liabilities of the resort. We will ensure transparency, limited liability, and adherence to the package deal offered. We are open to adjusting the contract we will share to address any concerns.
The structure of our offer is that of a membership arrangement conferring the perks, payouts and guarantees we lay out and limited to those.
Strong! Our company, by choice, financed all of our resort project with our own cash upfront, without any outside loans or debt, neither in the past or currently. We bought our beachfront property outright in cash and own the title outright, and similarly paid upfront for all of our projects like our large solar system, septic system, water system, large units and restaurant building. We are completely self sufficient “off of the grid”, have no debt, and are poised to generate revenue now for years to come.
Good! When we first purchased the property access to it on the existing roads was rather grueling on muddy and bumpy roads, but now there are many new roads and construction, drastically improving access in terms of effort and time required.
Also since that time a new airport opened up nearby in San Vicente, reducing the minimum drive time from an airport from 2 hours from El Nido to 45 minutes.
Further, some major real estate groups have also seen the potential for our area, being in a privileged and prioritized for promotion TIEZA zone, and have bought up many large parcels of land all around us for big tourism developments. Indeed, property values have doubled since the time of our purchase, and a lot of construction and investment is occurring.
Tourism trends post-Covid remain good for Palawan and the Philippines, and we have seen the island rebounding well in the past several years.
For reference, Binga Beach is located 2.5 hours south of Palawan’s main location attraction, El Nido, and is similarly north on the coastal to the other main attractions of San Vicente Long Beach and the backpacker hotspot of Port Barton. Most tourists travel a lot between these two popular towns, and we are a perfectly-positioned stop halfway in the middle.
For our Gold, Silver and Bronze packages, the most important benefits inclusion is the percentage of revenue for each year of the package of the sponsored unit. We will share information directly from our centralized booking engine provider, Sirvoy, where can see the occupancy history on a per-unit basis, and can filter it for any period of time.
Can see an example here, of the occupancy history of one unit, Beachside 1, for the year of 2024:
For reference, Sirvoy is our booking “channel manager” which functions as the central database in between all of our booking engine listings like AirBnB, Booking.com, VRBO, Trip.com our own website direct bookings, walk-ins and more to ensure we don’t accidentally overbook rooms, and it is the authoritative record of guest visits.
We will provide a quarterly progress report showing the occupancy history for the unit you have participated in (and also the whole resort) so you will know what range of payout can be expected. Note that there are big changes in occupancy for different seasons, in the rainy season from June to October we have much fewer guests, but make it for it in the high season from December to May.
For Spring, Mangrove, Solar and Ocean Club members there is a benefit of a certain US dollar amount ($1, $0.8, and $0.4) paid out for every overnight guest that stays at Binga Beach. An overnight guest is a single person staying in a unit for a booked stay for at least one night. A family of 3 staying in a single unit counts as 3 guests, though even if they stay multiple nights the count of them is still 3.
Visitors to Binga that only walk in for information, or a lunch restaurant visit for example do not count as overnight guests.
Just like the occupancy rates mentioned above, the counting of guests is tallied in our booking channel manager, Sirvoy. We will provide the information of the number of guests that have stayed at Binga so far every quarter, and pay the payout at the end of the year of their total at the end of the year.
Can see a filtering for a time period and the count of overnight guests in our Sirvoy system in this example here:
The expectation and history so far is that we have multiple hundreds of overnight guests every year.
As soon as you know what days you (or your friend or family you share your days with) wish to visit Binga, please check to see if they are available by looking at our Booking page here https://bingabeach.com/booking/ which shows live and up to date availability. You may choose any unit for your stay (you are not limited to choosing only the unit you sponsored), and once you see that the dates and unit you want are available, please contact us directly either by email or phone and we will manually set them aside for your stay.
Your 2 weeks do not have to be continuous, i.e. you may use one week plus multiple weekends, for example, and may use different visits for different persons, yourself or friends or family. Further, each visit can include multiple people, as long as they can match within the maximum occupancy of the chosen unit.
In the case of the project costing more, you as the client member will not be asked for any additional contribution. Any extra costs above the projected price will be for Binga Beach Brothers Inc. to cover to ensure the project achieves completion.
Since we have already built several other similar units and projects we are confident in our price estimates for current construction costs.
There are no maintenance, repairs, fees or similar for the unit – all such ongoing costs and upkeep will be covered by Binga Beach Brothers Inc.
Please feel free to reach out to David Le Smith, Partner and Property Manager, with all of your queries:
Email: david@bingabeach.com
Phone: +63 947 444 3597
First Resort in Palawan accredited by the Philippine Retirement Authority
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