BANGKOK, 21 June 2019: Yoo Hotels & Resorts names newly hired David Grossniklaus head of operations and development to cover expansion in Southeast Asia.
Grossniklaus will focus on developing a hotel pipeline in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Yoo opened its head office in Bangkok earlier this year to present its two fledgeling hotel brands – yoo2 and Yoo Collection – to the ASEAN market.
Yoo Hotels & Resorts runs a property Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that opened in 2016. A property in Vancouver, Canada, should open in 2020 while a Phuket resort will be branded yoo2 by 2021 according to the group’s website. It has a Yoo Collection, The Lakes in the Cotswolds, about 90 miles from London, UK.
Yoo managing partner Jagdish Johal noted that with “three hotels under development, we are keen to pursue further development and management opportunities globally to expand our hotel offering.”
But it’s a long shot considering its experience is limited to the yoo2 property in Rio de Janeiro in a market that is about as far away as it can get from Southeast Asia.
A Swiss national, Grossniklaus most recently worked with Belmond in Dubai as senior director development for the Middle East, Africa and India.
In the group’s launch press statement back in 2016, Yoo Hotels and Resorts announced the opening of its Rio de Janeiro property in Brazil, but also made reference to a property in Boracay in the Philippines; the Yoo Collection Aqua, Boracay. It was due to open in the third quarter of that year but is no longer identified on the group’s website or network map.
At the time the group also talked about opening a hotel in Bali in 2018.
