Gotianun scion finds North Star in hospitality
Some people need a lot of soul-searching to find their true north—but not third-generation business scion Francis Gotianun. He has long chosen his mission in life: to excel in hospitality.
“I love this idea that you’re able to build something physical and share it with people. There’s nothing like getting people into a space that you’ve built and seeing the joy that they have as they experience it,” the 41-year-old tells Sunday Biz.
When he joined Filinvest 15 years ago, the group was just a hospitality newbie. The first hotel, Crimson Resort & Spa Mactan, just opened in Cebu, the province where his grandparents, the late Filinvest group founders Andrew and Mercedes Gotianun, had hailed from.
But he didn’t join the family business right away. After finishing his commerce degree at the University of Virginia in 2005, he worked for a satellite TV firm, then for a business process outsourcing company. Then he flew to Barcelona to pursue his MBA at IESE Business School.
By 2010, he was ready to join the clan and knew exactly where to drop anchor.
He knew that tourism was going to be exciting across the archipelago.
“I always viewed it as an underutilized asset here in the Philippines,” he says.
Is he a people person? He certainly tries to be, Gotianun says, and thus feels he has a suitable temperament. And while hospitality could be a “thankless” job at times, he loves interacting with guests and peers.
Doubling the portfolio
Filinvest Hospitality Group, where Gotianun now serves as first senior vice president, has since then grown to be a multi-brand business with 1,751 guest rooms across seven properties.
The flagship brand Crimson opened another property in Alabang in 2013 and another beachfront resort on Boracay Island in 2018. The fourth is now being built in Clark.
They launched another brand called Quest in 2012, targeting the “premium budget” market, first in Cebu, followed by Clark (2016) and Tagaytay (2019).
In 2021 came Timberland mountain-resort in Rizal, which has a professionally designed 15-kilometer mountain bike trail park that bikers love.
Opening this year is their eighth property, the 256-room “lifestyle experiential hotel” Grafik Pine House Baguio, which is less pricier than deluxe Crimson but more upscale than Quest.
In the next five years, Gotianun aims to add at least 2,000 new rooms across new locations.
But his focus is to add “quality resorts and hotels with unique value propositions to the market” and not just to grow for the sake of growth.
All homegrown
Filinvest’s brands are all homegrown, mostly targeting the mass affluent market, and there’s no plan to bring foreign names into the mix.
“I think we compete very fiercely with the international brands,” Gotianun says. “Technology has been a great equalizer in being able to distribute at scale and efficiently, just like the big brands.”
Gotianun sees some upside to such a strategy.
He explains: “Number one is that there has been a big shift in consumer preference towards independent brands that show local authentic experience. So, we’re able to excel in that. Being a smaller company and being locally managed, and being very close to the ground, we’re able to adapt and adjust very quickly to changing consumer trends.”
“The third thing is that, if you want a true Filipino experience, you come to a Filipino brand because we have tailored everything to be able to provide this experience.”
Suffice to say, he has played a key role in Filinvest’s strategic expansion into hospitality. He was instrumental in setting up the business 15 years ago, in building the infrastructure and in defining its culture.
The business now has more than 2,000 employees across various properties.
Key values
At the conglomerate level, Gotianun also helps with succession planning: transitioning to new executives and preparing his generation to be good stewards.
From an early age, Gotianun kids are trained by their elders to, first and foremost, “know the business well.”
Filinvest group—which is celebrating its 70th year this 2025—has interests in property development, banking, sugar production and energy generation.
It was the storytelling prowess of his late grandmother, Mercedes, that got him excited about the business from childhood.
He says: “She was a consummate storyteller. She would always talk about how the business had started, how they struggled through their early years, where they found success, where they found difficulty, all the lessons they learned throughout that whole period.”
“In hindsight, my perception and my perspective of the business were greatly shaped by what my grandmother had told us—and also my grandfather.”
Such exposure challenged him early on to think about what else he could bring to the table.
“Being a family member, I think the idea is to really have a very long-term vision for the business, to make sure that all our stakeholders, whether they be employees or shareholders, family members and communities, really thrive, along with Filinvest.”
“I think I’m in a very unique position to be able to help make sure that the values that the company holds dear continues through, regardless of who is the CEO or who is the chairperson.”
His elders’ lessons on hard work and integrity have resonated well.
“If the time to go to work is 8 a.m., be there five minutes early. Always leading by example, or trying to hold yourself to the standards that you set for other people, has been a very important part of the training.”
So is courage, seen as part of their entrepreneurial legacy.
“My grandfather always said, it’s okay as long as it doesn’t kill you,” he recalls.
“We take calculated risks. Some you win, some you lose. But, you know, hopefully, you win more than you lose.”
Going public—and global
Now that the hotel business has reached a critical mass, it is ready to launch a membership rewards program this year. Think Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors or Accor Plus.
Asked about other new opportunities on the horizon, Gotianun says since the food and beverage (F&B) segment is a big deal for them, one new allied business is setting up independent F&B outlets—outside their hotels, but still close enough to benefit from procurement and commissary synergies.
The first of such F&B ventures debuted in Clark at the ground floor of Quest Plus Conference Center in October. Rare Bar & Grill offers a selection of steaks and dry-aged meat, paired with handcrafted cocktails.
Gotianun also dreams of spinning off the hospitality business and listing it on the Philippine Stock Exchange.
But his most ambitious dream is to bring a distinctly Filipino hospitality brand overseas—similar to how Thailand’s Dusit has become a global name.
And based on the annual report of Filinvest Development Corp., they have already secured the trademark for “Crimson Hotel & Resorts” in five countries: Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and the United States. Similar applications are pending in Brunei, China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
“I don’t see why we can’t have a globally recognized hotel brand. If you think about it, the number one resource of hotel companies is its people. And the Philippines has the people, and people have the skill.”
“We just need to challenge ourselves, dream a little bit more, and I’m sure we will get a Filipino brand out.”
When could it happen? He replies, “I’m not sure yet. I have quite a number of hotels to build here.”
