Hanky is old world, a brand builder, and a real champion of Filipino talent in the hotel business.
Walking the garden path shaded by acacia trees at The Henry Hotel Manila, you might find yourself wondering which time machine you unknowingly stepped into that transported you 70 years into the past. Was it Doctor Who’s Tardis, Doc Brown’s DeLorean, or Bill and Ted’s Phone Booth?
In the sprawling compound, your feet touch grass, an old fountain gurgles under the morning sun, Spanish moss sways from the top of trees. Then a series of postwar houses takes you to a long forgotten Manila when the times were gentler, the people kinder, and the floor tiles had pretty, colorful designs.
So when you ask, “When was Henry Hotel Manila built?” you will get two answers. The first is from the 1940s to 1950s, when the property was owned by a family that wanted to live close by, so they built a series of houses in one compound and gated it out of sight from Manila’s busy FB Harrison St.
The second answer is 10 years ago, in 2014, or two years after Hanky Lee first became a hotelier with The Henry Hotel Cebu.
That first hotel gave birth to Hanky Lee’s alter-ego “Henry”—the innkeeper that infused the Cebu hotel with a playful humor.
Henry is Hanky and Hanky is Henry—but with small differences. Hanky’s cheeky side only comes out when he’s comfortable with you; Henry is “on” all the time.
Henry the impish innkeeper installed a sculpture of a bowing butler in red resin to welcome guests at the reception; a painting of Alfred Hitchcock with a bird about to land on his long cigar; and a high chair wrapped in yellow crime tape and Homer Simpson reenacting Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” on the back rest. His black-rimmed glasses sat at the reception desk for many years until the hotel closed down during the pandemic.
Henry is Hanky and Hanky is Henry—but with small differences. Hanky’s cheeky side only comes out when he’s comfortable with you; Henry is “on” all the time.
Henry paints guestroom walls with vibrant murals of girls holding umbrellas and being swept away by a gust of wind. Hanky, on the other hand, is old world, charming, a brand builder, and a real champion of Filipino talent in the hotel business.
Nostalgia in two doses
It’s been a decade since I first walked in the gardens of Henry Manila, when Hanky gave me a tour of his new hotel. From the porch that wraps around the reception and restaurant, the original baldoza tiles from 1949 and a Vespa, Hanky showed me the hotel restaurant.
Apartment 1B was a wildly successful restaurant in Salcedo Village. It was the early 2000s’ equivalent of Wildflour—a hit from the day it opened its doors. Though its space wasn’t large and the tables almost touched each other, no one complained because chef Marivic Diaz Lim’s gourmet comfort food was excellent. I would meet friends in Makati and order eggs Benedict whether it was morning, noon or night.
It was a perfect fit for Hanky’s Henry Hotel Manila: local, comforting, and located in a place that had people saying, “There’s a restaurant there?”
We have Filipino hoteliers who were GMs abroad, who have outstanding skills, and yet when it comes to their own country, they’re suddenly not good enough to be GM?”
Hanky likes to surprise people that way too.
Take one of his first businesses, Yellow Cab Pizza, which he opened with two partners in 1999. The branding—with its black and white checkered logo similar to the classic NYC taxis—was so strong that people thought it was a franchise out of New York City.
He doesn’t correct people when they say, “Oh, I’ve had Yellow Cab pizza in New York.” He is secretly pleased and amused by this.
A sense of place
Over the years, Hanky has opened several more boutique hotels—all with a strong sense of place, a connection to the local environment and community through each hotel’s design and food.
The Henry Hotels & Resorts group director of operations Noel Barrameda gives The Henry Resort Dumaguete as an example. “What’s unique about the hotel is that we have a lot of restaurants inside the property, like Si Señor, the No. 1 Spanish restaurant in Negros; we also have Popolo Pizzeria, and a pasalubong center for those who want to bring home the Dumaguete specialty chorizo” he says.
The Henry Resort Dumaguete, featuring 32 rooms and eight villas, used to be the landmark South Sea Resort. Polygon Architects and designer Eric Paras collaborated on the renovation. Touted as a new lifestyle hub, the resort has elegantly styled rooms and sprawling gardens facing the sea. On a clear day, you might even see the islands of Panglao and Siquijor.
Last year, Hanky formally opened The Henry Hotel Roost Bacolod, a 19-room hotel with nature-inspired interiors and hand-painted murals by local artists featuring the endemic birds of Negros province in vivid detail.
The property started construction right before the pandemic and the couple who owns it chose The Henry over another local management company. The hotel had been operating for more than a year when, at the formal opening, The Henry COO August Samala, turned over a check to the owners. In just a short time, they had made Henry Roost self-sustaining.
Other properties that The Henry manages are The Henry Taramindu Resort Laiya, a 16-room beachfront property. The name “Taramindu” is coined after a huge tamarind tree in the middle of the resort, believed to be over 100 years old.
The Henry Suites MiraNila QC, located inside the MiraNila Heritage House and Library, has only seven suites, each with a different design. Originally owned by the Benitez family, the hotel features gardens and outdoor seating, perfect for a garden wedding with up to 250 to 300 guests. The Blue Leaf Events Spaces and the Bizu Group are also part of The Henry Suites MiraNila .
“The hotel grew out of a need. The property is a wedding venue with a small chapel on the compound and the Benitez museum,” says August. “So usually the bride and groom and their families are in a separate hotel, but here you can have your immediate family book all the rooms for convenience.”
The Henry at Kermit Siargao is located 200 meters from the surf spots of General Luna. Siargao being populated by young people and foreign surfers, the design of a few rooms is “native,” if you will—thatched roofs, slatted wooden chairs, mosquito nets over the villa beds, and colorful surfboards bring a vibrant atmosphere to the property. The rest of the rooms are housed in three two-story buildings equipped with modern amenities.
The property in Boracay, The Henry Boracay, used to be Sun Villas Hilltop, which the previous owner sold upon his retirement. I once spent a birthday in the old property with friends. Being July, an unexpected typhoon flooded the island while we were at Station 2 getting soused. We ran up the hill, dried ourselves, and had a grand old time just chilling by the pool and eating.
Hanky renovated the Boracay resort with the help of Paras once again (the designer actually has his atelier at the far end of The Henry Manila) and opened the hotel last year. Chef and The POST contributing writer Angelo Comsti is the regional Filipino food advocate behind Hain Boracay.
Angelo says that he and Hanky found a common ground in championing Filipino culture. Hain serves regional Filipino dishes, some of them from his and his team’s family recipes.
Now being renovated is the The Henry Hotel Clark, which used to be the Clark Hostel. Hanky was inspired by how The Louvre in Paris combined the Renaissance-style palace with IM Pei’s modern glass skylights that look like pyramids from the outside. Designed by architect Mike Olivares of FORO Consulting, the hotel will have glass cube buildings on either side.
“The hotel is located on Clark’s parade grounds,” Hanky says. “There’s so much potential in Clark. It’s still expanding and a lot of new investments are coming in. Here, our tagline is ‘Embracing today, unveiling tomorrow.’”
Taking Filipino leadership to the top
Behind Hanky Lee is a group of Filipino hoteliers who have decades of experience in the most prestigious international chains and local hotels.
The Henry Hotels and Resorts group director of Operations Noel Barrameda and COO August Samala are former GMs at the Manila Polo Club. While August has worked in Shangri-La Hotel abroad, Noel is a former GM at Amorita Resort and Group Resort Manager at El Nido Resorts.
“When Hanky says he believes in Filipino talent, it’s not lip service,” Noel says.
August adds, “It’s really ironic that when foreign GMs come to the Philippines, kami pa ang nagtuturo on how the industry here works. And yet, Filipinos are appointed GMs abroad, they occupy executive positions that are reserved for foreign hoteliers in the Philippines.”
Hanky says, “People always talk about foreign design, foreign management, but we have a local ecosystem. I understand why foreign chains in the Philippines prefer foreign general managers because they train them and rotate them in different countries. But what about for homegrown brands? Our talent pool is so amazing. We have Filipino hoteliers who were GMs abroad, who have outstanding skills, and yet when it comes to their own country, they’re suddenly not good enough?”
And from Henry the alter-ego, an impish grin emerges. “We prefer not to be a cookie-cutter hotel and company.”
Check out The Henry Hotels & Resorts on their official website.
