From dropout to hotelier: How Choo Chong Ngen built a hotel empire in Singapore’s red-light district

Choo, who ranked 19th among the city-state’s richest billionaires last September with an estimated net worth of US$3 billion, founded the budget Hotel 81 chain in Geylang decades ago.

Most investors would shy away from putting money into property in a red-light district, worried that the area’s sleazy reputation would drag down values.

But Choo, who grew up in a kampong (village) in Hougang in northeastern Singapore, saw an opportunity and seized it.

One of seven children born to a carpenter and a housewife, Choo showed an early knack for business, selling ice cream at age 10 to earn his own pocket money.

He dropped out of school at 14 and worked as a fishmonger at a market to help his family make ends meet.

A year later, he moved into the textile trade, initially working for a neighbor who paid him S$30 (US$23) a month. Finding the income unsustainable, Choo decided to strike out on his own.

Using S$50 from his mother and another S$6 he borrowed, he bought cloth and started selling textiles at the market.

By age 21, he had saved enough to purchase a shop unit, half-funded by a bank loan. He rented out the property for S$1,000-2,000 a month, using the income to expand his holdings. By his 30s, he had amassed more than 30 shop units that he rented out.

“If I didn’t buy then, I wouldn’t be able to buy now because the price is very high,” he told The Business Times in 2019. “30 years ago, it was very cheap. I was very lucky.”

Choo then made the jump into residential development, making his first move in Geylang despite its infamy.

“There was good food, a lot of traffic, a lot of people,” he later explained to BT.

He built 20 apartment units on a S$1.5 million site and launched it in 1992. He went on to develop more than 100 apartment units across four plots of land in the area.

Building the hotel empire

A stay at a cheap business hotel in Tokyo inspired Choo to expand into hospitality.

“The room was very small, and it was a very fair price,” he said of the Tokyo hotel in a 2019 interview with Forbes. “I thought this one bring to Singapore, can make money.”

He also chose Geylang for this venture, opening his first hotel in 1995. The establishment, Hotel 81, was named after the unit number of his home at the time.

“Because I no study, I cannot put Shangri-La. I don’t know how to spell,” he explained with a laugh in the same interview. “Hotel 81? I know how to write.”

Choo proved to be a shrewd businessman. Within five years, he had expanded the chain to 10 hotels, most of them located in Geylang and the neighboring Joo Chiat area.

Hotel 81 Chinatown in Singapore. Photo from Hotel 81’s website

But despite its growth, the chain’s Geylang roots gave it a less-than-polished image. Seeking to move beyond that reputation, Choo launched new hotel brands, including Value Hotel, V Hotel, Venue Hotel, Hotel Boss and Hotel Mi, and expanded into the mid-tier market in the process.

Along with Hotel 81, the six brands were later consolidated under a new holding company, Worldwide Hotels.

Over the years, Choo said the company weathered numerous crises but held firm and never sold any of its hotels.

He has not been running the business alone, however. His daughter, Carolyn Choo, joined the group in 2002 after graduating and spending three years in commercial banking. She later took over as the CEO in 2017. Two of her three brothers also work in the family business.

Carolyn recalled that her early years were a “steep learning curve” as the company was still operating with limited resources at the time, while financial pressures were “immense.”

Drawing on her banking and accounting background, she helped secure crucial financing to stabilize the business. She also used her expertise to steer the company into overseas markets while maintaining stability, according to The Edge Singapore.

Choo Chong Ngen (L), founder and chairman of Worldwide Hotels and his daughter and CEO, Carolyn Choo. Photo by SPH Media via AFP

When she first joined, the group had 12 Hotel 81 properties. Today, Hotel 81 is Singapore’s largest budget hotel chain while Worldwide Hotels has become the city-state’s biggest homegrown hotel group.

The group manages more than 41 hotels in Singapore, along with 11 overseas properties across Australia, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

It opened the world’s largest Mercure hotel, the 989-room Mercure ICON, in Singapore’s central business district in 2024.

Carolyn says her father has been a constant inspiration throughout her career and that his example taught her the value of passion, humility and hard work.

“I remember when he started his first hotel’s construction, he would climb up the stairs and inspect every level daily,” she told The Straits Times in 2023. “He attended all meetings with the architect and consultants, and was very involved in the details of the hotel design, space planning and construction.”

Despite finding success with little formal schooling, the importance of education has never been lost on Choo.

Over the years, he has donated millions of dollars to universities and polytechnics across Singapore, funding bursaries for students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

Whenever he meets bursary recipients, Choo reminds them to focus on their studies.

“Otherwise, life will be hard,” he told Tatleradding that he shares the same message with his eight grandchildren.

“I didn’t have the chance to go to university, but 50 years ago you could still make it. Now, you can’t survive without an education.”