Passion for heritage

THIS couple enjoys travelling, visiting heritage buildings and share a preference for unique and personable hotel stays. "So it eventually became a dream of ours to do something of our own and create experiences for other travellers," says Angeline Yong.

The couple got married in 2010, and by 2012, they had bought two hotels. The first one, Lotus Villa, was an existing boutique hotel in Luang Prabang, Laos in August 2012. "Let's say that we opened ourselves up to opportunities, and this one came along. But at the same time, we were cautious, and it made sense to look into a hotel that was already operational, as we didn't have the know-how or time to run it. We weren't going to give up our day jobs yet in Singapore!" quips Dr Yong, 33, who's a dermatologist. Her husband David Chan, in his 40s, helps run a family business, not related to the hotel industry.

"We only knew that we liked travelling and staying at unique hotels!" quips Mr Chan. So buying a hotel which had been established for five years seemed like a good conservative move, as they wanted the existing staff to continue working, and got the previous owner to slowly ease them into the business.