The name “Cocoon” is quite apropos for this 40-room boutique hotel in Quezon City. Opened in 2012, Cocoon envelops its guests in comforting quiet luxury with its tastefully appointed rooms and public areas, and an attentive and courteous staff.

Concessionaires on the ground and second floors also provide services to address guests’ dining, entertainment, or wellness needs. So guests don’t even have to leave the hotel to rest, relax, and entertain themselves—quite literally, their world is complete in this “cocoon.”

The hotel is the first investment of couple Boy and Gigi Vinzon in the tourism industry, but their second entrepreneurial outing, having founded the popular folk-music bar, My Brother’s Mustache.

The couple pooled their retirement money, tapped two banks for loans, ‘and took a leap of faith!’ when they decided to build Cocoon.

“We were planning for our retirement, and living off rental income [from our properties] has always been in our minds. Then we heard the call of the government urging [investments] in the tourism sector. So we thought, instead of a simple office building for lease, why not a bed and breakfast?” says Gigi, now a retired accountant.

Her husband Boy, is a tax lawyer. From a simple B&B, however, the concept behind the business further evolved into “a full-service hotel not just for individuals, but also for corporate and government conferences and social events.” At that time, there were very few noteworthy hotels in Quezon City, least of all, in the vicinity of the busy Tomas Morato and Timog avenues.

The couple pooled their retirement money, tapped two banks for loans, “and took a leap of faith!” when they decided to build Cocoon. While Gigi declines to reveal their initial capital in the enterprise, she says repurposing materials and lighting fixtures from a hotel that underwent its own renovation, helped lower their investment cost.

“There was no way we could afford five huge Murano chandeliers if they were brand new!” she explains. These glorious chandeliers hang in the ballroom/conference areas and the ceiling of the ground floor, while the small lighting fixtures adorn the hotel’s hallways.

They started constructing the hotel in 2008, and took four years to complete it. “At that time, repurposed wood was cheaper per board foot compared to new lumber, which is the opposite nowadays. However, the labor cost to process the old wood is much higher. But the character of old wood is priceless, and more importantly, we did not harm a single tree and the environment in general just to achieve that look,” she adds.

What is admirable is how so much thought and care for the environment was put into the design of the building, making it possibly the first “green” hotel in the metropolis. It uses only LED lighting throughout the building, has an active waste-segregation plan, inverter air-conditioning to cool the guest rooms, a linen-and-towel reuse program, and eco-certified organic bathroom amenities, to name a few.

Also, it features large glass windows, allowing natural lighting into the public areas and guest rooms; uses rain and ground water to flush toilets, irrigate plants and general house cleaning; and incorporates reclaimed wood from old house, as well as metal roofing and steel grills of the old structure on the site.

“We used water-saving bathroom fixtures. Our huge glass windows were made of Low-E glass, which deflects the heat of the sun, and keeps the cold air-conditioned air inside. We had dual piping system to use recycled water for plants and cleaning purposes,” she points out.

These were some of the couple’s many sustainable and green initiatives to help save the environment.

“The most challenging aspect of the business is having to make do with very limited financial resources,” says Gigi. “We could not afford to hire expensive contractors and specialists, so we literally studied on our own, did an unimaginable amount of research, devoted every waking moment to the project, and really poured our everything to it. Cocoon was literally made out of blood, sweat and tears.”

Their efforts have paid off; the hotel has received a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence Hall of Fame Award, for being awarded Certificates of Excellence five years in a row. It also received Luxury Green Hotel Award for 2016 by Luxury Travel Guide in their Asia and Australasia Awards, following the same award for 2015 in their Global Awards.

It was also a finalist for Best Hotel Architectural Design in the Inaugural Philippines Property Awards back in 2013. Even at the start, Cocoon has been consistently rated the no. 1 hotel in Quezon City, and among the Top 12 hotels in Metro Manila besting even the large international hotel chains.

Gigi believes entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted, nor something to get into on a whim. “I think entrepreneurship is a calling.” she asserts. Gigi for one has always had an entrepreneurial streak since she was 10 years old. “I was making and supplying wholesale ice candy to sari-sari stores in our neighborhood. In high school, I was my mom's right hand in our backyard poultry from raising to dressing to selling. When I was in college, I sold hundreds of pairs of shoes in UP Diliman dormitories and bazaars. And went into bag making, supplying to National Book Store and Isetan. I only stopped when I needed to focus on academics because I was running for honors.”

And to her, what is more than important than the actual capital to be invested in the enterprise “is your personal passion, drive and grit. You should believe in yourself and commit your whole self to pursue that goal. You need to keep learning, so you can build confidence, so you can take risks. When you couple that with hard work and persistence, then possibilities become endless as you innovate and create value.”

Since building Cocoon, the Vinzon couple has also established Hive Hotel and Convention Palace also in Quezon City, “to focus on big groups and budget sensitive bookings.”

By the third quarter of the year, they are opening a 12-room luxury residence in Tagaytay called The AntHill.