EVT Hotels & Resorts is stepping up its push into South-East Asia. Its next move will put LyLo, the group’s lifestyle-budget brand, into Bangkok in 2028.
The planned property will have 387 beds and will sit in Sukhumvit Soi 15. It will operate under a management agreement. It will also be LyLo’s first hotel outside Australia and New Zealand.
For the travel trade, the deal is worth watching. LyLo Bangkok follows QT Singapore, which opened in September 2024. It also follows the announcement of Rydges Bangkok Sukhumvit, a 165-room hotel due to open in 2028.
Put simply, EVT is no longer testing the waters in South-East Asia. It is building a network.
Pods, private rooms and a rooftop
LyLo Bangkok will offer 354 signature pods and 33 private rooms. Shared areas will include a rooftop wellness space, pool and bar.
The idea is simple. Give guests a small but private place to sleep, then make the shared areas somewhere they want to spend time.
Budget accommodation has come a fair way from squeaky bunks, mystery carpet and a queue for the shower.
LyLo targets travellers who want value without giving up style or privacy. EVT says the model also offers owners efficient operations. That matters because the group is using an asset-light growth strategy.
Under that approach, EVT can run hotels through management agreements without owning every building. It cuts the capital needed for growth and gives local owners access to EVT’s brands and hotel systems.
EVT puts boots on the ground in Bangkok
The group is also setting up a Bangkok office. Harry Thaliwal is leading that move and reports to Chief Development Officer Brett Forer.
EVT says the office will give owners local support and help the company find more deals across the region.
EVT now operates four LyLo properties. They are in Auckland, Christchurch, Queenstown and Brisbane. EVT is also planning a Gold Coast property for 2028. EVT says it is talking with investors about taking LyLo into more Asia-Pacific markets.
EVT CEO Jane Hastings called the Bangkok signing “an important milestone in EVT’s South-East Asia growth strategy.”
She said LyLo, QT Singapore and the planned Rydges Bangkok would strengthen EVT’s brand presence in the region.
Why Bangkok makes sense
Bangkok is an obvious place to test that plan.
Sukhumvit is one of the Thai capital’s major tourism districts, with hotels, restaurants, shopping and nightlife packed along a corridor well served by Bangkok’s BTS network. For a brand built around young, mobile and value-conscious travellers, the postcode certainly does not hurt.
LyLo Managing Director Tim Alpe said Bangkok was the sort of market LyLo was designed for, pointing to the city’s large numbers of budget-conscious, style-driven visitors.
“It’s a strong proof point for how far this concept can travel,” Alpe said.
EVT credited Hospitality Capital Advisers, Capstone Asset and Silver Bullet, acting as development partners on behalf of the Boontanonda Family, Matalay and KS Hotels, for the agreement.
Naphat Boontanonda, Jutipun Boonsoong and their fellow partners have also welcomed the deal and LyLo’s planned arrival in Bangkok.
Three brands, three parts of the market
The wider EVT strategy is becoming clear.
QT gives the group a premium lifestyle brand in South-East Asia. Rydges covers the traditional full-service market. LyLo brings a younger, value-led product to the party.
That gives EVT several ways to work with hotel owners. It also gives travellers more choice across different price points.
Bangkok is particularly important because both Rydges Bangkok Sukhumvit and LyLo Bangkok are now scheduled for 2028.
For Australian and New Zealand travel advisors, LyLo’s international move is also worth noting. A home-grown Australasian accommodation concept is being tested in one of Asia’s most competitive hotel markets. If Bangkok performs, EVT has already made clear that it sees room for LyLo elsewhere across Asia-Pacific.
By 2028, travellers in Sukhumvit could have two new EVT brands competing for attention. One will offer a familiar full-service stay. The other will ask guests to think smaller, sleep smarter and perhaps spend rather more time upstairs at the rooftop bar.
For EVT, that is not a bad way to make an entrance.
By: Maysa Punchanit – © 2026.
Read Time: 3 minutes.
Author Bio:
Maysa Punchanit has never waited for life to become easy. She’s far too practical for that. Instead, she’s built her path the way many strong women do, step by step, job by job, learning something useful everywhere she’s been.
Her working life has taken her through hospitality, sales, beauty therapy and the fast-moving world of social media, where she partnered with some of Thailand’s best-known companies. Along the way, she discovered a steady voice for blogging, warm, direct and grounded in real experience rather than marketing spin.
Being a single mother sharpened her resolve rather than slowing her stride. If anything, it gave her purpose.
Now with Destination Thailand News and Global Travel Media, Maysa arrives not as a newcomer, but as someone quietly battle-tested, resilient, capable and ready for the next chapter.
