'Like Lego': Tribe's modular hotel business stacks up against Airbnb challenge

Unlike many building projects, the construction of Tribe Hotels' first hotel in Perth was on schedule.

It helped that most of the construction of the hotel, which opened in June, took place in China.

"We've done it by modular construction," says Tribe co-founder Mark Peters. "We manufacture the hotel rooms in a factory in China and put them on a ship to Australia. In basic terms we stack them up like Lego. We can build cost effectively and faster than we would otherwise."

Mark Peters founded Tribe with his wife Melissa after running a procurement business, MP Production, out of China for 15 years and seeing the possibilities for modular construction.

The pair spent several years getting engineers to develop the product and then took it to market joining up with Rich List partners, Sam Tarascio's Salta Property and the Victor Smorgon Group in a three-way joint venture deal to open the 126-room hotel in Perth at a cost of $30 million. Read more