French hotel operator Accor, which operates brands like Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Pullman is opening a 513-room five-star hotel in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
General manager Patrick Sibourg said that the hotel, the Pullman Kuala Lumpur Bangsar, will also become the flagship for the Pullman brand in Southeast Asia.
In a recent interview with Business Times, Sibourg said that the hotel will be the third Pullman brand in Malaysia after Kuching and Putrajaya.
Based on the room configuration and the success of the Pullman brand here, the group decided to adopt this brand to target the business crowd.
It hopes to woo both the domestic and the foreign corporate businesses, especially those who visiting offices within a twenty-minute driving radius of the hotel.
Being a hotel that focuses on business, it also has a ballroom with a 1,400-capacity and ten meeting rooms.
"The performance of Hilton Sentral, Le Meridien and Hilton Petaling Jaya shows the growing confidence in the market here," Sibourg said.
"We expect to have a 60 per cent occupancy and an average room rate of RM320++ by the end of December 2012," he added.
Sibourg hopes to see occupancy rise by between 2 and 3 per cent each year.
The hotel will have some seven restaurants, cafes and bars. Since it will also be big on meetings, the hotel expects to have some 500 staff.
Revenue split from room and food & beverage is expected to be equal.
Sibourg anticipates gross operating profit to be about 30 per cent in the first year of operation.
Pullman has a 12-year contract with the developer Cygal Development Sdn Bhd. The hotel will be located in Tower 3.
Cygal Bhd (which has changed its name to Sycal Ventures Bhd) started the construction of the building in 1995 but was stalled during the 1997/1998 economic crisis.
Telekom Malaysia Bhd bought Tower 1, Plaza Cygal in early 2005, and later that year TM bought Tower 2 from the owners.
By Business Times
