This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 17, 2023 - July 23, 2023

There is an air of elegance in the main lobby of Sunway Putra Hotel, with its opulent marble floors, grand staircase and glass-domed atrium. The 650-room hotel, which forms part of an integrated development with Sunway Putra Mall and Sunway Putra Tower, is nestled within one of Kuala Lumpur’s most eclectic, vibrant districts in the diamond triangle opposite World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur.

The 5-star hotel was formerly The Legend Hotel, which first opened its doors in 1993. In April 2008, The Putra Place — which included The Legend Hotel, The Mall and an office tower — went under the hammer and was eventually successfully bid for by Sunway Real Estate Investment Trust (Sunway REIT) in March 2011. The hotel component was subsequently revived as Sunway Putra Hotel, which began operating with its new brand in January 2012.

Its owner, RHB Trustees Bhd (as trustee for Sunway REIT), saw the need to transform the hotel into a more contemporary and competitive offering in today’s climate and started major renovations in 2015, alongside the continued operations of the hotel.

Sunway Putra Hotel Sdn Bhd senior general manager Wilfred Yeo tells City & Country that one of the latest major overhauls was done during the downtime of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Covid-19 was literally a good time for us because we were able to turn that into a very good opportunity. We had lifts that were almost 28 years old, so we have replaced all of them. That took about a year and a quarter to do and cost us close to RM3 million.”

Another improvement that was made prior to the pandemic includes the upgrading of the hotel swimming pool, he adds. “Those days, swimming pools had a depth of close to 3m. I always say, never compromise on FLS [fire, life and safety]. So what we’ve done was standardise the pool to just 1.2m so it’s safer for everyone.”

In keeping up with the times, some of the hotel spaces have also been transformed. “Those days, it was glamorous if your hotel had recreational facilities like tennis courts and squash courts. But it doesn’t make sense today. So when we took over, we replaced the courts with meeting rooms. These were some of the major transformations that took place to make the hotel relevant for today’s business,” says Yeo, who leads the hotel with a team of 11 department heads responsible for over 170 employees.

In recognition of its tenacity to stay ahead, Sunway Putra Hotel has won Bronze in the 10 Years and Above — Specialised category of The Edge Malaysia Best Managed & Sustainable Property Awards 2023.

It is no easy feat when it comes to maintaining a 30-year-old property, and one of the main challenges is the building’s mosaic tile façade. “Those days, it looked good, but today, it is outdated. Also, the tiles only can have so much cement at the back as a base, but after 30 years, that cement thins because of heat exposure and so forth. So when that happens, and heavy rain comes, water will find its way in ... tiles may also fall off.

“So what we’re doing is a knock test; there are people on gondolas doing that right now. We cannot remove all the mosaic tiles because some of them are still intact, so the knock test will determine if the tiles are loose, and if they are, we will remove them. We will then treat the façade, and the entire façade will be replastered again. This project is going to take a year and a half and we are estimating it to be completed by the end of next year,” Yeo says, adding that the building will also finally get a new colour after three decades.

Another major challenge was the marble flooring, he adds. “The marble flooring is 30 years old, but still looks very good today. It’s a lot of work to maintain. During Covid-19 when we were running at 15% occupancy, we turned quite a lot of things around; we stripped the entire marble floor and treated it by sections. After that was done, it was much easier to manage. Now, every night, we have people buffing the marble floor, so you still get that shine. The marble floor was a total revival.

“Here, we have to look at ways of turning negatives into positives, and we do that a lot.”

When it comes to the successful management of Sunway Putra Hotel, Yeo says there are three overarching pillars — financial, customer and people. “One cannot go without the other. If you don’t have the financials and you are putting a lot of emphasis on your customers and people, then you are doing it for show, not for dough. So it is important that whatever we do, it must be profitable, otherwise [we] don’t do it.”

For the customer pillar, Yeo says it is important to work with prices that commensurate with value for Sunway Putra Hotel’s guests. “Making a lot of money may look very good in your P&L [profit and loss statement] but your customers may suffer.

“When we reflect value in pricing, we also have to ensure that our guests have a room that they can be proud of. We want guests to experience the five senses — see, smell, taste, hear and feel; so that linen needs to feel softer than the linen in their homes. This is embedded in every staff here; it has become our culture.

“The other thing is an efficient check-in experience. We have done time simulations and trained the staff. And then there’s the breakfast; for the price guests pay, we must give them things like scones, shakshuka or even something as local as nasi dagang or nasi kerabu, that they may have heard of but not tried. So that’s how we speak to our customers; let it not just be what we say, let it be what the customers say about us.”

According to Yeo, Sunway Putra Hotel was recognised by Tripadvisor as one of the top 10% of hotels globally for customer service in May. “And that makes us the top 2% in KL when it comes to customer service.”

In terms of the third pillar (people), Yeo says Sunway Putra Hotel scored 70% in a Kincentric (formerly Aon Hewitt) employee engagement survey. “It’s no point just making money and making your customers feel good but you don’t take care of your staff. With these three pillars, and these are all facts-based, it has shown that we have managed well.”

Meanwhile, the maintenance aspect of Sunway Putra Hotel is both preventive and reactive, Yeo says. “Occupancy here is about 54% on a weekday and goes up to 85% on weekends. When we are running at 54%, we have [leftover] rooms. So we will close certain floors at certain stipulated periods and put these rooms under preventive maintenance. The scope covers things like painting and repairing wallpaper, carpets, furniture, air conditioning, lights and so forth. This is really to upkeep our assets so we can avoid unexpected equipment failure.

“Reactive maintenance is daily. The engineering team is sent to check on things like our chiller plants, high tension and low voltage areas, all the LPGs (liquefied petroleum gas), lifts and M&E (mechanical and electrical) like water pumps and input all the readings into a system to help us establish a trend. As an example, if a bulb is always fusing, it is no more a bulb issue but could be a cabling issue. That’s how we establish a corrective measure so that it doesn’t become a long-term issue.”

In terms of occupancy, Sunway Putra Hotel is anticipated to hit close to a 58% average this year, up from 45% last year. “Last year, we were already doing 60% of our pre-pandemic numbers, which is very good. This year, if we are looking at 58%, we are going to be close to 80% of our pre-pandemic numbers.” The year-to-date (YTD as at June) average room rate is RM260, up from the average pre-pandemic rate of RM205.

Sustainability is also a key focus at the hotel. “We had solar panel installations done last year. We worked with the mall on that because this is an integrated complex. We have also changed all our lights to LED, and consolidated our chillers and freezers, to save energy and costs. We use timers to optimise air conditioning in the corridors,” Yeo says.

Mini bars in the guest rooms are also switched off to save energy, he adds. “We tell our customers that we have deliberately turned the mini bar off, in support of SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals]. And if they like to use it, they can switch it on.

“In terms of water savings, we have put little weights in all the toilet bowls so they only flush 500ml of water. New toilet bowls can have a big and small flush, but not all the toilet bowls here are new so we have to be innovative. We also leave messages telling our guests that linens are only washed after the second night. Unless guests request it, we are SDG-compliant.”

The hotel uses recyclable water bottles and has removed all single-use plastics in the rooms, Yeo adds. “We support a local brand called Tanamera for [the toiletries] and they all come in pump canisters.

“This is not about being cheap, it is about being sustainable.”

Not resting on its laurels, Sunway Putra Hotel continues to evolve, with current upgrading works at its lower lobby and a new Indonesian restaurant.

“The Indonesian restaurant will be an additional feature to the hotel and will have a 150-seat capacity. Why Indonesian? Because we don’t see many good Indonesian restaurants around. So we are proud to claim that this is the first and only Indonesian restaurant in a hotel, which is going to open in September or October this year,” Yeo explains. He adds that the new restaurant has been endorsed by the Indonesian Embassy and was launched by Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno in April.

In the next three years, the team at Sunway Putra Hotel is looking to refurbish the guest rooms, upgrade the convention facilities and renovate the guest toilets.

Yeo shares that the team is also looking at a new room type, AB1 and AB1+, that targets the backpackers market. “AB1 is an acronym for ‘a basic one’ and we are taking out 60 rooms to do this over two dedicated floors. They are basically a no-frills room, with just a bed, TV, towels and no housekeeping or room service. The guests of these rooms are also not able to use the hotel facilities. This goes back to innovation, and creating opportunities for ourselves.”

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