This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 17, 2026 - August 23, 2026

Singapore-based Far East Hospitality (FEH) is looking to expand its operations within the region. Its strategy is to stay asset-light through hotel management agreements (HMA) with partners and developers, rather than outright property ownership, says Mark Rohner, who assumed the role FEH’s managing director on Jan 1.

“We can still do investment here and there, but [expansion is] primarily through third-party HMAs. Our focus is Japan because we’re already there, but we’re also looking at an additional 3,000 keys in the next five years, going from 7,000 to 10,000 keys for Far East Hospitality,” he says, during the interview held at Oasia Suites Kuala Lumpur.

“We’re targeting, I’d say, half of that [1,500 rooms] in Japan, and the other markets are in Southeast Asia — that’s Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, probably almost in that order. Malaysia is a key component of our regional expansion and our growth strategy.”

The majority of FEH’s existing rooms are in Singapore (25 properties, 5,647 rooms), followed by Japan (five properties, 959 rooms).

The 247-room Oasia Suites Kuala Lumpur on Lorong P Ramlee, which opened in April 2016, is its sole property in Malaysia. Rohner says there are plans to add to that in the near term.

“I’m targeting about three properties [in ­Malaysia with a total of about 600 rooms] in the next five years. Kuala Lumpur and Johor are our primary focus, but we will also look at opportunities in Penang, Melaka, Kota Kinabalu and Langkawi.”

He explains that Johor is on FEH’s radar as it draws many Singaporean visitors, and he believes the state’s hotel sector will grow with the upcoming launch of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) link.

Kuala Lumpur, he adds, is of course where all the action is.

Rohner observes that there are many high-end brands in Kuala Lumpur, with more entering the market, but notes that rates are lower than the international standard. Despite this, he sees a growing trend that bodes well for the sector.

“In recent years, we are seeing more ADR (average daily rate)-led RevPAR (revenue per available room) growth. In 2024, 2025 and 2026, we see more ADR growth as opposed to occupancy growth. Occupancy is up one or two points, and most of it [the growth] is happening on the ADR side, and I think that’s a good development,” he says.

According to a JLL report released in May this year, RevPAR for the Kuala Lumpur luxury hotel segment expanded by 1.1% year on year in 2025, surpassing 2019 levels by 22.7%. This was driven by a 1.7% y-o-y increase in ADR, despite a marginal 0.4 percentage point decline in occupancy.

FEH’s strategy for expansion in Malaysia is to partner local owners and developers via HMAs rather than property ownership.

“We are working with real estate companies in Malaysia that are looking for a very hands-on operator that is very focused on management. If you look at our differentiating factor, it’s really down to the fact that we are medium-sized. That allows us to be more hands-on when it comes to the management,” says Rohner.

“We are not looking to grow through franchises at this stage. That’s very deliberate because we feel that our value-add is in the management, in how we operate the hotels, all our SOPs (standard operating procedures), our governance frameworks, but also in our service excellence, and then in the areas of digitalisation, digital transformation, revenue management and loyalty programmes.”

FEH has four core brands — Oasia, Rendezvous, Village and Quincy. According to Rohner, each offers a different experience, and which brand will be used in Malaysia will depend on the client’s requirements.

He sees strong potential in Malaysia for the wellness-centric Oasia brand, which appeals to corporate and leisure travellers seeking an “urban oasis” and wellness activities.

Rohner has set in motion plans to enhance FEH’s services and operations. He highlights three areas: revenue management, loyalty programme and digital transformation.

“We already have a revenue management system, but we are looking at taking it to the next level, evaluating different systems that we want to bring into the company, and seeing how we can work with AI on the revenue management side,” he says.

Additionally, he wants to upgrade FEH’s loyalty programme to reach more customers so it can compete with the bigger hospitality players.

“The big [players] all have major loyalty programmes, and they derive up to 50% of their business from the loyalty platforms. That puts us, as a medium-sized player, at a disadvantage. We have focused very heavily on this in the last six months, and we’ve come to a point where we will soon be announcing a new loyalty approach for Far East Hospitality.

“We are going to join an existing loyalty alliance, which will allow us to tap into a much larger pool of loyalty members globally — from Europe to the US, to all around here in Asia-Pacific.”

It will also launch its own earn-and-redeem loyalty programme, which is different from its current Far East Insider programme that focuses more on customer recognition.

Another area of focus is digital transformation to help improve processes.

“Technology is really an enabler; it helps us to deliver a better customer experience to guests and at the same time improve our operational processes. Digital check-in is a very obvious one. We recently implemented that across the board in Singapore, and we have a very good take-up rate,” he explains.

Rohner says, however, that AI will not replace human staff because the hospitality industry is a people business where face-to-face interaction is still needed.

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