This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 28, 2026 - October 4, 2026

ALMOST two years into operations, the 36-storey Holiday Inn & Suites Penang Prai is said to be on the market, industry observers tell The Edge.

The freehold property opened in early 2025 in Juru Sentral, an integrated mixed-use development in Seberang Perai that also comprises a condominium tower, studio suites and retail units.

According to industry observers, the owner has been considering the sale of the hotel since late-2025, at an asking price considered high relative to prevailing market benchmarks. The Edge understands that the asking price is in the range of RM220 million to RM230 million.

The project was first announced in 2016, when InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) signed a management agreement with Exopuri Development Sdn Bhd to bring the Holiday Inn brand to Juru Sentral. The hotel was planned as a 288-room property at a development cost of RM117 million, with completion targeted for 2019. Exopuri founder and managing director Ng Kock Leong said the hotel was brought in to serve professionals working at industrial companies and multinational corporations in the surrounding area, given the absence of a comparable facility catering to that segment at the time. The hotel finally opened in early 2025, but with 332 rooms, larger than originally planned. At an asking price of RM230 million, it would amount to almost RM693,000 per room.

The hotel is currently managed under an agreement with IHG, and sits adjacent to another hospitality asset, Citadines Prai Penang, held by the same owner-developer. It is a 30-minute drive to Penang International Airport.

“The average occupancy rate of the hotel is perhaps slightly over 50%. While not unusual for a newly launched property still building its customer base, it also reflects a broader pattern in Penang’s hotel market. Hotels on the mainland have historically not commanded the occupancy rates achieved by hotels on Penang island, where demand is buoyed by tourism, George Town’s Unesco heritage status, and a much larger base of leisure travellers,” a property observer tells The Edge.

“Mainland hotels, by contrast, tend to skew towards corporate and industrial demand. Given the Holiday Inn & Suites’ location within the Juru industrial corridor, home to numerous manufacturing plants and multinational operations, it will see stronger business on weekdays, driven by business travellers and contractors, with a corresponding dip in weekend leisure demand. This weekday-weighted demand pattern is typical of hotels positioned near industrial parks rather than tourist draws, and it can make it harder to lift blended occupancy much above the halfway mark without a stronger leisure or events contribution.”

The reported putting up for sale of the hotel comes against the backdrop of a fairly active period for hotel transactions and listings in Penang. In one of the more notable recent deals, Tropicana Corp Bhd (KL:TROP) sold its Courtyard by Marriott Penang Hotel for RM165 million to a unit of IOI Properties Group Bhd (KL:IOIPG) — part of a string of acquisitions that saw the latter acquiring three assets worth a total of RM1.115 billion from Tropicana over an eight-month period, including hotels in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Beyond completed transactions, several other Penang hotels have also come on the market in recent months. In July, The Edge reported that The DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Penang, a 316-room upscale beachfront property in Batu Ferringhi, was put up for sale via a tender exercise, with an indicative asking price of RM250 million — about RM791,000 per key. Owned by Pinnacle Nexus Sdn Bhd, it has changed hands several times since it was first developed by Low Yat Group in 1998 as the Ferringhi Beach Hotel and later rebranded as the Hydro Majestic and then Hydro Hotel Penang. Notably, market observers have pointed to the per-key pricing on the DoubleTree tender as broadly comparable to the RM829,000-per-room level achieved on the 2024 Courtyard by Marriott Penang deal.

The Edge also reported recently on the 451-room Cititel Penang, located in Penang Road, George Town, which is also on the market for RM163 million. Cititel Penang is owned by Cahaya Utara Sdn Bhd and managed by Cititel Hotel Management Sdn Bhd.

Meanwhile, Penang’s hotel supply pipeline continues to expand, with several new properties opening in the coming months, adding room inventory to both the island and the mainland at a time when owners of existing assets are testing prospective buyer appetite. 

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