Putting Hotel Istana on Corporate Travellers’ Map

December 21, 2015

Putting Hotel Istana on Corporate Travellers’ Map

Refreshing changes

Ever since Aamir came in last year, he introduced several changes, one of them being the corporate lounge, a dedicated area conveniently located on the lobby level that is separate from the main reception. At the space, guests are welcomed with complimentary refreshing drinks and cold towels while waiting to be checked in exclusive comfort and personal attention.

He also introduced another significant change to respond to the slowing down of tourists from China due to the two Malaysia Airlines’ aircraft incidences in 2014: the Japanese Lounge known as “Iyashi Lounge”, to tap on the growth of the Japanese travel market. Back in 2010 and 2011, Aamir was lucky to spend some precious time having some really special conversations with Tun Mahathir during the pre-opening of The Danna Langkawi which Aamir opened in December of 2010 – Aamir picked up a great deal of wisdom from Tun and inspired by the policy introduced by Tun Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia’s former Prime Minister), which was “Look East”, prompting him to focus more on the eastern markets other than China. Aamir ended up conquering Japanese market. The lounge is located where there used to be a Japanese restaurant that comes with a well-kept Japanese garden. There is a dedicated Japanese Guest Relations Manager serving the Japanese guests during checking in and checking out. Hotel Istana also employs a Japanese Director of Sales to bring in business from Japanese companies. No other hotel in Kuala Lumpur offers such service and Hotel Istana makes the Japanese guests feels at home.

“Things were already in place so I only needed to think it out, strategize and shuffle the existing resources. Since I already had the resources that allowed me to build strategy to attract the Japanese market, then implementation and execution of the strategy was easy,” mulls Mr Aamir.

The Iyashi Lounge also serves Japanese breakfast, separate from the other guests, because the Japanese much prefer their own food and their own people serving them. The breakfast is prepared by Malaysian-born Chef Ismail who is well trained and highly experienced in preparing authentic Japanese cuisine to the point that the Japanese guests would not be able to tell that it is the work of a non-Japanese.

“I am very grateful to my team for successfully attracting the Japanese market to the hotel. We have companies like Sony and Panasonic that provide us long-staying guests who do not only stay for one week but actually longer. The business given by these companies are also long-term,” notes Aamir.

At the moment, the lounge is not open to outside guests yet – Hotel Istana prefers to keep the lounge for its own Japanese guests to maintain its exclusivity. The lounge is open from morning until night, serving breakfast then snacks and canapés during the day. In the evening, the lounge serves beverages for the guests to enjoy and unwind while viewing the iconic PETRONAS Twin Towers catching up on Japanese television programmes so that they would not miss home.

Besides the Japanese market, the Middle East market is also crucial to Hotel Istana. “The market is always part of us, especially during the Middle East summer season that starts from July until September,” Aamir shares. At the time of this interview (mid-August 2015), half of the hotel is occupied by guests from the Middle East. The hotel enjoys good representation and strongly attracts Middle East guests due to the hotel’s location, which is only a few steps away from Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and close to five shopping malls at Bukit Bintang.

Enhancing the hotel’s appeal and revenue

Aamir recognises that being a 23-year old hotel, Hotel Istana requires regular upgrades due to wear and tear, as well as the need in keeping up with the times. The hotel plans to undergo renovation at some stage in the near future.

Hotel Istana’s challenge is the perception of the corporate world that it is a local parochial Malay hotel, which is actually not the case at all because the hotel offers facilities and services offered by other international hotels. “The idea is not to make it specific to only one nationality and instead make it internationally appealing and neutral, especially after making changes on its offerings and embarking on extensive renovation plans,” confesses Aamir.

Throughout the years, Aamir observes that there is a shift in terms of the types of guests staying at Hotel Istana. When it first started, the hotel attracted corporate clients. Over the years, it has shifted over to the leisure market due to Malaysia’s tourism growth. Nowadays, the hotel intends to shift back their focus on corporate business, hence the creation of the Corporate Lounge, specifically catering to the hotel’s corporate clientele. Obviously, in terms of profitability, corporate business offers more compared to leisure business.

Working culture

“Our culture is very transparent,” Aamir reveals. “We are transparent so much so that we willingly share our financial number, our profitability and everything related to it, with our associates,” he added. “What the General Manager knows, the associates know – the associates know how good or bad the hotel is doing, the associates know where we are going, the associates know our direction”

This transparent culture is congruent to the culture of Tradewinds Hotels & Resorts (the holding company that owns Hotel Istana).

Speaking of Tradewinds, Aamir claims that the company strongly emphasises on the training and development of its personnel at all of its properties. “I give a lot of credit to the senior management of Tradewinds because they have given us the direction. Thus, Hotel Istana trains its people to produce quality staff. We believe that if we focus on our associates, if we empower them, if we train and provide them with necessary tools, they will put those things in practice. We believe that whatever we do, we must have positive effect on our guests. Therefore to make sure that our service is up to mark, we have to train our employees really well so that the hotel can deliver our promise to our guests. A proud achievement is Trip Advisor ranking which was at number 40 when Aamir took over and it is now at 27 and credit goes to our focus on continuous training and consistency in service,” Aamir explains.

When asked about how Hotel Istana addresses the high staff turnover that is normally faced by the Malaysian hospitality industry, Aamir claims that the hotel has been fortunate because it still retains many of its associates who have been around since its inception, therefore the hotel does not face extraordinary turnover problem. “Though we are located in KL where opportunities to move to other organisations are abundant, our associates stay put because of Tradewinds’ senior management’s emphasis on taking care of its employees, which is our strength,” Aamir beams.

Of course, the hotel is open to the fact that some of its employees will move for better opportunity, and in turn the hotel accepts new employees such as those who have worked in upper upscale properties to reinvigorate the workforce. There are also employees who have worked in the hotel, moved on to other hotels, but then return. “This is the reason why I have personally returned as well. I was here in 2007 serving as Hotel Manager. I was then asked to open The Danna Langkawi as General Manager. Later I moved to Dubai and worked for The Address Hotels, and from there I have returned to Hotel Istana,” Aamir rekindles.

At the end of the interview, Aamir took the Gaya Travel team to check out Hotel Istana’s Corporate Lounge, Japanese Lounge and new meeting spaces, all of them brimming with positivity and promise. Based on our observation, it is safe to say that Hotel Istana is definitely set for better times ahead under Aamir’s helm, come what may.

Hotel Istana’s strengths, according to Aamir Khan:

Its location, which is “The City Centre” of Kuala Lumpur
Hotel Istana is a distinctly Malaysian, a home-grown brand – guests checking into the hotel will get the true reflection of Malaysian hospitality
The hotel has the third largest and pillar less ballroom in the city, thus host many government, corporate and business functions
Among its competitors, Hotel Istana is ranked number one in terms of service as mentioned in the social media based on data collected from selected hotels, which gives comparison on which hotel does well in what categories. Aamir targets for Hotel Istana to remain among the top five city hotels in Kuala Lumpur through service excellence delivered by well-trained associates
Dedicated corporate lounge for corporate guests
Dedicated Japanese lounge for Japanese guests
Hotel Istana offers complimentary Wi-Fi connectivity that is 100Mbps strong to all of its guests

Aamir’s advice to those who want to join the industry:

They must be prepared to really work hard and make sacrifices – you must put your number of hours and true passion into it
They must realise that the hotel industry is a 24-hour, 365 days business
Must be naturally willing to serve guests / customers and must have strong customer service attitude
Possess basic knowledge of the hospitality industry
If you do not have passion to serve guests, then do not enter the hospitality industry because no matter what you do, you will end up serving the customer whether you are a manager or non-manager – focus is always on the guest
Must also embrace the rapidly changing technology – must know computers, software, devices such as smartphones and i-Pads because mobile technology is the future of the hospitality industry. Travellers are increasingly doing reservations and checking in through smartphones.
Once one does well in the hotel industry, the individual will have a great opportunity to travel the world and broaden his or her horizon