Langham to Open Luxury Hotel in Booming Kuala Lumpur

Holiday Schedule: The final Daily Lodging Report – Asia Pacific of 2024 will be Tuesday, December 24. The first DLR – APAC of 2025 will be January 2, 2025. There will be no newsletters in-between these dates. We hope you all have a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

Macau welcomed over 312,000 visitors on the three-day weekend from December 20 to 22, a public holiday in Macau.

Marriott International announced the signing of an agreement with Xiamen Green Development Investment Group to introduce the Ritz-Carlton to Xiamen Island in Fujian Province. The hotel will be nestled in the Siming District, part of a premier mixed-use development that features retail spaces and a 340-meter office tower, which will become the tallest landmark in Xiamen and the wider Fujian province. The project will also include Marriott Executive Apartments. The Ritz-Carlton, Xiamen, will have 228 guest rooms, including 35 expansive suites.

Shimao Group Holdings Ltd has slashed the asking price for their Sheraton-branded hotel property near Hong Kong's airport by 25%. The Edge Malaysia reported that Shimao is looking to sell the 18-story property in Tung Chung for at last HK$4.5 billion (US$579 million). Shimao opened the property in 2020. The asset comprises the Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton Tung Chung and was first put on the market in March 2023 at an asking price of at least HK$6 billion. Jones Lang LaSalle said the property, with more than 1,200 rooms, is the second-largest hotel complex in the city by room inventory.

The Langham, Kuala Lumpur, will join a slew of luxury hotel developments that will see 1,970 rooms added in the pipeline. CoStar published a report on this, saying the 198-room hotel is a joint venture between Langham Hospitality Group and Artisan Hospitality, a subsidiary of Singapore's Oxley Holdings. The hotel will occupy the upper half of the Oxley Tower KLCC complex, which is under construction in the central business district's Golden Triangle. CoStar said other luxury hotels in the development pipeline include a Waldorf Astoria for 2026 and a Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants' property in The Exchange TRX financial district in 2025. Hilton is opening the Conrad Kuala Lumpur in 2026, four years after its initial scheduled opening. Malaysia represents Hilton's second-largest portfolio in Southeast Asia, with 24 hotels across brands.

The Okinawa Harborview Hotel, located in the heart of Naha City, has embarked on extensive renovations to mark its 50th anniversary. The hotel will undergo significant changes aimed at enhancing guest experiences and modernizing its facilities, all scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025. The renovation project has an estimated total cost of around 3.5 billion yen. The renovation of the Harborview Hotel is just one of many initiatives aimed at revitalizing local tourism in Okinawa Prefecture.

Clarissa Group announced the opening of Clarissa Resort & Spa Mukteshwar in Nainital. The 5-star property, the first of its kind in Mukteshwar in Nainital, India, marks Clarissa Group's debut in the ultra-luxury segment.

Cochin International Airport Ltd announced the opening of the Taj Cochin International Airport, a five-star hotel on the airport premises. The property was built by CIAL with Indian Hotels to manage it under the Taj brand following a global tender process.

Hanwha Hotels & Resorts is looking to acquire a controlling stake in a domestic catering company owned by members of LG's founding family for US$592 million. The hotel company is in the due diligence stage of acquiring Ourhome, with the aim of signing a stock purchase agreement early next year to acquire the management rights. The primary target is the 57.84% stake held by Ourhome's former vice chairman Koo Bon-sung and current CEO Koo Mi-hyun. The move is considered an effort to return Hanwha to the food catering business. They sold off the division in 2020. They renamed their dining subsidiary Hanwha Foodtech in February and opened a food tech research and development center in May.

Personnel Moves

Radisson Hotel Group announced the appointment of Rashna Kapadi as the new Director of Design and Technical Services for South Asia. Kapadi is said to have over 24 years of expertise, previously collaborating on the development of hotels from chains such as Marriott, Hyatt, Lemon Tree, Taj, Accor, Citrus and Club Mahindra.