Malaysian DMCs handling the Indian market are finding it difficult to secure rooms, as well as hotel ballroom facilities, in five-star hotels for big groups in the nation’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Zahira Tahir, founder and CEO, Universal Holidays, noted that the outbound business events travel from India this year was different from previous years, as they were also travelling during this current peak Indian summer season, which is usually when Malaysia receives many Indian families on holiday.
Due to the additional number of travellers, she shared that availability of rooms in the lead-in categories in five-star hotels in Kuala Lumpur is a challenge for groups of more than 100. Her company is currently handling Indian corporates from now until October, with group sizes ranging from 100 people to 2,000 people.
As such, she is facing difficulty getting sufficient rooms, and has to split the group across two or more hotels in the city, which results in additional logistic and manpower challenges.
Arokia Das Anthony, executive director, The Essence of Asia Tours and Travel, agreed, stating that breaking groups across hotels makes logistics “complicated”.
Jessica Koh, director/general manager, The Traveller Malaysia, also revealed that she had many business events enquiries from India coming in with only a lead time of a month, which makes it more difficult to get hotel rooms in the city for more than 200 people.
In order not to lose the lead, The Traveller Malaysia provides organisers with options to hold their events in other destinations such as Penang, Desaru Coast and Sabah.
Another major challenge, Koh revealed, was that large groups were unable to confirm travel dates due to limitations in airline seat capacity, where the trickle-down effect would make it difficult to secure rooms and hotel ballrooms.
Arokia also pointed out that there were not many five-star properties in the city that had ballrooms large enough to cater to the requirements of Indian organisers, such as conferences and gala dinners. Usually, Indian organisers would stay three nights in Malaysia, where one day would comprise of a full-day conference and gala dinner.
This is because the inventory of large hotel ballrooms in Kuala Lumpur has fallen compared to pre-pandemic times, and the international business events market also had to compete with a strong domestic market.
“Many ask for half-moon seating, a stage and rear screen projectors. All of these take up space and there are not many hotels in Kuala Lumpur which is able to accommodate these requests,” he stated.
To get around this, he proposes a stay in Kuala Lumpur and Resorts World Genting, as the Genting International Convention Centre has the space to accommodate large groups.
