HOTELS in Penang are trying out various approaches to survive this pandemic period.
Due the high number of new Covid-19 cases daily, the Federal Government has imposed the third movement control order (MCO 3.0) to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Hotels, being one of the main components in the tourism industry, are definitely struggling to stay afloat.
The Penang government, via the state Tourism and Creative Economy Office (Petace), continuously helps the tourism industry during this challenging period.
The latest assistance by the state was the one-off electricity bill subsidy for tourism players (hotels, travel agencies, tourist attractions and theme parks in Penang).
Penang Global Tourism (PGT) has been sharing promotional posters of food takeaways and delivery deals by the hotels on its Facebook page; in the hope of helping these hotels to survive.
Meanwhile, M Summit 191 Executive Hotel Suites decided to convert six of their hotel rooms and business centre into coworking space.
Hotel general manager Moh Wei Ken said the hotel business had been quite badly hit since February last year.
“We only managed to achieve about 10% average room occupancy rate since February last year.
“Hence, we came out with a plan to convert six hotel rooms (a whole floor) into a coworking space. We removed the furniture in the six hotel rooms and we set up the coworking space.
“We also provide fast internet speed of 1GBPS for our coworking space users.
“We named it the M Summit Coworking Space and it was launched in July last year.
“So far the response is quite good,” Moh said in an interview.
Moh said the hotel wanted to try something different to attract customers.
“We adapt our hotel rooms into something that is already in the market, which is the coworking space; rather than waiting for hotel guests to come to our hotel during the pandemic,” he said.
Hotel corporate communications manager Ng Su-Ann said the M Summit Coworking Space offers different types of packages such as day pass, hot desk, fixed desk, private room and whole office suite.
She also said that the hotel is working on its extension, which is scheduled to complete by end of this year.
Moh said the hotel foresees that business would pick up by the end of this year.
“We are looking forward to welcoming back our hotel guests.
“We will have more rooms including a Presidential Suite and themed-suites for honeymoon couples, girls’ party and families, with the hotel expansion.
“The most exciting would be an infinity swimming pool with a glass-bottom section, expected to be Penang’s first of its kind,” he said.
Moh said the hotel hoped that the situation would be better with the success of National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
“We hope that Malaysia can achieve its herd immunity soon,” he said.
Story and pix by Christopher Tan