Malaysian chain to raise its presence in Cambodia by multiple boutique hotels

The Phnom Penh Post
Nathan Green

LEADING Malaysia hotel chain Holiday Villa Hotels and Resorts expects to open two properties in Cambodia over the next eight months and is scouting locations for "four or five" boutique hotels, regional manager Charles Bain said.

The company will open a hotel in Kampot province in around six weeks, but a three-star hotel originally slated to open in Sihanoukville next month will now open next February, he said. He would not give the reason for the delay.

Construction on a second hotel in Kampot province will begin in "two to three months", he added.

The company. which currently operates one hotel in Cambodia on Phnom Penh's Monivong Boulevard, is looking to capture a growing market for boutique hotels in Cambodia.

The "four to five" boutique hotels would all be located "around coastal areas", Bain said.

Bain was speaking to the Post after an article in Malaysia's Business Times Monday said the chain plan to open a hotel in Sihanoukville and another in China's Henan province.

The company is owned by Malaysian-listed Advance Synergy Group. Bain refused to disclose further details on the company's Cambodia plans, citing disclosure requirements on the Malaysian bourse.

The company has 3,390 guest rooms and suites in 18 hotels and resorts worldwide, according to its Web site.

Its latest, the Holiday Villa Hotel and Residence City Centre in Doha Qatar, opened on July 20, and the company also opened properties in Halong Bay, Vietnam, and Shenzhen, China, this year.

The company's current Cambodia property, Holiday Villa Hotel and Suites Phnom Penh, has 74 rooms.