Royale Chulan -- 5-star experience at half the normal rates

The Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur may be the most expensive hotel in the Klang Valley but it is offering services and facilities of superior quality in tandem with its five-star rating.

Its rooms are priced at RM700 a night and the Royale suite at RM9,000.

As the hotel opened only in April, it is offering introductory rates now, which halve the price of the rooms.

For the serviced apartments, a studio unit is being offered at RM8,000 while a two-bedroom apartment is going for RM9,000.
The apartments are luxuriously furnished with sizable living and dining rooms and a well-equipped kitchen.

"We will launch a royalty programme next month to drive sales at The Royale Chulan. The royalty programme will give people a return on their investment. At times like this, people are looking for the best deal and we want to give them that," its general manager Leo Kuscher said.

Kuscher said he has no qualms running the hotel and serviced apartments although the world is in a depressed mood.

He believes there will be growth which will be accelerated by good service command and attitude from its staff and having facilities at par with international standards.

"If you want to be successful in today's business, you must offer excellent services. You must have passion which should be infectious to show that you are really dedicated and are totally immersed in every single detail of the property," Kuscher said.

The Austrian-born has been in the hospitality industry for 40 years and has gained a reputation for branding hotels and turning them around.

An example is The Royal Adelphi Seremban in Negri Sembilan, which he rebranded into a Royale Bintang property within three months.

When he was the general manager at The Andaman Langkawi, he repositioned the four-star property into a five-star super deluxe hotel and into one of Asia's best resorts through continuous service improvements.

Kuscher first came to Malaysia in 1984 where he served as the executive assistant manager of Holiday Inn Kuching in Sarawak.

He joined The Prince Hotel (now known as Melia Hotel) in 1986 as general manager and left for Hong Kong in 1988 to join The Regal Meridien Hotel in Kowloon as its resident manager.

He then moved to the Philippines and transformed Manila Hilton into Manila Pavilion, Manila's largest casino hotel, in 1989.

Kuscher returned to Malaysia in 1990 and joined The Crown Princess Kuala Lumpur before moving on to become the operations director for Federal Hotels International.

Kuscher was running The Royale Bintang Kuala Lumpur in March 2006. He had pushed this four-star property to achieve 86 per cent occupancy and average room rates of RM169 for November 2007.

By Business Times