The Community Based Hotel Model

HOTEL DREAMZ : It is not surprising that many in Malaysia will take a Historical Building and possibly change it into a Museum or a Luxury Hotel. Speaking about the latter, are there not enough luxury hotels in the vicinity of The Kuala Lumpur Train Station (Now known as Kuala Lumpur Komuter Station) like Hilton Sentral, Le Meridian, Carcosa Sri Negara, Gardens Hotel at Mid Valley and the upcoming St. Regis and Majestic Kuala Lumpur? Many of these properties are owned by Multinational Corporations that have the financial, political capability to sustain such luxurious ambiance as well as the monetary resources to keep the operations going. This is not necessarily a bad thing for a historical building, but I ask you, do we really need another luxury Hotel?

The MV of Malaysian Boy by Astro for the Suara Kami Concert recently had scenes shot at The Kuala Lumpur Train Station (now the Kuala Lumpur Komuter Station) and it brought back fond memories for me. This was what I had envisioned it to be; the idea was to turn The Building into one big Local Community Hotel. After all, historically, there was a hostel in it’s premises when it first opened [Note : Historically NOT a Luxury Hotel ok?]. Wait. Is there really such a thing as a Community Hotel? Surprisingly, the first lesson you learn in the Hotel business is; we make our money from rooms, we make our reputation from food & beverage. By saying food & beverage, they mean by being close to the local community. Ok, I dread the idea of doing a couple of charitable events on special holidays and call it “being close to the local community” or Corporate Social Governance. Furthermore, this is a Historical Building [Bangunan Warisan Negara] which many locals have forgotten, should we not revive and restore this old grand dame? Problem is, I am of the opinion that Malaysians are quite stereotyped when it comes to our Historical Buildings … come on, many Historical Buildings in other parts of the world have become popular local as well as foreign tourist attractions … so why cant the Kuala Lumpur Train Station?

With the work cut out for me, I decided to mash history, architecture, google, forums, facebook, photographers, studios, couples and a whole load of hodge podge into opening the doors of The Heritage Station Hotel for photography and community events. After all, the building was supposed to be jinxed anyway … [read more here]. So what did I have to lose? Carcosa Sri Negara was then charging RM2,000.00 for a Pre Wedding shoot, and if there were VIP’s there, you will be diplomatically pushed to other areas. I thought if you paid money in a Hotel, you were supposed to be treated like a VIP? So what the hell, I gave it away for FREE [as I was reading books on FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, FREAKANOMICS, etc]. Did we succeed? Honestly, The Hotel not only did better in terms of revenue, but we were making loads of new friends through our community events and all [we were the official venue for Photo Malaysia Forum as well!]. This was, to me, a Community Based Hotel Model, where the local community actually get involved together with the Hotel Operators in achieving the goal. Mine at that time was to inculcate history as well as making the building more visible to locals and foreign tourists alike.

So there you have it. It is actually possible to turn a Historical Buidling into something more useful and beneficial to the local community without leaving your foreign tourists out of the picture. Yes, I was constrained by finances back then, but can you imagine with the proper backing and financial support, what could be achieved? In fact, for me the ultimate vision for The Kuala Lumpur Train Station (now the Kuala Lumpur Komuter Station) would be to change it into a LIVING MUSEUM with a THEMATIC HOTEL [not luxury] combined with a tribute to the works of Arthur Benison Hubback, the architect responsible for buildings in the vicinity, as part of the museum; whilst opening it’s doors to the local community and foreign tourists alike for photo shooting opportunities. Now wouldn’t that be cool? After all, can you name me any existing Living Museums here in Malaysia as of today? It does not have to expensive nor exorbitant or even to a specific strata of people, it could be viable economically if it was opened to all [not like your Luxury Hotels] …… I leave you with KOMSO’s newspaper clipping, when we tried to educate the local community on the need to preserve our Buildings of National Heritage for the benefit of us Malaysians and all ….