To start a new hotel in Malaysia is challenging as there are several factors to consider.

In addition, you should also consider the several changes in hotel industry trends.

However, the potential for growing your hotel business is massive, especially in Malaysia.

According to stats, more than 4 million tourists usually visit Malaysia every year.

Keeping this in mind, many entrepreneurs want to get into the hotel business, either by starting from scratch or by acquiring an existing hotel.

And if you are one of them, who wants to start a hotel in Malaysia, you must consider several factors.

This blog will discuss the 5 most important factors that you should consider before starting a hotel.

Let's take a look at them!

5 Factors to Consider Before You Start a Hotel in Malaysia

If you are new to the hotel industry, you should consider talking to a professional hotel business consultant.

Or, if you have experience in the hotel industry, you can skip it.

Now, let's see the factors that you must consider when starting a hotel business.

#1. Proper Market Research

If you want to make an effective marketing plan for your hotel business, you must do market research.

Additionally, if you want to get outside investment, you will need to show your market research.

Market research can also help you in calculating the ROI (Return on Investment) of your business.

Thus, this is why you must do market research before starting a hotel business in Malaysia.

Now, let's see how can you do proper market research:

• Analyze market performance: Get the data on how the market is evolving by analyzing the area where you want to start a hotel in Malaysia.
• Competitor Analysis: Make a detailed overview of your competitor hotels in your area. Look which one attracts more visitors and how. You can also take references from them.

Thus, these are some ways to perform market research for the hotel businesses in Malaysia.

#2. Understand About Licensing and Permits

You already have made a business plan after doing proper market research.

Now, it's time to understand the licenses and permits that you need to start a hotel in Malaysia.

Moreover, it is common to get several licenses and permits for hotels in Malaysia.

Usually, a hotel has a restaurant, hair salon, popular, and more within a building and all these units require separate licenses and permits.

In short, the more unit you open in your hotel, the more license or permit you will need.

Now, let's see some of the most common licenses and permits a hotel needs in Malaysia:

• Tourist Accommodation Premises License.
• Signboard and Premise License.
• A Halal License.
• License to sell alcoholic beverages.
• Advertisement and commercials licenses.
• And more.

Thus, these are some common licenses and permits that you need to start a hotel in Malaysia.

#3. Construction or renovations

Now, that you have taken all the licenses and permits to start a hotel in Malaysia, it's time to look at the construction or renovation part.

If you are starting a hotel from scratch, you need to do construction first. But before construction, you must have a perfect layout of your hotel.

Pro tip: Get the help of a professional and make the trendy and latest hotel design/layout for your hotel.

On the other hand, if you have acquired existing hotels, you can renovate them according to the latest hotel trends.

But before doing it, make sure you have the answers to these questions:

What are the needs of the market, i.e., what do visitors want?

What attracts visitors to your area?

The answer to these questions can help you in the renovation or the interior design of your hotel.

In other words, take the reference of these questions to decorate your hotel.

For instance, use local wallpapers, paintings, or statues, play local music, and more.

Moreover, make the atmosphere and ambiance of your hotel pleasing and attractive for guests.

#4. Hire Staffs

The hotel industry is all about providing the best experience and memories to guests.

For that, hiring the perfect and professional staff can help.

Moreover, staffs are the face of hotels as they work directly with the guests.

Most hotels need several staff for many different duties such as cooking, cleaning, managing, and more.

In addition, staffs also handle guest questions or problems and guide them with a solution.

In short, hiring professional staff can bring a perfect environment to your hotel for guests.

So, before hiring staff you must consider these things:

• Define the roles and skills you want.
• Make them understand the job descriptions.
• Make your application process easy.
• Assess the candidates.
• Standardize your interview process.
• Conduct background and reference checks.
• Nail the onboarding and training processes.

Note- If you want to hire foreign workers, it will require necessary working Malaysian visas.

Thus, this is how you can hire the perfect and professional staff for your hotel business.

Pro tip: If you are just starting in the hotel industry, hire some well-experienced staff.

#5. Seamless Checkout Experience

Last but not the least, provide your guests with easy and seamless checkout.

You know, Malaysia is one of the most preferable places for tourists from all over the world.

Moreover, every guest is different and uses a different mode of payment, and accepting every payment method should be the priority of your hotel.

Moreover, accepting major payment methods can help you provide a better customer experience.

For that, you must have the best payment gateway Malaysia for hotels. But choosing the best is not easy as options are abundant out there.

So, to help you with that, we introduce Mobi, the best payment gateway for hotels in Malaysia.

Now, let's see a brief introduction of Mobi:

Mobi is a Malaysian fintech company that offers payment gateway services for many businesses.

It offers the best features to help business owners provide a seamless checkout experience to customers.

For instance, it accepts major payment options including international payments.

So, if you want to provide the best checkout experience to your guests, you must consider Mobi.

Hence, these are some factors that you must consider to start a hotel in Malaysia.

Takeaway

The competition is very high in the Malaysian hospitality industry.

However, there are never enough hotels in Malaysia as the tourism industry is growing every year.

So, if you want to start a hotel in Malaysia, you must consider these factors mentioned above.

Moreover, these factors have shown the overview of the steps that can help you start a hotel in Malaysia.