Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur’s Re-Imaging Exercise

The 5-star deluxe Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur was officially opened in 1997.  Centrally located within Kuala Lumpur’s commercial district and just five minutes walk to KLCC, Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur enjoys a solid reputation for its warm friendly service, quality food and beverage facilities, comfortable guestrooms and extensive meeting solutions.

In meeting today’s demands of the traveler, changing times and technology, the Hotel has embarked on its first major re-imaging exercise since its opening some ten years ago.

All 473 guestrooms and suites including the Executive Nikko Club will be totally renovated and refurbished.  Todate, all the guestrooms and suites have been renovated and refurbished with the exception of the Premier rooms, Presidential and Royal Suites which are expected to be completed by the end of the 3rd quarter of 2008. The new rooms and suites adopt a stylish contemporary design and are luxuriously fitted with imported furnishings and fittings such as sleek wallpapers in muted gold from USA; curtains, bed skirtings and runners custom-made from soft Mediterranean fabrics; imported black marble latch for the dresser area, plush sofas and eye-catching ‘Crazy Cat’ resin bed head panel to offer guests a totally luxurious and memorable staying experience.

Various hues of brown, muted gold and copper are used throughout the rooms from the Axeminister custom-made carpets to teak veneer wood paneling to exude a warm and welcoming respite from a day’s work or sightseeing.  All rooms are soothingly illuminated with halogen down lights and special LED bedside reading lamps.  For the business travelers, the rooms are also furnished with sleek executive glass top working desks and imported leather chairs, as well as being equipped with broadband internet access with a bandwidth of 6 Mbps.

Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur offers a total of 154 deluxe rooms (42 sq. m), 218 premier rooms (42 sq. m), 87 Executive Club rooms (42 sq. m), 9 Executive Club suites (84 sq. m), 3 Ambassador Suites (126 sq. m), one Presidential Suite (168 sq. m) and one Royal Suite (210 sq. m).

To complement the new look of the all the guestrooms, the lift foyers on all the floors were also given a facelift.  The lift foyers on all the guest floors feature a cleaner, modern and contemporary feel through the usage of solid timber lattice accentuated by wall washer highlights and Axeminister carpet in soothing tones of brown, copper and muted gold.  To give a differentiating feel to the different floors, decorative resin panels in maroon colour are used for the deluxe floors, red for the premier floors and muted gold for the Executive Nikko Club floors. 

All rooms have large marble bathrooms, with separate toilet and tub, and its own brand of toiletries while the suites feature toiletries by Salvatore Ferragamo. 

Total renovation cost for the Executive Nikko Club rooms and suites, located from Level 24 to 30 and the exclusive Lounge on Level 26 is RM12 million.  Designed work was carried out KKS International (S) Pte Ltd, a Japanese design company based in Singapore.  All the Club rooms feature sexy ensuite bathroom and are fitted with 40” LCD TVs for the normal Club rooms, 42” in the Executive Suites and 46” for the Ambassador Suites.

The new Club Lounge with fittings and furnishings in various hues of pastel brown and contrasting dark brown tones offers panoramic view of the city skyline through its floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

Besides a dining area with a seating capacity of 32 people, the Club Lounge has two individual work stations equipped with personal PCs, a ‘live’ cooking kitchen and a reception to facilitate personalized check-in and check-out.  The Executive Nikko Club is manned by a team of specifically trained personnel and to complement the sleek new look of the Executive Nikko Club, Designer-of-the-Year Eric Choong was specially commissioned to design the new uniforms for the team.

Guests staying in the exclusive Executive Nikko Club enjoys preferential treatments such as complimentary breakfast; an extensive selection of beverages such as fresh juices, mineral water, international selection of beers ranging from Dutch, Australian, Belgium, Japanese, German to local choices, coffee and tea; refreshments throughout the day, complimentary usage of broadband internet access and Business Centre services to name a few.

To cater to the increasing demand for meeting space, the Hotel has added three more function rooms to its portfolio of ten which includes the Grand Ballroom; giving a combined total of 1866 sq. m of meeting space.  All the function rooms are centrally located and easily accessible on Level Two while the latest additions are located at Level One.  In line with the contemporary look of the guestrooms, the new function rooms adopt the same sleek lines and warm ambience to ensure a totally conducive and pleasing meeting environment.  Imported Axeminister carpets in warm shades of brown are used throughout the meetings room while the doors are specially made from solid dark brown timber.  The meeting rooms are fitted with fabric wall paddings to minimize noise and sound, decorative panels made from teak veneer and textured glass decorative columns highlighted by wall washers.  All three function rooms boast of individual light dimmers with different dimming zones, drop down projection screens, halogen down lights, individual air conditioning system and track lights. The new function rooms were renovated at a cost of ½ a million Ringgit Malaysia and were completed in mid-December 2007.  A new surau was also built at Level 5 for the convenience of the Hotel’s Muslim guests and patrons.  Occupying an area of 200 meter square, the new surau was built at a cost of RM700,000-00 and is one of the largest in any hotels in the city.

Other business facilities include the new fully functional Business Centre located at the Lobby Floor.  Featuring an open concept to enhance personal interaction between guests and staff, the Business Centre has three individual work stations equipped with PCs, a reception area furnished with imported plush sofas and a meeting room with electronic roll down projection screen.  The meeting room has a seating capacity for six people and is furnished with a stylish glass boardroom table complemented by leather executive meeting chairs.  Accentuating the modern look and to create an aura of spaciousness is the wide usage of glass throughout the Business Centre and halogen down lights to bring out the warm ambience of its interior.  The new Business Centre was completed at a cost of RM300,000.

Restrooms throughout the Hotel are currently being renovated as well.  All the restrooms have special feature walls constructed from Emperado stones imported from Spain, designer counter tops with fittings by Toto and sensor taps to promote water conservation.  Glass and halogen lights are featured prominently in the restrooms….from the dressing area in the ladies to the wide celebrity mirrors used at the counter tops and tempered glass doors with ceramic coatings for all the cubicles.  All the restrooms in the Hotel were completed renovated at the end of January 2008.

The Lobby Lounge located at the Main Lobby was given a face lift as well.  This ever-so-popular lounge is now furnished with new luxurious carpet in hues of brown and blue, and comfortable avant-garde sofas, settees and wing chairs in colours of beige and brown.  A back-lit alabaster wall dominates one end of the Lobby Lounge and makes an interesting conversation piece while the other side overlooks into the lovely water feature outside the garden.  To complement the new look of the Lobby Lounge, Eric Choong has been commissioned to design and custom fit the service staff at the Lobby Lounge with new uniforms.  The new uniforms for the Lobby Lounge, Guest Relations Officers, cashiers, bartenders and Housekeeping as well as Executive Nikko Club will cost approximately RM200,000-00.

Other renovation plans in the pipeline include the Main Lobby and Reception as well as a new Deli (September 2008), Benkay Japanese Restaurant (2nd quarter of 2009), Spa and Hair Salon (3rd quarter of 2008), Café Serena Brasserie (December 2008) and the conceptualization of a two-tier Executive Nikko Club Lounge (2009).

Nikko Hotels International is an international luxury hotel group operated by JAL Hotels Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.  In addition to Nikko Hotels International, JAL Hotels also operates Hotel JAL City, a chain of 14 mid-priced hotels for business travelers in Japan.  As of 18 January 2008, JAL Hotels Co Ltd has 64 hotels with 20,715 rooms worldwide in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and throughout Japan and the Asia/Pacific region.