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More design hotels join hospitality industry
Itsy, bitsy, artsy: A room at a design hotel, Kosenda Hotel, is shown in this photograph
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span class="caption">Itsy, bitsy, artsy: A room at a design hotel, Kosenda Hotel, is shown in this photograph. Affordable hotels are forced to innovate with interior designs and architecture to maintain market share amid tight hotel competition. Courtesy of Kosenda Hotel
Tighter competition in the hotel industry has forced the new wave of design hotels to come up with inventive ideas to lure travelers without denting their wallets.
One example is the 60-room Kosenda Hotel in Thamrin, Central Jakarta.
Kosenda Hotel, which was named after its owner Betawi-native Ruben Kosenda, not only welcomes travelers looking for a cozy place to stay, but also design and architect enthusiasts with its distinctive ambience.
'Our target market is basically travelers,' the hotel's sales manager Sayyid Husein Assegaf told The Jakarta Post recently.
'But we want to provide more than just a place to stay overnight. So, we incorporated Betawi cultural elements into our modern-looking, 'artsy' hotel, which makes it unique.'
Starting from Rp 1.1 million (US$95.11) the eight-storey hotel's rooms offer iPod docks, hand-crafted batik kimonos and sandals, and furniture that is reminiscent of 1960s Jakarta.
The hotel's weekend occupancy rate has been up to 80 percent since it opened in June last year.
'Around 80 percent of our guests are expatriates,' he said.
'That is why we also offer a shuttle bus that can take our guests to museums including the Textile Museum in Tanah Abang [Central Jakarta] and the Fatahillah Museum in Jakarta Kota [West Jakarta],' he added.
The hotel also offers Jakartans a new place to hang out with its 24-hour restaurant the Waha Kitchen, which is furnished with artwork by local artists that can be seen through the hotel's towering windows.
The hotel also has the Awan Lounge and Café 127 as places for guests to relax.
Husein said that the company planned to open properties in other cities and provinces, including Bali, within the next few years.
Another player in the field is Artotel Jakarta Thamrin.
Starting at around Rp 800,000 a night, Artotel welcomes guests with an eye-catching mural on the hotel's façade.
Six local artists, including Zaky Arifin, Oky Rey Montha and Eddie Hara, painted 107 of the hotel's rooms.
Artotel Indonesia's first property was the Artotel Surabaya in East Java, which opened in July 2012.
The company plans to open two new properties this year in Cikarang, West Java, and Sanur, Bali.
Not only in Jakarta but now Yogyakarta, the city of students, also has an affordable design hotel, Lokal Hotel.
Opening in March this year, Lokal Hotel limited itself to 12 rooms to ensure that employees would maintain a high standard of service and guests could get a 'homey' experience with rooms starting from Rp 550,000 per night, according to Gempa Tri Muryono, one of the hotel owners.
'With a fairly affordable room rate, we aim to cater to all market segments from students to foreign tourists,' Gempa told the Post.
With a colorful Batik-inspired floor and wooden furniture, the hotel features exceptional design elements.
Social media, Gempa said, had boosted the hotel's occupancy rate to up to 100 percent during the weekends.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) chairperson Wiryanti Sukamdani said that newcomers to the hotel industry should be able to provide more than just a place to stay for the night, but also a new design and concept.
'Amid the growing hotel industry and mushrooming budget hotels, operators should be creative to survive because now there are plenty of hotels to choose from,' Yanti said.
She said that of the 7,000 association's hotel members across the archipelago, only 20 percent were star-rated, while the remaining were smaller hotels whose number kept increasing.
'The number of hotel rooms now stands at around 134,000, and we are expecting it to grow around 10 percent this year on the back of growing low-cost carriers,' she said.
