New hotel boasts of 5-star sleeping experience at 1-star price tag

MANILA, Philippines - Since the founders of Tune Hotels are well-travelled people, they know for a fact that travelers stay in the hotel room only to sleep, shower in the evening or morning and eat. Even the finest amenities of a 5-star hotel are inconsequential to them but they pay for them just the same.

When the founders decided to put up the first Tune Hotels in downtown Kuala Lumpur in 2007, they made sure to provide customers only with the basic amenities travelers look for: A comfortable 5-star hotel bed (with cased pillows) a heated pressure shower and a pre-programmed keycard that enables both the hotel and the customer to reduce on energy bills with the customers using only the programmed number of hours for air-conditioning and lights.

If the customers need access to television, refrigerator, wifi and telephone, these can be requested and paid for separately during bookings online or at the front desk.

As Mark Lankester, Tune Hotels CEO, explained to The STAR recently “we only give the customers what they need so they don’t pay for any other amenities they won’t use anyway. This is not the case with the traditional 3, 5 or 5-star hotels that have function rooms, several restaurants, swimming pools, spa and gyms and boutique shops that customers don’t even peep in but get billed for.”

The limited service model used by Tune Hotels is similar to the no frills business models practiced by low-cost carriers.

As with ‘low-cost carrier’ Tune Hotels limited service and pay-as-you-use of add-ons concept omits traditional hospitality services.

Instead, services and extras are offered on a pay-as-you-go basis, including toiletries, 12 or 24 hours air-conditioning, TV and Internet access.

Lankester, whose previous job as head for Asia of the Warner Music Group took him to all corners of the globe, said the decision to name the hotel as Tune is because the founders all came from the music business and “because we want to stay attuned or in tune with the needs of our clients.”

“At the Warner Music group, we found ourselves spending very little time inside the hotels. We did market research among vacationers and business travelers and we found that they also spent more time outside in meetings or outdoor activities,” Lankester said.

“From business and leisure, we found that as long as we could provide a good quality product at great value that allows people to decide what they really wanted and needed, ours would be a great business model,” he explained.

Tune Hotels is part of the Tune Group, the private investment group of Tony Fernandes, founder and group CEO of low-cost airline Air Asia.

Tune Hotels downtown KL in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“Everything we do is to provide great experiences and great value to the largest market we can think of, which is very much under-served,” Lankester said.

Why the group chose the Philippines – where it will operate beginning 2012 hotels in Angeles City (February 10); Cebu (Feb. 24) and Ermita, Manila (March 9) to be followed by other sites in Makati, Manila, Cagayan de Oro and Ortigas and another in Quezon City by 2013 – Lankester said it dates back to their music days when they loved coming to the country because its people loved music.

He said the group sees the Philippines with its 90 million people as a fast developing travel market, as evidenced by the rising popularity of low cost (airline) carriers.

Traditionally, 3, 4 or 5 star hotels were invented by tourism agencies which allowed people to charge more. “We are breaking it all down. We talked to hotel guests and they said they did not want to pay for gyms, spas, pools and other facilities that they don’t use.”

Our hotels provide great beds, great power showers in great central locations with good security for very good value to the customers, he insisted.

“It’s all about taking away all the stuff that people don’t need and don’t want to pay for. Our rooms are hotel rooms with great suite bathrooms. We will put in stores that provide food and convenient stores where they can buy water and toiletries,” he said.

Tune Hotels is aiming for 100 hotels in its global portfolio by 2015. It currently operates 15 hotels of which 10 are in Malaysia; two in Indonesia; one in England and two in Thailand. It will open 584 hotels by 2013 including in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Philippines and Australia.