Direct access to the gleaming Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre clearly positions the new 571-room Traders Kuala Lumpur in the convention market. But, in this business climate, one market is not enough. “Hotels have to be multi, multi-purpose,” says Reto Klauser, general manager. “We never looked at this property as a convention hotel per se, nor did we want the market to perceive us as a traditional convention hotel. To deliver consistently high business levels from day one, we knew this property had to be attractive to multiple market segments.”

Parent company Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts challenged local interior designer BC&A International Ltd. to deliver multi-marketable spaces wrapped in “trendy yet timeless” design. BC&A principle Brian Chan and his team crafted a solution by structuring services and activities by floor. With the exception of level 5, where reception shares space with the all-day dining restaurant, and level 33 which houses the SkyBar and pool, each floor is devoted to a particular activity. This creates what Klauser calls “a multitude of zones” that can be tightly targeted to each of the hotel’s markets—from convention visitors and transient business travelers calling on clients in the iconic Petronas Twin Towers across the street to locals and leisure travelers lured by the city center’s full menu of retail and entertainment offerings.

BC&A takes its multi-tasking mandate another step further with changes in levels, lighting and materials to forge zones within zones. Instead of two restaurants, Chan carves out one large restaurant but splits it into two zones over two tiers. Gobo Chit Chat and Gobo Upstairs Lounge and Grill have separate moods and separate entry points (one buffet, one a la cart “western”) unified by a cross-over stairway. “Guests can have a varied dining experience in one meal—on not one but two floors,” Chan says.

Design expands the guestrooms’ marketability as well. Using a cool, neutral palette, BC&A found an “international home/office” balance that could work as well for couples as for two business executives traveling together. Televisions can be viewed from three to four different vantage points. Ambient lights and task lights can be separated or combined. Spacious bathrooms include a glowing basin counter with enough extra storage for the toiletries of two or three guests. The sofa converts into a third bed if needed for convention groups. “Pragmatic it may be; congested it is not,” Chan says.

Klauser says the rooms’ absolutely clean lines and functionality make them feel much bigger than the standard 376 sq. ft. (35 sq. m) “It’s important that we can offer big blocks of the same room product to the market,” Klauser says. “The one room type we never have enough of is the park view rooms. They have the most magnificent views of the city center and the Petronas Twin Towers.”

Chan uses unusual design treatments to devise interactive spaces that open up new revenue streams. On level 6, the polygonal Internet tables draped with semi-circular pods facilitate group interchange. They complement the chat rooms on the executive floors and social “village” feel of the SkyBar and spa. “These extra spaces were created as another luxury for a new generation of guests,” Chan says. “The layout design and planning of these spaces differs from traditional hotel spaces. They are all multi-tasked, multi-faceted. They are conceived so that different events can take place at different times or at the same time.”

Klauser agrees that spaces have to be more flexible if a hotel is to succeed. “The SkyBar differentiates us, but the combination of a pool and spa during the daytime and a hip, chill-out space at night is really unusual for a hotel that caters to the convention and exhibition market,” he says. With its mirrored walls, dramatic, computerized art and inventive materials, the hotel’s design “helps in countless ways to position ourselves in the market and to attract the segments with which we want to succeed.”

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