IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) has reached an agreement with Hass Enterprise subsidiary King Park Hotel to open two properties and introduce its Garner brand in Malaysia.
King Park Hotel Kota Kinabalu will be rebranded as Garner Hotel Kota Kinabalu.
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The property will have 202 rooms, with 106 scheduled to open next year and a further 96 planned for a second phase in 2029.
Garner Hotel Kota Kinabalu will join a brand that has more than 110 hotels open globally.
Meanwhile, King Park Hotel Tawau will undergo an extensive refurbishment before reopening as the 140-room Holiday Inn Express Tawau in 2028.
The hotel will be IHG’s first property in Tawau.
Holiday Inn Express Tawau will become part of IHG’s Essentials portfolio, which has more than 3,300 open hotels and over 660 properties in its global pipeline.
A King Park Hotel spokesperson said: “We are excited to partner with IHG to introduce the first Garner in Malaysia and the first internationally branded hotel in Tawau.”
In addition to the debut of its Garner brand, the deal introduces IHG’s franchise model in the country.
IHG Southeast Asia and Korea development vice-president Bryan Chan said: “The introduction of franchising marks an important milestone in IHG’s growth across Southeast Asia, enabling us to unlock more conversion and repositioning opportunities across both independent and internationally branded hotel assets.
“We are delighted to launch IHG’s franchise model in Malaysia with a two-hotel portfolio agreement with King Park. This agreement also introduces Garner hotels to Malaysia.
“Garner Hotel Kota Kinabalu will increase our open and pipeline presence in Kota Kinabalu from one to five hotels, while Holiday Inn Express Tawau gives IHG its first presence in the city and strengthens our footprint across Sabah’s growing tourism corridor.”
The latest agreements will take IHG’s presence in Malaysia to more than 20 open and pipeline hotels across city and resort destinations, including Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Melaka and Penang.
IHG also has properties in development in Malaysia, which include InterContinental Penang Resort, which will replace the former Mutiara Beach Resort, and voco Muar, the company’s second voco hotel in the country.
