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THE rise and rise of Berjaya Hotels and Resorts (BHR) is nothing short of spectacular.

   Within just three operational years the hotel arm of the giant Malaysian Berjaya Group conglomerate is already the second-biggest hospitality company in the country with 10 properties under its belt.

  Few doubt that, within another couple of years, it will be the biggest. Three more hotels are joining the stable this year.

   Another 10 are in the development or construction stage and scheduled for opening before 1997.

  The present goal is to have 25 hotels with 4,000 rooms up and running in the next four years.

   But executive director Ricky Goh considers the target to be conservative and is confident of exceeding it.

  'Our group has been very aggressive at expanding,' he said.

  BHR was recently appointed the 'master organiser' for Best Western (BW), the world's largest single-brand hotel chain with 3,400 hotels and resorts to its name.

   The affiliation brings Berjaya properties under the marketing umbrella of United States-based Best Western's 24-hour central reservation system linked to 450,000 computerised booking terminals.

  As a result, Berjaya has the rights to develop the BW chain, not only in Malaysia but in Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kampuchea, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Mauritius, the Seychelles and the Maldives.

  Mr Goh said: 'We are in the midst of finalising an agreement with the owner of a chain of hotels in Thailand and Indochina on a joint venture basis to further expand the BW chain.'   The company clearly does not like to sit around. BHR developed its first property, the 400-room Berjaya Tioman Resort on Tioman Island seven years ago.

   It was not long before Berjaya Group made the hotel business a habit and set up a fully-fledged company to develop it.

   Next to open were the Berjaya Langkawi Beach Resort, the Ombak Beach Resort at Kuantan and the Berjaya Palace Hotel in Kota Kinabalu.

  Last year, the company also took over three resorts in the Seychelles (including one with a casino) as well as another hotel-casino in Mauritius and smaller properties in Fiji and Sri Lanka.

  Luxury budget is the buzzword for BHR. As Mr Goh said: 'Our strategy is to pursue the mid-priced range of hotels, the three-star-plus category commanding room rates from US$60-$120 a night.'    Best Western classifies itself as 'luxury budget' which is much the same thing so the partnership was obviously a natural one.

  This year's highlights for BHR include the opening of two resorts (one on the beach, the other on a golf course) on the Malaysian island of Redang, a scuba-diving paradise in the nation's premier marine park.

  Next year, the Berjaya Plaza Hotel will open in Georgetown, Penang. In 1997, the Berjaya Wellesley Hotel will come on line in Butterworth.

  In the meantime, anything can and probably will happen as the company relentlessly pursues options just about anywhere.

  Mr Goh said three projects were also lined up in Kuala Lumpur (an equestrian resort, golf resort and a convention centre), while, up in the highlands, a golf resort in Pahang, which also claims to be Malaysia's first mineral spa, is taking shape.

   In Sabah, a 300-room resort is underway at Pulau Gaya, the island in a marine park.

  All of which means BHR appears to be performing much in line with the public philosophy of Berjaya Group's maverick chairman, Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, who, in just 10 years, has turned a small steel-wire-producing company into a one of Malaysia's mightiest conglomerates with a turnover of around M$2.5 billion (about HK$7.72 billion).



Berjaya Hotels in rapid climb to top