The 36-storey Holiday Inn & Suites Penang Prai is on the market, with the owner seeking between RM220 million and RM230 million, industry observers told The Edge. The freehold property opened in early 2025 inside Juru Sentral, an integrated development in Seberang Perai that also holds a condominium tower, studio suites and retail units.
The owner has been weighing a sale since late 2025, at a price industry observers consider high against prevailing benchmarks. At RM230 million the asking price works out to almost RM693,000 a room.
The project dates to 2016, when InterContinental Hotels Group signed a management agreement with Exopuri Development Sdn Bhd to bring the Holiday Inn brand to Juru Sentral.
It was planned as a 288-room hotel costing RM117 million to build, with completion targeted for 2019. The property finally opened with 332 rooms, and it became Malaysia’s first Holiday Inn & Suites when it held its soft opening on 3 March 2025, Penang Property Talk reported.
Exopuri founder and managing director Ng Kock Leong said the hotel was brought in to serve professionals working at industrial companies and multinational corporations in the area, given the absence of a comparable facility for that segment.
The hotel is managed under an agreement with IHG and sits next to Citadines Prai Penang, held by the same owner-developer. It is a 30-minute drive to Penang International Airport.
A property observer said average occupancy is perhaps slightly over 50%, which is not unusual for a new property still building its customer base. Hotels on the mainland have historically not matched the occupancy of island hotels, where tourism and George Town’s Unesco heritage status draw a much larger base of leisure travellers.
Mainland hotels lean instead on corporate and industrial demand. The hotel sits inside the Juru industrial corridor, home to manufacturing plants and multinational operations, so weekday business from travellers and contractors outweighs weekend leisure demand.
The listing comes amid a busy run of Penang hotel activity. Tropicana Corp Bhd sold Courtyard by Marriott Penang to a unit of IOI Properties Group Bhd for RM165 million, the 316-room DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Penang was put up for sale at an indicative RM250 million, and the 451-room Cititel Penang is on the market for RM163 million.
New properties continue to open on both the island and the mainland, adding room inventory at a time when existing owners are testing buyer appetite.
