SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

Foundation of Natural & Built Environments (FNBE)

Assignment: A Tale of Two Businesses A Comparative Analysis of 2 Businesses of Similar Industry in

Different Geographical Locations

GROUP MEMBERS

NO
1
2
3
4

Name
Kiing Kiu Chun
Lau Chin Sheng
Nur Aqilah Syaza
Sabrina Wiora Saidi

1|Page

STUDENT ID
0318727
0317899
0317731
0317776

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NO.
1
2

5
6

Title
Summary
Brief Bio of The Business

Page
3

2.1 Comfort Lodge

2.2 Time Capsule Retreat

Comparative Analysis of the Businesses Competitive Traits

3.1 Comfort Lodge

3.2 Time Capsule Retreat

Recommendation

12

4.1 Comfort lodge

14

4.2 Time capsule Retreat

Appendix
References

15
17
27

2|Page

SUMMARY
This report is a Comparative Analysis of two businesses of the similar industry in
different geographical locations. This project aims to analyze and compare two
businesses on different settings and let students understand the market
competition in the real world. The businesses that we chose to study are Comfort
Lodge, located in Kuala Lumpur and Time capsule retreat in Kuantan. This report
consists of background information and comparative analysis about the
businesses. Face to face interview was used to obtain the information and
compare the businesses competitive traits. After analyze, we had found that
Comfort Lodge Is more commercially successful than Time Capsule Retreat. We
also give some recommendation to both hotels.

3|Page

BRIEF BIO OF THE BUSINESSES

2.1Comfort Lodge
Comfort lodge is a backpacker hotel which provide the accommodation with a
cheap price from the range of RM45~RM95. The type of rooms they provided are,
Single room (with fan), Single room, double room (standard), double room
(deluxe), double room (Superior, attached with bathroom) and Family room.
Besides, Comfort lodge also provides online booking and price list for each types
of room, which provide much more convenience for the customer.

4|Page

The hotel situated 15 minutes walk to the KL Tower and 20 minutes walk to the
PETRONAS Twin Tower. Their location is 5 star, situated right in the middle of CSD
(Central Shopping District), the Bukit Bintang Area where all the major shopping
complexes are concentrated, e.g. Suria KLCC, Sungei Wang Plaza, Starhill, Times
Square and the coming Pavilion Complex. There are also electronics specialist
complexes like Imbi Plaza and Low Yat Plaza that has a wide range of electronics
goods.
The Bintang Walk has a Paris-like road side cafe atmosphere that is filled with
energetic crowd, and a place to be seen. A short walk towards KLCC (Kuala
Lumpur City Centre - PETRONAS Twin Tower) you will find the night life of KL, the
happy crowd that parties until morning.
China Town is also 20 minutes walk away and you can shop a variety of imitation
goods at a fraction of the original price. A variety of food, local, Chinese, Indian,
Indo, Viet, Thai, Italian, German, Brazilian, Arabian etc. are available around the
corner, about 24 hours daily. Local called it Glutton Street. Around CSD, are
major international brand of hotels and offices of multinationals. So all you need
to do, see and just relax is all within 20 minutes walk.
They are CHEAP, COMFORTABLE, CONVENIENT & CLEAN!!!

5|Page

COMFORT owns other businesses apart from COMFORT LODGE such as COMFORT
INN located in No.65 Changkat Bukit Bintang
50200 Kuala Lumpur; it is a budget hotel (about 2 star) has 37 rooms, all with
ensuite toilet/shower facilities.

COMFORT also owns COMFORT SERVICE APARTMENT located in Angkasa lmpian

2, Condo Jalan Sahabat, Bukit Bintang 50020 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is a luxury
condominium in the heart of Kuala Lumpur city, called Bukit Bintang (Star Hill).
Short walk to all major sites, PETRONAS Twin Tower, KL Tower, major shopping
malls and Chinatown.
The founder of the Comfort Lodge is Mr Leong Tian Hock. The reason he started
this business is because 15 years ago, there was very few number of budget hotel
and Mr Leong thinks that this field or business has a great potential and
opportunity. Comfort Lodge established since year 1999. Over the past 15 years,
the business has changed, become tougher. Comfort Lodge opened one more
branch nearby but the competitors are increasing dramatically.

6|Page

2.2 Time Capsule Retreat

Time Capsule Retreat located at in the middle of the Sungai Lembing

Town.(Bandar Sungai Lembing 26200 Kuantan , Pahang , Malaysia.) Time Capsule
Retreat is founded at the year of 2014, April. It is a space capsule like hotel.
According from Mrs Tan Siow Lan (owners mother): Mr Kelvin Young (founder
of the Time Capsule Retreat) likes to travel around and he got inspired by the
Capsule Hotel in Mexico. When he came back to Malaysia, he had discussed with
my husband, his father, Mr Young to open a capsule theme hotel in Sungai
Lembing.

Time Capsule Retreat aimed to provide every guest a pleasure experience with
the natural, a getaway from the concrete jungle. Time Capsule Retreat not only
provided accommodation, they also provided Local tour and arrange some
7|Page

outdoor activities, such as, Hiking the Panorama Hill, Jungle trekking, visit the
Rainbow water fall.
Time Capsule Retreat is currently fully booked until the next two months. Other
than that Time Capsule Retreat has a weekday promotion which the visitor can
enjoy a special rate on the weekday. This promotion is cooperate with Groupon
and Agoda. Besides, Time Capsule Retreat also decides to expand their business in
Johor and Selangor in the upcoming future.

8|Page

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS COMPARATIVE TRAITS

Comfort Lodge
1. Numbers of competitors of businesses in their respective markets.
According Mr. Aaron, the reception of Comfort Lodge, the number
of competitors in its respective geographical markets is a lot,
especially since last 5 years. It is about 10 to 50 in Tengkat Tong
Shin area, and around 50 to 150 in Bukit Bintang area. Comfort
Lodge shares around 10% in the market in Tengkat Tong Shin
area. (Mr. Aaron, Personal communication, 29/11/2014). Its top
three competitors are Tropical Guess House, Anggun Hotel and
Alpha Genesis Hotel. However, since the past 5 years, they were
facing a lot challenges from the competitors. Comfort Lodge has
top three competitors which are Tropical Guest House, Anggun
Hotel and Alpha Genesis Hotel, they are located in the same area.
Tropical Guess House is a bamboo Tropical guest house located
beside Comfort Lodge. Tropical Guess House is famous with its
bamboo tropical build style and great hospitality. On the other
hand, Anggun Hotel is a four-star deluxe boutique hotel with
luxury interior and exterior design. While Alpha Genesis is a bigger
hotel compare to other hotels at that area, and it provides
breakfast for guests.

9|Page

2. Strategies used to compete with its competitors

Comfort Lodge is able to survive and compete with its
competitors because it provides clean and comfortable rooms
with reasonable price. The price of Comfort Lodge is around RM
45 RM90 per night, which are reasonable. The staff of Comfort
Lodge will make sure the room is cleaned by the cleaner after the
customer checked out from the room to ensure the clean and
comfy environment of the hotel. Besides, they will provide proper
training for staff every one year. This can help them to provide a
better customer services compare to other hotels. Moreover,
Comfort Lodge has good review and high reputation from
backpackers, people will choose to trust and stay in that hotel
since a lot of people recommended and satisfied with its rooms
and services.
The pricing power of Comfort Lodge is weak, it is following the
market prices, but under certain condition, eg, during peak
season, numbers of tourists will more than rooms that hotels can
provide, hence this cause its pricing power wont be affected by
other competitors. Comfort Lodge has one more branch, Comfort
Inn at Changkat, Bukit Bintang. According to Mr Aaron, the profit
of hotel is still growing from year to year although number of
competitors became more.

In order to enter the hotel market at Bukit Bintang, Mr Aaron said

that it is hard, not as easy as 15 years ago. The barrier to enter the
hotel market is weak since it does not require a lot of specialized
field of knowledge (Mr Aaron, Personal communication,
29/11/2014). It is hard for a new hotel to survive because it needs
to compete with huge amount of competitors. The existed hotels
around Bukit Bintang area have good reviews and high reputation
that gain by its good services and experienced staff.
10 | P a g e

According to Comfort Lodge's characteristics, the nature of hotel

market at Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur is monopolistic
competition. In my opinion, the hotel in Bukit Bintang need to
face a lot of challenges from their competitors, the new comer is
really hard to survive unless they provide better services and
facilities that can attract tourists and also need to advertise more
to increase their reputation.

11 | P a g e

Time Capsule Retreat

1. Numbers of competitors of businesses in their respective markets.

Time Capsule Retreat is located at the centre of Sungai Lembing Town
Kuantan, Pahang. It is situated near the famous Rainbow waterfall. The
hotel is located near to a tourist spot. According Miss Tan Siow Lan, the
owner of Time Capsule Retreat, currently they have no competitors at
that area, but she thinks that there will be some potential competitors
in the upcoming years (Miss Tan Siow Lan, Personal communication,
29/11/2014).

2. Strategies used to compete with its competitors

Although Time Capsule Retreat has no competitors now, but the
owner thinks that there will be some potential competitors in the
upcoming years. Hence, the owner of Time Capsule Retreat did
applied some strategies to compete with its potential
competitors. First of all, Time Capsule Retreat is cooperating with
Groupon and Agoda by providing special rate during weekday.
Besides that, Time Capsule Retreat did advertised through social
media such as Facebook and Instagram to improve its popularity.
In addition, by using social media, they also provide a platform to
their previous customer to share their thought and experience
with others. Moreover, Time Capsule Retreat provides a lot of
services such as arrange outdoor activities and local tour. Time
Capsule Retreat will provide these services for their customers
with reasonable prices if they requested for it. On the other hand,
Time Capsule Retreat acquired inspiration from the capsule hotel
from Mexico which used concrete pipe cylinder to replace the
normal room.
12 | P a g e

According to Miss Tan Siow Lan, The pricing power of Times

Capsule Retreat is weak, its prices are following the market prices
(price taker). Although, Times Capsule Retreat has no competitors
at that area, but to prevent customers lost, they chooses to refer
others location market price. (Miss Tan Siow Lan, Personal
communication, 29/11/2014).
In order to enter the hotel market at Sungai Lembing, Kuantan,
Miss Tan Siow Lan said that it is hard. The barrier to enter the
hotel market at Sungai Lembing is strong because most of the
customers prefer the hotel they used to stay rather than new
comer. Besides, it requires specialized field of knowledge to start
theme hotel business.
According to Time Capsule Retreat characteristics, the nature of
hotel market at Sungai Lembing, Kuantan is oligopoly. In my
opinion, the new hotel in Sungai Lembing need to face a lot of
challenges from its competitors, the new comer is hard to survive
unless they provide better services and facilities that can attract
tourists and also need to advertise more to increase their
reputation so that people will choose to stay at their hotel.

13 | P a g e

RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1 Comfort Lodge
1. Undergo Renovation
-Comfort Lodge should undergo renovation to provide a brand image to the
customer. This because current building of Comfort Lodge is kind of
outdated, should follow the modern trend and design to attract more
customers. Redesign the ambient inside the hotel to create a new
atmosphere to the customers.
2. Advertise in variety way.
-Comfort Lodge should advertise more and in variety way. This is because
comfort lodge located inside the deepest part of alley. Hence, they need to
advertise they lodge more frequently. For example, they can create a
facebook page to connect the business with the customer. Through this
way, they can easily connect with the customer and potential customer and
yet people can access the Lodges info easily.

14 | P a g e

4.2 Time Capsule Retreat

1. Provide more Capsule Room
- Currently there are only 8 Capsule rooms in Time Capsule Retreat and it is
insufficient to the high demand from the customer, to overcome this problem
we strongly recommend the owner to add more capsule room to solve the
insufficiency of room.
2. Provide Shutter Bus
- Time Capsule Retreat is located at the urban area, which is facing the
inconvenience of public transportation. If and only if the hotel can provide the
shutter bus service then the inconvenience of transportation will be solved.
3. Held more contest or event to promote the hotel
- We recommend the owner to held contest and event frequently which aim to
promote the hotel. For example, selfie contest; the picture with the most liked
and shared on facebook can stay in the hotel without paying any money.

15 | P a g e

Comparative Analysis Summary Table

Competitive
Traits
Number of
Competitors
Barrier to
Entry

Comfort Lodge (Klang ValleyBased)

10-50

Time Capsule Retreat(KuantanBased)

0-5

-Weak

-Strong

-does not require a lot of

specialized field of knowledge

- most customers prefer the

hotel they used to stay.

Differentiated
or
Standardized

-Differentiated( many type of

rooms from range of RM45 RM95 )

Pricing Power

-Weak (Price taker)

Other
Characteristics

-Theme hotel requires

specialized field of knowledge
-Differentiated( Capsule like
room and white cottage room)

-Weak (Price taker)

-Due to too many competitors if -Follow market price is due to

their price is higher than market prevent customers loss
price, they will lose customers
-Has close product substitutes
-Has close product substitutes
-Mutual dependence

VERDICT

-Constant advertising (web

page)
Monopolistic competition

-Mutual dependence
-Constant advertising (Facebok,
Instagram)
Oligopoly

Based on analysis, Comfort Lodge would be more commercially better than Time
Capsule Retreat. This is because compare to Sungai Lembing, the market in Bukit
Bintang is more competitive. However, Comfort Lodge is able to survive and
maintain positive growth in profit. It also opened one more branches nearby. It
shows that Comfort Lodge is stronger compare to Time Capsule Retreat
16 | P a g e

5. Appendix

Video link 1:

http://youtu.be/pB9FYL2Rj3o

Video link 2 and Video link 3:

17 | P a g e

http://youtu.be/NNUH8iCIQ08

Comfort Lodge

Comfort Lodge
(Website)

18 | P a g e

Time Capsule Retreat

19 | P a g e

Time Capsule Retreat Website

Time Capsule Retreat Facebook Page

20 | P a g e

Comfort Lodge
52 tengkat tong shin,
off cangkat bukit bintang,
50200 kuala lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: +603-2145 1818
Fax: +603-2145 7686
Interview Note
1. When was the business founded?
- 1999(15 years ago)
2. Who are the key founders?
-Mr Leong Tian Hock
3. What prompted the founders to start this business?
-back to 15 years ago there were not that many budget hotels and the
founder saw the potential and opportunity of this business
4. What are your main products or services?
-We provide room with reasonable prices.
5. Who are your customers? (eg. Age group,income-level,education-level, etc)
-Mostly backpacker
6. How many branch offices/stores do you have?
-there is one more branch nearby
21 | P a g e

7. Can you provide us a brief history of your business?

-Can be obtained from the Comfort lodge web page

8. How was the recent development of the business?

-it is depended. The more the tourists the better the business perform.
Overall, its a positive growth.
9. Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3
competitors?
-Yes, we do. Since past 5 years, we were facing a lot challenge from the
competitors. The top 3 competitors are Tropical Guess house, Anggun Hotel
and Alpha Genesis Hotel.
10.How big is your market share as well as your top competitors?
-Approximately 30%
11.Is the business constantly facing strong competition from other
competitors? What strategies have they used to compete you?
-Normally they provide a lower rate than our hotel, and sometime they do
provide a better service (customers experience)
12.Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? why?
-not easy to enter the market, because of huge amount of competition, it is
tough and not as easy as 15 years ago.
13.How do you compete with your competitors? What strategies do you
employ to divert customers away from your competitors?
-We improve our customer services, more advance facilities and enhance
the hotel environment become more comfortable.
22 | P a g e

14.How often do you release a new product or promotion?

-Not really, but like what I say before, we upgrade hotel facilities, well
trained the staff to provide a better service than other hotel.

15.Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors? Why or

why not?
-Yes, pricing is one of the factor, but then if there is more tourists visit and
stay here, I do say is doesnt affect that much.

23 | P a g e

Time Capsule Retreat

Sungai Lembing Town
26200 Kuantan , Pahang ,
Malaysia.

Interview Note
1. When was the business founded?
- The year of 2014, April
2. Who are the key founders?
-Mr Kevin Young Tien Seng
3. What prompted the founders to start this business?
-Mr Kelvin likes to travel and stay in different type of guest house and this
inspired him to start this business and he thinks this business has a great
potential and opportunity at Sungai Lembing, Kuantan
4. What are your main products or services?
-Other than providing accommodation, we also can arrange some outdoor
activities, such as jungle tracking, visit the Rainbow water fall, climbing
Panorama Hill and if they want to , we can give them a local tour around
the Sungai Lembing.

24 | P a g e

5. Who are your customers? (eg. Age group,income-level,education-level, etc)

-Our customer are from all range age group, mostly local.
6. How many branch offices/stores do you have?
-No, Currently we have no other branches. However, we are considering to
open more branches in the future, maybe around the Johor and Selangor
area.
7. Can you provide us a brief history of your business?
-Can be obtained from the Time Capsule Retreat web page
8. How was the recent development of the business?
-The business is doing fine now, and fully booked until the next follow 2
months
9. Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3
competitors?
-No, currently we dont have any competitors.
10.How big is your market share as well as your top competitors?
-Approximately
11.Is the business constantly facing strong competition from other
competitors? What strategies have they used to compete you?
-(No competition)
12.Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? why?
-Not easy to enter the market. At the early stage of this business, we doubt
that we will have any customers because we dont have any experience
before this.
13.How do you compete with your competitors? What strategies do you
employ to divert customers away from your competitors?
25 | P a g e

-Although we dont have any competitor now but we are still doing some
promotion, for example we cooperate with Groupon and Agoda. Besides,
we do alsoe advertise through Social media such as Facebook and
Instagram.

14.How often do you release a new product or promotion?

-Like what I mentioned above, we do cooperate with Groupon and Agoda
to provide a promotion which customer can enjoy a special rate at
weekday.
15.Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors? Why or
why not?
-Yes, although we are not facing any competition from other, but we still
compare their rate with our price to provide a reasonable price to every
tourist who visit Sungai Lembing.

26 | P a g e

Reference
Fazrol Nasir(2014/10/19). Tidur dalam kapsul. Berita Harian. Retrieved from
http://www.bharian.com.my /
(2014/9/7) . . . Retrieved from
http://www.chinapress.com.my/
(2014/5/1). . . Retrieved from
http://www.nanyang.com/nySTO.phtml
Time Capsule Retreat(n.d)In facebook[Hotel . National Park] Retrieved from
https://www.facebook.com/timecapsuleretreat
Time Capsule Retreat(2014) About Us. Retrieved from
http://timecapsuleretreat.wix.com/home#!blank/czr2
Comfort Lodge (2014) About us. Retrieved from
http://www.hotelcomfort.biz/html/about.htm

27 | P a g e