Tune Hotels owner plots ambitious luxury debut

Ormond Hotels and MoMo’s will be new sister brands for Tune, all now part of Malaysia-based Ormond Group.

Ormond Group is the new offshoot of ECM Libra Financial Group, which recently moved into the hospitality sector.

The first arrival under the new brands will be The Chow Kit, an Ormond Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Opening later this year, it will have 115 rooms designed by Studio Tack, based on the ethos of introducing “thoughtfully designed boutique hotels inspired by local stories and culture”.

It will be followed at the end of 2020, or 2021 by The Ormond Hotel in Dublin, a renovation of an old hotel that had lain dormant for more than a decade.

The hotel opened in the 1880s on Dublin’s Liffey quays and features in James Joyce’s Ulysses. It is being brought back to life by designers AvroKO, already responsible for many bar and restaurant concepts and the likes of 1 Hotel Central Park and The Trafalgar in London.

Also announced under the brand is The Burmah – an Ormond Hotel and Ormond Melbourne, which will open in the Australian city by 2022.

The second brand, MoMo’s, is designed as a more affordable lifestyle brand that will focus on social spaces for visitors and locals and “micro rooms”. The first hotel under the brand will be in Kuala Lumpur this year, followed by Melbourne in 2022.

Gareth Lim, chief executive of Ormond Hotels, said: “We are excited to introduce two new and innovative hotel brands, each with its own unique personality. The three brands allow us to cater to a wider profile of guests, but whatever the hotel, we will prioritise excellent service and design at a value-for-money price.”