A NEWLY launched hotel in Ipoh has earned a spot in the Malaysia Book of Records for using 53,592 1sen coins to create a permanent backdrop in its lobby.
The coins were glued to the wall to form the hotel’s name “1969 Business Suites” and the painstaking effort made it into the record book for the “biggest backdrop display made of one cent coins”.
The hotel’s chief executive officer Datin Kelly Yang received the certificate from the record book’s office manager Lee Pooi Leng in conjunction with the launch of the hotel on Wednesday.
Project coordinator Wong Mun Hong said the wall measuring 5.73m by 2.62m took him about two weeks to create and the it was the brainchild of the hotel’s founders.
The hotel’s co-founder Tony Wong Yoke Shin said he and his brothers, including Mun Hong, collected the 1sen coins from family and friends over a few years.
Wong said the 1sen coin was unique, as it was made of copper, which the country had stop producing.
“So I thought why not start collecting these coins, display them and leave a legacy for the generations to come to appreciate the coins which may be extinct in the near future.
“I believe our hotel is the first with such a backdrop, which has a story to tell to our guests,” he told reporters at the launch of the hotel at Bandar Cyber in Seri Botani.
Yoke Shin said he came up with the idea to set up business suites after many of his business associates asked him to recommend them a nice, quiet place to have work discussions out of the city.
He said they wanted a proper place to sit down, relax and enjoy the nice ambience, as well as have a decent cup of coffee.
“We acquired a few units of shophouses and added a modern colonial touch.
“Right now, we have a total of 42 rooms over two blocks and there are plans to add another 19 rooms, plus a roof-top swimming pool a function hall and gym.
“We decided on the name ‘1969 Business Suites’ because it is easier for people to remember numbers instead of sophisticated hotel names,” he added.
He said every corner of each hotel room had been utilised perfectly.
“The moment a guest steps into the room, they will automatically feel really comfortable,” he added.
Yoke Shin said the hotel has a café called Cawan Mu, which serves authentic local dishes such as nasi lemak, nasi briyani and nasi hujan panas.
“We don’t serve dishes like steak because we want to introduce the Malaysian cuisine to the world,” he added.
Yoke Shin said the company was also planning to open two more facilities in Ipoh by 2020.
He said a semi-hotel as well as a service apartment was planned for a piece of land along Jalan Kampar, while a high-end backpackers hotel was planned for Tambun.
“These are our plans for Perak and after that, we will develop such concepts in other parts of the country, and after fulfilling the 1,000 rooms capacity, we will be heading to China,” he added.
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