The Suite Life

Banyan Tree Kuala Lumpur, a landmark of the city, recently unveiled Pavilion Hotel Kuala Lumpur Managed by Banyan Tree. The Peak speaks to Anders Dimblad, General Manager of both hotels, to find what makes the two properties unique.

- Neda Al-Asedi

Walk us through your experience in luxury hospitality management, especially on how you started and your years with the Banyan Tree group.

I started my career with the Island Shangri-La in Hong Kong and, after that, I was in Singapore with the same group, before being recruited by Banyan Tree for its Seychelles property. I went from a 500+ room hotel to a 66-villa resort. It became much more personalised, and there were different philosophies in terms of service and attention to detail. Banyan Tree Seychelles was my first property back in 2003 and I stayed with the Banyan Tree Group until around 2014, just shy of 11 years. I had the opportunity of being in the Seychelles, the Maldives, Bangkok, Ras Al Khaimah, Dubai, and even in Kuwait, before rejoining two years ago to manage Banyan Tree Kuala Lumpur.

This is your first time in Kuala Lumpur, and you came to manage Banyan Tree Kuala Lumpur and Pavilion Hotel Kuala Lumpur. Tell us about making the move down here, and how has the past two years been.

It’s always nice to come back to Asia! I grew up here – I was born in the Philippines, and raised in the Philippines and Hong Kong, so Asia has always been home. Although this is my first time working in Kuala Lumpur, I’ve been to Malaysia on a couple of vacations and, obviously, the excitement about this country is that it has such a diverse culture, background and history. To be able to come in and experience that is definitely one of the excitements we’ve had as a family and as an individual. The opportunity to bring the brand into Malaysia, not just from the Banyan Tree perspective, but also for Pavilion Hotel Kuala Lumpur Managed by Banyan Tree, it’s greatly exciting and one of those things you can’t turn down.