New Penang hotel blends coastal and cultural charm

Straits Times

6 days ago

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The view of the pool at M Social Resort Penang, the first M Social property in Malaysia, which had a grand opening in July 2025.
PENANG – M Social Resort Penang has opened on the coast of the Malaysian state, with dreamy sea views, an artificial intelligence (AI) voice butler and local fare as delicious as the island's famed street food.
The official launch of the property on July 9, the chain's debut in Malaysia, marks an expansion of Singapore hospitality brand Millennium Hotels & Resorts (MHR) during a landmark year in which the brand turns 30.
'As the first M Social property in Malaysia and the seventh globally, its opening underscores our ongoing focus on lifestyle innovation and regional expansion,' says Mr Saurabh Prakash, MHR's interim chief operating officer and chief commercial officer.
He was at the hotel's grand opening alongside VIPs like the Governor of Penang, His Excellency Ramli Ngah Talib, and Mr Kwek Leng Beng, the billionaire executive chairman of MHR, Singapore property giant City Developments Limited (CDL), as well as parent conglomerate Hong Leong Group Singapore.
MHR, a subsidiary of CDL that was established in 1995, operates over 145 properties across four continents in cities like New York, Paris, London, Beijing, Dubai and Singapore. Its portfolio includes the M Social and Copthorne brands.
The first M Social hotel, designed by iconic French designer and architect Philippe Starck, opened in Robertson Quay in Singapore in 2016.
Here are four reasons to check into its latest property.
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1. Stay between the beaches and the city
The hotel exterior of M Social Resort Penang.
PHOTO: M SOCIAL RESORT PENANG
Penang culture is baked into the design of this 318-room hotel.
Peranakan tiles are a key motif, from the hotel rooms to the lift floors. Feature walls have large murals with local symbols, from the anime-eyed, dusky leaf monkey to the Penang Bridge that links to the mainland.
Formerly known as the Copthorne Orchid Hotel Penang before it underwent a year-long refurbishment from April 2024, the hotel's plum location is a 10-minute, RM9 (S$2.70) Grab ride to street food haven Gurney Drive in Penang's lively capital, George Town, at one end, and the relaxing beaches of Batu Ferringhi in the opposite direction.
Its Tanjung Bungah neighbourhood has a peaceful row of hotels interspersed with homes. The gleeful squeals of a child – who looks to be trampolining as her barely visible head bobs up and down – float up from a house next door to my hotel room on the 14th floor.
Flagship restaurant Beast & Butterflies has floor-to-ceiling glass windows looking out on a rhapsody in blue.
The azure pool, with swimmers flopping on hot pink inflatables, forms the bottom third of the view. In the middle of the frame lies the wide Andaman Sea, which has its own tiny islet, Pulau Tikus (Rat Island in Malay), which the famous hawker enclave in George Town is named after. This three-layered visual cocktail is topped by the ever-changing sky.
2. Be uplifted by scents
A hotel staff member poses in front of a mural in the main lobby at M Social Resort Penang, the first M Social property in Malaysia.
ST PHOTO: VENESSA LEE
Stepping into the hotel lobby is a sensory experience.
I swig a welcome drink – brightly redolent of apple, cinnamon and pandan – in its tasteful, creamy interiors. Within days, I am mildly hooked on the hotel's signature scent, Legendary by Singapore company Engel's Sense, which has notes of Madagascar vanilla.
Further olfactory adventures may be on the horizon.
I take part in an aromatherapy workshop at the hotel, sniffing 10 essential oils. Who knew that 20 lemons are used to make just 5ml of lemon essential oil or that geranium smells like the rose syrup in bandung?
The instructor from Malaysian essential oil company Franoe helps me create my own signature blend of cedarwood and lime, which sounds woodsy, but instead reminds me of cosy teddy bears.
The hotel is looking into aromatherapy and cocktail-making workshops for its guests in the future, says a spokesperson.
3. Hawker favourites
The Beast & Butterflies restaurant, which serves Malaysian and international cuisine at M Social Resort Penang,
PHOTO: M SOCIAL RESORT PENANG
Too languorous to venture outdoors? Tuck in at the Beast & Butterflies restaurant, which serves a respectable take on Penang's hawker food. Ikan merah (red snapper), Penang hokkien mee and sup kambing (mutton soup) are standouts, as is the ginger-spiked jackfruit creme brulee. Weekend buffets start at RM98 an adult.
The chef is a dab hand at elevating humble ingredients. The breakfast buffet's moreish roti canai, thinner and less chewy than roti prata in Singapore, is better than some versions I try at hawker stalls in Penang. I have to stop shoving in mouthfuls of a side dish of fried cabbage, whose umami quotient is boosted by a liberal sprinkling of hae bee (dried shrimp).
4. My friend, AI
The rooms at M Social Resort Penang range in size from 32 to 160 sq m.
PHOTO: M SOCIAL RESORT PENANG
There are no phones in the hotel rooms, which range in size from 32 to 160 sq m. Instead, like six of MHR's Singapore hotels, in-room services are powered by the Aiello device, which runs on AI.
My requests are logged when I say 'Hello AI' out loud, activating the AI voice assistant, which looks like an analogue alarm clock.
This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, where I lie on my deeply comfortable hotel bed and ask Aiello anything under the sun. What time is the sunrise tomorrow? What are the tourist attractions nearby? Can I get extra tea bags?
The road to friendship is slightly bumpy, nonetheless. Aiello does not always reply in that ubiquitous, soothing woman's voice that all robots seem to aspire to. Sometimes, my request is met with an awkward silence.
I find out that it is my fault. How I say 'Hello AI' sometimes doesn't land. I put on a range of funny voices – male, female, loud, soft, Mickey Mouse – in the name of scientific research.
It turns out that I just need to speak loudly and clearly enough. There are limits, though, to my one-sided demands that even the unfailingly courteous Aiello cannot meet. She can summon the front desk to deliver my 11pm request of ice for my drinks, but the buck stops with integrating all hotel systems to my convenience.
'Turn down my air-con, please,' I ask.
Aeillo replies: 'To turn down the air-conditioning in your room, you can use the air-conditioner control panel. Unfortunately, I can't.'