The Ranee’s Rosemarie Wong wants to do for Borneo what Jim Thompson did for Thailand

It was just slightly over 10 years ago when Rosemarie Wong burst onto the Sarawak hospitality scene with her boutique hotel, The Ranee. Brimming with enthusiasm and energy, she spoke of how she wanted to change the image of boutique hotels in the East Malaysian state – how a boutique hotel could command similar rates as a five-star branded hotel.

“People were asking me, how can you charge the same rate for a shophouse as the Hilton,” she recalled. Well, she proved that at its height, she could although these days, post-pandemic, a check on Google shows The Ranee tracking about US$30-$50 behind the Hilton on most OTA sites.

So one pandemic, and a decade later, I asked Wong if she still feels the same level of enthusiasm about the state of Sarawak tourism and…