It took only a few minutes to deduce that this could very well be *the hotel*. It’s located on Jalan Zabedah, smack in the middle of Batu Pahat town.

On 3rd January 2007 The Star ran a report on the hotel, did not name it, but revealed the following clues:

The plush hotel, which is popular among VIPs who come to Batu Pahat…the lobby with giant pillars and beautiful staircases…

However, at least one other publication, Singaporean paper The Straits Times has named this hotel.

After some digging at tourism websites, it seems that it is indeed the best hotel in town. Then someone who spent most of his life in Batu Pahat wrote that based on The Star’s description, it can ever only be Katerina Hotel, because it’s the highest ranked hotel there (4 stars).

These are Katerina Hotel’s pillars, where according to the hotel’s website, “the main lobby is supported by huge round marbleized columns which stretch to a height of two storeys.”

And this is one of the beautiful staircases:

At night, the front of the hotel looks like this [pic source]:

From the DVD excerpts (from mainstream media, I don’t have the original), it seems the room used has a separate section (living room):

It can hence be deduced that an Executive Suite was used, since the hotel website provides a layout plan of such a room…

…and the following picture of the living room of the Executive Suite checks out…

…also the following video grab I got from NTV7’s site:

This is the view of Batu Pahat town from inside one of the hotel rooms [pic source]:

More views from the 9th floor of the hotel here.

According to the hotel website, it has 10 Executive Suites, sized 525 square feet (about 23 ft x 23 ft), there’s one Executive Suite on each floor. Each suite has “a living area, separate bedroom and a spacious bathroom.”

From a picture in the hotel website, apparently the hotel was established 15th November 1998 and is a subsidiary of DA Dynasty Corporation Sdn Bhd.

The hotel’s website says that it is 15 storeys high, has 6 premier suites, 9 family suites, 10 Executive Suites and 160 deluxe rooms.

The room rates start from RM169 for the deluxe single to RM365 for a family suite.

The Executive Suite’s published rate is RM300, with a promotion rate of RM250 (rate includes breakfast for two).

Now that it has become the most famous (or infamous) hotel in the country, the hotel management could either get in hot soup or get sudden increase in business.

On a completely unrelated note, hey I just heard someone shouting behind my back, “get rid of a hairy back New York!!!”. Hmm… somehow the mere mention of the Big Apple reminds me of the famous New York movers.

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