Originally published March 2012. Updated June 2026.
Mark Lankester is the British-born hospitality executive who has served as Group CEO of Tune Hotels since the company’s 2007 launch in Kuala Lumpur — the Malaysia-based value hotel chain co-founded by AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes as part of the Tune Group portfolio. Lankester previously worked at Warner Music Group across music and gaming categories before moving into hospitality. He won the Outstanding Entrepreneurship Award 2012 from the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards and served as an advisor to Tony Fernandes on The Apprentice Asia in 2013. The Tune Hotels footprint peaked at 41 properties operational or in development around 2012 and has contracted to approximately 9 properties as of 2024 per Wikipedia — making Lankester’s career arc the canonical study of how a value-hospitality brand rides budget-travel expansion through global contraction.
Lankester’s Background
Lankester is British, schooled alongside Tony Fernandes — the two have a childhood-friend relationship dating back to their UK education. He spent the early part of his career at Warner Music Group, where he worked across artist development, brand management, and the music industry’s early forays into gaming and digital platforms. Fernandes recruited him into the Tune Group portfolio in 2007 specifically to launch Tune Hotels, despite Lankester having no prior hospitality industry experience. The Fernandes thesis was that Tune Hotels needed brand-builder instincts more than hotel-operator instincts — the value-budget hospitality category was structurally similar to the value-budget airline category AirAsia had built, and brand discipline was the differentiator.
The Tune Hotels Business Model
Tune Hotels operates on a "5-star sleeping experience at a 1-star price" positioning. The model: superior-quality beds (the type used in 5-star hotels), hot power showers, clean rooms, central locations, 24-hour security, and aggressive pay-as-you-use add-ons for amenities like air conditioning, towels, and WiFi. Room rates start extremely low — Lankester famously cited 2 pence rates in London and 10 US cents-equivalent rates in Asia as marketing hooks, with the bulk of revenue coming from add-on services and dynamic pricing.
The expansion path ran through Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The UK launch was particularly successful in the 2012-2015 window, with 7 properties operating in London. The Tune Hotels brand won the Asia Pacific Brand Laureate Award in 2011 and Top 20 Most Innovative Brands in Indonesia 2010.
The 2015 Restructure and What Followed
Tune Hotels announced a new corporate structure in April 2015 splitting leadership between Lankester (Brand, Assets and Capital Markets as CEO) and Frank Trampert (Development and Hotel Management). The restructure was intended to position the brand for accelerated global expansion. The expansion did not fully materialize at the scale originally projected. The 100-hotels-by-2015 goal Lankester articulated in earlier interviews was not reached.
The Tune Hotels footprint contracted materially over the following decade. Wikipedia lists 9 locations as of 2024. The UK properties closed. Several Southeast Asian properties were divested or rebranded. The brand remains active in its Malaysian home market but is no longer the global value-hospitality story it was positioned as in 2012. Lankester has continued in the Group CEO role through the contraction.
What Lankester’s Arc Demonstrates
Three operating lessons emerge from the Tune Hotels trajectory. First, value hospitality is a structurally harder global category than value airlines — the unit economics of hotel real estate do not benefit from the same network effects that low-cost carriers compound. Second, brand discipline alone cannot overcome real-estate, regulatory, and operational complexity in a 100+ market expansion. Third, the AirAsia parent-brand association cuts both ways — it provides initial customer awareness and routes-to-market in Southeast Asia, but limits the brand independence needed to scale beyond the AirAsia network footprint. The Tune Hotels case is now studied in hospitality MBA programs alongside the OYO Rooms expansion case as examples of value-hospitality category dynamics.
Mark Lankester is the British-born hospitality executive who has served as Group CEO of Tune Hotels since the company’s 2007 launch in Kuala Lumpur. He previously worked at Warner Music Group across music and gaming before moving into hospitality.
What is Tune Hotels?
Tune Hotels is a Malaysia-based value hotel chain co-founded in 2007 by Tony Fernandes as part of the Tune Group portfolio. The chain operates on a "5-star sleeping experience at a 1-star price" positioning with aggressive pay-as-you-use add-ons.
How many Tune Hotels are operating in 2026?
Approximately 9 locations as of 2024 per Wikipedia, down from a peak of 41 properties operational or in development around 2012. The footprint has contracted materially over the past decade.
What is Lankester’s connection to Tony Fernandes?
Childhood-friend relationship dating to their UK schooling. Fernandes recruited Lankester to launch Tune Hotels in 2007 despite no prior hospitality experience. Lankester served as advisor to Fernandes on The Apprentice Asia in 2013.
What awards has Lankester received?
Outstanding Entrepreneurship Award 2012 from the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA). Tune Hotels under his leadership won the Asia Pacific Brand Laureate Award in 2011 and Top 20 Most Innovative Brands in Indonesia 2010.
What did the 2015 Tune Hotels restructure change?
The April 2015 restructure split leadership between Lankester (Brand, Assets and Capital Markets as CEO) and Frank Trampert (Development and Hotel Management). The restructure was intended to accelerate global expansion. The expansion did not materialize at the originally projected scale.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
