Differences in hotel attributes: Islamic hotel and sharia compliant hotel in Malaysia

Islamic hospitality becomes one of the attractive segments in tourism industry worldwide.Tourism activities has been an important foreign exchange earner for many Islamic countries especially those provide facilities for Muslim travellers. However, the hotel providers claimed that they are confused about the basic attributes of the Islamic Hotel concept and sharia compliant hotel; there are many unanswered questions from the operators.The purpose of this study is to present attributes of Islamic hotel concept from the perspectives of Adya Hotel Langkawi and Sharia Compliant Hotel from the perspective of Perdana Hotel Kota Bharu. Qualitative approach has been chosen to answer the research question of this study, in-depth interview and observation approach was applied to obtain the data.This study found that there are some exception of attributes in Islamic hotel compared to sharia compliant hotel because of the business objectives and hotel commercial value, but still followed the sharia principles. This paper presents the attributes of Islamic Hotel concept in Adya Hotel Langkawi and the differences requirements of sharia compliant hotel concept of Perdana Hotel Kota Bharu.This study contributed to outlining the list of Islamic Hotel attributes and Sharia Compliant Hotel attributes from the eye of Malaysian hotel managers. It may also serve as guide for the hotel managers to develop Islamic Hotel or Sharia Compliant Hotel concept at their respective hotel