“Every five-year plan will never come true.The only real skill left is adaptability and building a team that’s excited by change instead of afraid of it.” – Benny Ong
Dapper in a loose-fitting, stylish ensemble, Benny Ong looks more like a creative director than a hotelier. In fact, so effortlessly does he fit the part that our photographer briefly double-checks his notes to make sure we have the right person.
It is a fitting impression for an entrepreneur who sees little separation between building a business and making something creative. Ong speaks about entrepreneurship almost as an act of expression: the opportunity to take an idea, give it form, and create something that people can experience for themselves.
This instinct eventually led him into hospitality. Despite having no background in the industry, Benny Ong co-founded Kin Hotel Group in Ho Chi Minh City in 2023. The business began with just 10 rooms, built around the idea that a hotel should feel considered rather than formulaic. This thinking still runs through the brand today, with each property given its own character and design language while sharing an emphasis on comfort, warmth, and a sense of belonging.
Less than three years later, Ong says the group has grown to around 30 hotels and close to 2,000 rooms, with a model that sees it lease, operate, and assume the risk of its properties rather than simply manage them on behalf of owners.
With the team now taking on its first five-star property, Hotel Maya Kuala Lumpur, Ong believes this is only the beginning of a bigger chapter.
What’s a lesson you had to learn during your career?
Every five-year plan will never come true. The world changes too fast for it. The marketing that worked a few years ago has been turned upside down by technology, so the only real skill left is adaptability and building a team that’s excited by change instead of afraid of it.
What’s one thing you wish more people understood about your work or industry?
I wish more people saw entrepreneurship as creative work. The expression just isn’t on a canvas. It’s in the elegance of a business model, in a brand people genuinely fall in love with, in the experience you design for a guest. It’s actually a very artful process.
What quality do you value most?
More than anything, I value the ability to keep failing forward. Sometimes it matters less whether we got something right or wrong. What matters is taking responsibility and planning what’s ahead, instead of slipping into the blame game.
Where do you find support when facing difficulties?
I fall back on gratitude. Not many people get to live the life I’m living and I try not to lose sight of that. And strangely, having problems to solve is better than having none because it means you’re still in the game. So I treat the responsibility as a gift, not a pressure.
What feedback have you received that sticks in your mind?
To trust my gut and my experience, and to be more present. Being busy can feel stressful, but in a lifetime you only get a few golden decades to really live the entrepreneurial journey to the fullest, so I remind myself not to rush past it. I have good friends who meet me and never talk about work; they just ask how I am and that keeps me honest.
What do you enjoy doing when you have some free time?
For me, it’s a good long run. It’s very hard to use a device while you’re running, so naturally it’s just you and your mind. It gives me the space to reflect, to think, to ponder the bigger life stuff, and it recharges me mentally and physically. Those are the moments I cherish every week, whenever I get the chance to go for one.
Photography by Eugene Lee of Enfinite / Hair & Makeup by Sveta Klyn of Suburbs Studio
