My 18 year old daughter will meet us in Kuala Lumpur at Christmas time but she will arrive the day before us.
I want to be sure she is as safe as possible overnight. Her options are to stay in a hostel in the city which will involve her travelling in from the airport on public transport(her flight arrives at about 19.00) or to stay in the hotel at the airport which will avoid the transport at night but will mean she is alone in her room (even though it will be 4 or 5 star).
A further option is to try and arrange an airport collection to take her to (for example) her hostel.
She's never been to K.L. before.
I'd welcome views as to which of these options will be safest and whether the public transport in particular is safe for a young girl alone at night.
With thanks.

I think Malaysia is one of the safest places in the world for your daughter to travel alone. And KL should be no exception.

The best public transport from the airport is a train to Sentral and then a short taxi ride. This is very safe.

The KL airport, while really modern and huge, is not the most efficient in the world. So by the time your daughter is ready to leave the airport, it'd be at least 8pm. Taxi or train-taxi combo into the city would take another hour. It depends on whether she's well-travelled enough to not feel intimidated at say 9-10pm at night on a first trip. Also, which hostel do you have in mind? As far as I know, most budget hostels in KL are located in Chinatown and they're not your YHA-type. In other words, for the adventurous and really cost-cutting backpackers.

Why not have her check in early into the hotel which all of you would be checking in the following day? Then she'd get settled nicely and may orientate herself enough to explore the city on her own before you arrive. No point wasting time at the airport hotel when you're on holiday.

Thank you all- perhaps I ought to have provided more information.
My daughter will be arriving from Vietnam where she will have spent 7 weeks with a friend doing voluntary work.Her friend will fly directly back to the U.K. that day from Saigon.
Our trip to Malaysia was booked almost a year ago and so in order to meet us she has had to arrange her connection to meet up with us.
We arrive in K. L. and connect out to Langkawi straight away(with Junior in the fold once more!)or otherwise it would have made great sense to book her into our hotel (thank you Janna G ).
The information you all give is very helpful. The hostel she is looking at is the Y.W.C.A. As you can imagine I will be happy for her to stay anywhere she is safe.