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Hotels take a bite out of local Chinese lunch box market

A chef prepares lunch boxes at Taipei's Howard Plaza Hotel yesterday. Many hotels in Taipei are offering lunch box services to boost dwindling revenue at their restaurants. PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES

Move over street-side lunch-box vendors, there's a new kid on the block.

Several of Taipei's multi-star hotels have chosen to battle tough economic times by selling Chinese-style lunch boxes (便當) by phone for pick-up or delivery.

Taiwanese diners stand to benefit from the range of special discounts being rolled out by hotels in an attempt to boost sagging food sales amid Taiwan's economic slowdown.

Recently a number of five-star hotels in Taipei, including the Lai Lai Sheraton Hotel, the Howard Plaza Hotel and the Ambassador Hotel have all begun offering the boxed meal alternative priced at from NT$150 to NT$250 on an advance telephone order basis.

According to the Howard Plaza, selections on offer include regional favorites such as Hong Kong-style roasted pork, Taiwanese braised pork rice, as well as Shanghainese and Japanese meals.

In addition the hotel will provide delivery service for customers who order over 30 lunch boxes and a 5 percent discount for orders over 100 lunch boxes.

Meanwhile, the Ambassador's well-known Japanese eel lunch box is priced at NT$140 each, and the hotel reported sales were between 30 and 50 lunch boxes a day.

According to industry analysts, dining services account for 50 percent of a hotel's revenues. And while many hotels continue to enjoy stable income from lodging services -- with some business hotels scoring an 80 to 90 percent occupancy rate -- food and beverage revenues are bearing more of the brunt of the economic downturn.

Maintaining a steady income from its restaurants is a decisive factor in determining a hotel's overall performance.
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