The Lai Lai Sheraton Hotel (
"We will definitely look into a large-scale renovation of the place once the transition is finished," said Josef Dolp, general manager of the hotel.
According to the Chinese-language Business Weekly magazine (
On April 30, Tsai, head of My Humble House Group (
Established in 1981 by Tsai's elder brother, Tsai Chen-nan (蔡辰男), the five-star hotel's ownership and management rights returned to the Tsai family after seven years.
In 1995, the Tsai family -- owners of Taiwan's largest insurance group, Cathy Life Insurance Co (
One industry watcher said refurbishing the Lai Lai is absolutely necessary.
"To compete with other new hotels in Taipei, the Lai Lai needs a face-lift as soon as possible," said Lee Shao-pin (
Hotels generally undergo refurbishment every three to five years, Lee said.
"Guests and travelers like to stay in bright, new places," he said.
Location is also a problem for the Lai Lai.
With the city's business center long shifted eastward, the Lai Lai is far from most pedestrian conveniences, Lee said.
Both the Taipei World Trade Center and the Taipei's major shopping districts are on the east side of the city.
"However Taipei Sheraton is located on Taipei city's west side, far from current hot spots," Lee said.
But one Taipei resident said the Lai Lai is always very competitive.
"Without any doubt, every time my friends and customers come to Taiwan I recommend they stay [in the Lai Lai]," said Dick Adler, a foreign businessman who has lived in Taipei for more than 30 years.
While the Lai Lai is older in appearance compared to the Grand Hyatt or the Formosa Regent, its hospitality and service are very good, he said.
"As far as I know, the Lai Lai retains many loyal customers," Adler said.
The company reported NT$2 billion in sales last year, Dolp said.
"This year we will target the same amount of sales," he said, adding that the industry is currently experiencing a slump.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
RSS