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Taipei 101, hotels bask in computer show's success

The annual Computex always brings bumper revenues for five-star hotels and restaurants in the area, and this year, the world's tallest building has also jumped in to take a share.

Although it has no hotel rooms to meet the surging demand for accommodation from overseas buyers, the Taipei 101 skyscraper is renting out its two large ballrooms to serve as exhibitors' VIP lounges.

"Usually companies would have to use hotel rooms for their meeting purposes, where the beds have to be moved away," said Michael Liu (劉家豪), assistant vice president of Taipei Financial Center Corp (台北金融大樓公司), which owns the building, in a telephone interview yesterday.

The building is located close to the three exhibition halls of the Taipei World Trade Center and the Taipei International Convention Center, where the show is held.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Taiwan's biggest electronic components maker, has rented one of the ballrooms on the fifth floor of the building's adjacent Taipei 101 Mall during the five-day exhibition.

The 140 ping (460m2) banquet room reportedly has a daily rental fee of NT$240,000 (US$7,700).

Taipei 101 is also cooperating with the Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會), one of the trade show's organizers, to offer discounts for those with Computex badges to visit the observatory, buy souvenirs and dine at its restaurants, Liu said.

"We've received a strong response for these services. Next year, we'll arrange more preferential packages, strengthen hardware facilities and design a wide array of coupons to integrate dining and shopping in the mall," he said.

Faced with this new competitor, five-star hotels say they are not worried about losing business. Demand always exceeds supply when major exhibitions are held in the area, they said.

According to the Taiwan External Trade and Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), the show attracted 43,000 visitors yesterday alone. For the first four days, it has lured a total of 95,000 visitors, including 25,000 buyers, it said. Computex ends today.

The Grand Hyatt Taipei, the only hotel situated right next to the show venue, said its rooms were fully booked about four months before Computex started.

The average rate for the hotel's rooms surges to NT$14,000 during this period, compared with NT$5,000 to NT$9,000 at normal times, said Tina Chen (陳甦妤), public relations manager at the Grand Hyatt.

"Some customers have booked rooms for next year's Computex," she said.

To better serve their customers, major hotels outside the area offer free shuttle-bus services to and from the exhibition halls every day during the expo.

Far Eastern Plaza Hotel reported an average room rate of over NT$10,000 per night.

The Grand Formosa Regent Taipei, despite being far from the district, also saw average room rates rise to NT$9,000, bringing in more than NT$3 million a day.
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