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Holiday Inn changing hands today

Management of the Holiday Inn Asiaworld Taipei (環亞飯店) will change hands today to Chen Te-fu (陳得福), chairman of the direct selling firm Sunrider (仙妮蕾德). The hotel will also be renamed Sun World Dynasty Hotel Taipei (台北盛世王朝大飯店).

The move will further strengthen Chen's hotel network across the Taiwan Strait. His group already owns the Tianlun Dynasty Hotel (天倫王朝飯店) and acquired the Tianlun Songhe Hotel (天倫松鶴大酒店) in Beijing earlier this year.

Chen secured Holiday Inn Asiaworld Taipei for NT$7.04 billion (US$214 million) in May after three public auctions to sell the poorly performing hotel failed.

He has set up the Sun World Hotel Group (仙妮蕾德餐旅管理公司) to take over the operation from the InterContinental Hotels Group, the original management team, according to a Commercial Times report yesterday.

Eyeing new opportunities in the hospitality and catering market once Taiwan opens its market to Chinese tourists, the group plans to conduct a large-scale refit in several stages following the transfer, the hotel's new executive vice president Chen Yung-chang (陳永昌) said.

The first-stage of the refit will include remodeling of the hotel's exterior, guest rooms, restaurants, ballrooms and basement parking lot with a budget of NT$800 million, he said.

The four-star hotel will also be upgraded to five-star or even six-star to target affluent guests.

Located at the intersection of Dunhua N Road and Nanjing E Road near the domestic Songshan Airport, the hotel was founded by Asiaworld Group (亞世集團) 24 years ago to become the nation's first hotel integrated with a department store.

With 750 guest rooms making it the largest hotel in Taiwan, the Holiday Inn enjoyed booming business in the 1980s and 1990s.

However, its revenues were severely hit by Asia's financial crisis and new competition from Grand Hyatt Taipei and Grand Formosa Regent Taipei.

The hotel's performance started to revive after the InterContinental Hotels Group sealed a management contract with the owner Asiaworld Group in Dec. 2003.

According to a press release issued yesterday, the hotel's occupancy rate has increased from 40.89 percent in 2002 to 82.5 percent this year.

InterContinental said it hopes to introduce other hotel brands and professional hotel management to the local market.
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