Formosa Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店) is to start its second-phase renovation project later this month, as the hotel continues to upgrade its facilities, with an eye to raising its room rate and boosting revenue, operator Formosa International Hotels Corp (FIHC, 晶華國際酒店集團) said.
The hotel in Taipei plans to refurbish three of its restaurants and all 538 rooms this year, the company said.
The renovation of the three restaurants is expected to be completed by early October, and will be followed changes to the rooms, which will be carried out floor by floor, the hotel said in a statement.
“We finished refurbishing the hotel lobby and grand ballroom last year. Plans to upgrade the three restaurants this year will follow the same style,” Regent Taipei general manager Morton Johnston said in the statement.
Renovating the rooms may help the hotel raise its average room rate to at least NT$7,000 (US$233) — from NT$6,241 in March, the hotel said in a report to the Tourism Bureau.
Upgrading the restaurant facilities may also boost the hotel’s revenue from food and beverage, which accounts for more than half of its overall sales.
FIHC, which saw consolidated sales in the first four months of the year rise 2.33 percent from a year earlier to NT$1.93 billion, should benefit from Regent Taipei’s renovation and other plans, the statement added.
The hotel is also seeking to expand its Japanese clientele by strengthening relations with Japanese travel agencies and forming an alliance with a Japanese carrier.
Japanese guests currently accounts for nearly 40 percent of the hotel’s clientele, making it an important segment for the hotel.
On Friday last week, Regent Taipei announced its new in-flight menu for All Nippon Airways (ANA). Business class passengers taking an ANA flight from Taipei to Tokyo can start enjoying these meals this month.
Regent Taipei and ANA collaborated early this year to introduce Taiwanese cuisine on flights, including the hotel’s award-winning beef noodle soup, to promote FIHC’s restaurants to Japanese passengers visiting Taiwan.
In addition, the hotel held its annual friendly golf match in Taoyuan County on Monday last week, with representatives from key online travel agencies in Japan attending.
Various Japanese tourism agency experts, including executive at JTB Global Marketing & Travel Inc, joined the match and the dinner party to share their insights on how to better meet the demand of Japanese customers, the hotel said.
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