Hotel Royal Group (老爺大酒店集團), a Taiwanese hotel brand with 12 hotel and resort locations worldwide, is adopting a steady expansion strategy by adding two new hotels by the end of 2018, an executive said.
The hotelier revealed its development plans while unveiling its new The Place (老爺行旅) designer hotel brand.
The group, which owns three hotel brands focused on different markets, yesterday commenced operations of its first hotel under the new marque — The Place Tainan (台南老爺行旅) — after a trial run of more than a month.
“The Place will be our focus of development in the future and is expected to enlarge our customer base,” Hotel Royal Group chief executive Winston Shen (沈方正) told a news conference in Tainan.
While the group’s two existing brands — Hotel Royal (老爺大酒店) and Royal Inn (老爺會館) — are visited mostly by customers aged 35 or older, the new brand is targeting visitors aged 20 to 35, Shen said.
As a result, the newest brand seeks to connect local cultural and creative elements within hotel design, the executive said.
The Place brand’s expansion might accelerate, as the group plans to add two hotels every three years, Shen said.
The group is in discussions with potential partners about possible expansion to Taipei and Taichung, Shen said.
The Place Tainan general manager Paul Tang (唐伯川) said the 223-room hotel might see its average rate of room occupancy surpass 60 percent in the first year of operations, with the rate for a room averaging more than NT$3,000 per night.
Since the hotel started trial operations on Dec. 30 last year — in line with the launch of T.S. Dream Mall (南紡夢時代購物中心), which is located at the same site — the average room occupancy rate has been higher than the company expected, Tang said, adding that the rate has reached about 70 percent.
As for the future of the Hotel Royal brand, the group said it plans to expand only on land it owns, Shen said.
Overseas, Hotel Royal Group said mergers and acquisitions would be the primary strategy to allow the group to operate new hotels in foreign markets.
Emerging markets in Southeast Asia are the group’s preference, the company said.
Currently, Hotel Royal Group operates four hotels overseas in Palau, Vietnam, Mauritius and Nicaragua.
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