The Courtyard by Marriott Taipei Downtown (台北國泰萬怡酒店) expects to meet its goal of achieving a 60 percent occupancy rate this year, aided by solid demand for business hotels and the exit of Westin Taipei (六福皇宮).
The new facility with 227 guest rooms — the sixth property of Cathay Hospitality Management Co (國泰商旅) — sold out last week, raising its occupancy rate above 80 percent for this month, general manager Phyllis Chuang (莊琬華) said on the sidelines of the hotel’s grand opening on Monday.
Cathay Hospitality, which runs five hotels under the Madison Taipei (台北慕軒) and Hotel Cozzi (和逸) brands, is an affiliate of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控).
Cathay Hospitality partnered with Marriott International Inc to take advantage of its vast membership, Chuang said, adding that the move is evidently working.
With 200 million members worldwide, the Marriott network could supply up to 45 percent of clientele, allowing Cathay Hospitality to achieve a 60 percent occupancy rate in the first year, communication officials said.
The hotel occupies the third to 13th floors of a new mixed-use building on Taipei’s Minsheng E Road, an urban renewal project that allows the Taipei City Government to utilize 5 percent of floor space — the ground floor and an office on the ninth floor.
Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設), the parent company of Cathay Hospitality, set aside the 14th to 20th floors as office space, of which it has leased out 90 percent.
Cathay Real Estate has increasingly transformed into a property holding company that eyes recurrent rental income rather than being a pure property developer, company spokesman Lin Chin-liang (林清樑) said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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