My Humble House Hospitality Management Consulting Co, which runs the Sheraton Taipei Hotel, inked an agreement with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc yesterday on the licensing of its hotel brand, Le Meridien.V
“The new Le Meridien Taipei hotel is scheduled to launch operations in 2010, which will make My Humble House the only company in Taiwan to own two international hotel brands,” Sheraton Taipei Hotel chairman Thomas Tsai (蔡辰威) told a press conference.
Le Meridien Taipei will offer high-end rooms and main target foreign visitors. Prices will start at NT$10,000 (US$328.86) per night and the company is aiming for an occupancy rate of between 70 percent and 80 percent, Tsai said.
The 160-room Le Meridien Taipei will cost NT$1.2 billion and My Humble House expects to break even in the second year, Tsai said.
Tsai said he chose Le Meridien for Taiwan as the company had been cooperating with Starwood for a long time and he believed Le Meridien’s European style would differentiate it from competitors, adding that niche hotels have become a market trend.
Yesterday’s agreement came after My Humble House signed a deal with Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the nation’s No. 2 life insurer, last October to rent the five-star hotel that the insurance firm is building on the A12 lot in Taipei’s Xinyi District.
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