Renaissance Taipei Shihlin Hotel (台北士林萬麗酒店) yesterday said it expects a rebound in room and restaurant sales in the second half of the year, but business might not return to pre-pandemic levels due to lingering border controls, officials said yesterday.
Like other international hotels, the city resort, located across from popular tourist attraction Shilin Residence (士林官邸), saw occupancy rates fall below 20 percent during the COVID-19 outbreak from February to April, food and beverage director Jerry Cheng (政佳睿) said.
Things started to improve in May, when the hotel had full occupancy over Mother’s Day weekend and the Dragon Boat Festival, and it might gather more momentum after authorities in early last month eased social distancing requirements, the hotel said.
Starting yesterday, the property of 104 guest rooms made its buffet restaurant Shihlin Kitchen (士林廚房) serve semi-buffet meals that feature wagyu beef, lobsters, Chinese roast duck and other expensive dishes, alongside salads and dessert bars at NT$1,280 per person, Cheng said.
The adjustment is intended to set the restaurant apart from buffet facilities at Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店) and Le Meridien Taipei (台北寒舍艾美酒店), he said.
It also aims to cater to growing customer demand for healthy dishes, and woo young and fashion-savvy customers, Cheng said.
“Affluent diners assign more importance to quality than quantity of food,” Cheng said.
Similarly, while peers have adopted cutthroat discounts to lure guests, Renaissance Shihlin has held room rates at about NT$5,000 per night, from about NT$6,000 to NT$8,000 last year, for fear that deeper cuts would compromise service quality and guests would not accept upward adjustments later, Cheng said.
The hotel is seeking to attract domestic travelers, but its business would have difficulty recovering to pre-pandemic levels in the absence of foreign tourists, hotel officials said.
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