The Four Points by Sheraton Hotel (福朋喜來登酒店) in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和) on Sunday officially changed its name to the RSL Taipei Jhonghe Hotel (瓏山林台北中和大飯店).
The move came after the hotel terminated its contract with Marriott International in protest over the US group caving in to Chinese pressure to refer to Taiwan as part of China.
Marriott International last month was found to have changed the hotel’s location to “Taiwan, China” on the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) reservation system, sparking a protest from the hotel.
Photo: Chu Shu-yu, Taipei Times
Hotel management in a letter informed Marriott International of its intention to rescind their contract and has launched the procedure to do so, general manager Chu Shao-han (朱少菡) said yesterday.
The hotel stopped receiving bookings through the SPG system in the middle of last month, but guests who had reserved their rooms before would not be affected, she said, adding that guests can book rooms by telephone.
The hotel also took down its Web site and would soon launch a new one, Chu added.
It has informed local booking agents to update its name, she said, but added that correcting its name on foreign Web sites would take time.
Most of the hotel’s signs, consumables and staff uniforms have been renewed, and new printed materials have been ordered, she said.
The hotel would also change the billboard at its parking lot later this week and has arranged for workers to change another one on the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3), Chu added.
Management responded to the issue in the shortest time possible and the hotel would donate next month’s revenue to groups promoting public welfare to follow its founder’s idea of “caring for this land,” she added.
The hotel belongs to RSL Corp, which was founded by Rong San Lin (林榮三), who also founded the Liberty Times Group and passed away in 2015.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
RSS