Stunning artwork doesn’t have to be expensive, as Cary Gray, general manager of W Taipei in Taiwan, knows well.
The 405-room hotel opened February 2011 but he came onboard December 2009. “This gave time to work with art consultant James Robertson and interior designer GA International,” said the Hawaii-born veteran hotelier who has been with Starwood since 1980. “I personally thought the idea of displaying traditional cooking utensils would be different, and help promote the hotel.”
Displays of noodle spoons, soup ladles and pastry cutters, chosen by James Robertson and made specially in Taiwan, certainly create conversation. “They probably do not help with breakfast take-up, which is currently around 80% of in-house guests,” he admitted.
Both lunch and dinner take-up is 85% non-residents as hotel guests are tempted by the many local restaurants near the hotel (only 20% of hotel guests, who typically stay 2.6 nights, dine in, even though 35% of guests are travelling alone).
The hotel’s all-day, 220-seat The Kitchen Table, on the 10th floor, provides a visual feast not only of the interior wall art but also the outside across the 80-foot terrace pool and beautiful flowering frangipane trees. The pool area is partly shielded by a 10-foot high living wall of vertical plants, and at night there is a flaming firewall.
“Giving a different environment differentiates us from the competition,” Gray said. “Look at our first floor lobby, a giant cavern of recycled wood, with day-glo lights set into the floor. It does not matter how old you are. This place makes you smile.”
The ambience of the hotel not only attracts 27% repeat business, but one-off mega events. It does about 300 weddings a year for up to a thousand guests. “So far none of the noodle spoons have been purloined for wedding presents,” Gray joked.