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www.travelweekly-asia.com | 19 HOSPITALITY DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY PAYS OFF FOR TAIPEI INN By Yeoh Siew Hoon Like Warren Buffet, Jimmy Dai believed that if everyone was going one way, he would go the other. And so 10 years ago, when he thought of building a hotel in Taipei, he went against the trend and built the city's first design boutique hotel. "At that time, the hotel industry in Taiwan was into four and five star hotels," said George Dai, the son who's now running the Taipei Inn Group. "My father always believed in thinking differently – when the trend goes this way, do the opposite," he says. And so he developed Ambience and made it an all-white hotel. "This was a no-no in Taiwan. In Chinese culture, white is not considered auspicious. We chose white because white is clean," said George, who studied in Australia and returned seven years ago to help dad run the business, The hotel's difference made a statement and it received rave reviews from the media, both local and international. "A lot of fashion brands liked working with us," said George. The hotel became the address for product launches and lifestyle events. In the lobby is a gallery displaying works by Taiwanese artists, a positioning that has come to be identified with the Taipei Inn Group. Seven years ago, encouraged by the success of Ambience, Jimmy Dai, sensing a market opportunity in the growing middle class, decided to get into the budget segment and built the first City Inn. About the time George, who was working as a personal trainer on Australia's Gold Coast after finishing university, decided to return to Taipei. He continued as a personal trainer in Taipei for a while. "My dad didn't want me to join the company, his thinking was, 'you never want to see your son fail in the same company'. I wanted to prove to him that I could do it and so I got a job in another hotel, working in front desk for six months. "It was when he decided to start the City Inn brand that he thought he could find some use for me." Today, the Taipei Inn Group has five City Inns and is about to open the sixth in Taichung. "Dad is not so heavily involved now, we have a CEO Thomas Ho and I handle the marketing, construction and development. I play a personal role in the design of the hotel." Inspired by his father's philosophy – to be different – George's idea for City Inn was to have the rooms designed by different artists. Each City Inn is thus different. "I like to do different things, try different styles." The group also has the Dandy Hotel – three in Taipei – and Hotel 73. Each hotel carries a different design, all have attitude. Dandy for example uses a lot of wood and natural colours. Its hotels have managed to attract a good share of international guests, comprising up to 70% of guest mix for City Inn. And all run healthy occupancies and pretty healthy average rates. George acknowledges it is harder to scale the group due to the individual design of each hotel but he wants to stay true to its vision. "Each time we add a new hotel, I ask the question, how can I improve the quality? How can I use new stuff? We want to keep our differentiation." Among TripAdvisor's top 10 hotels in Taipei, at the time of the interview, seven of Taipei Inn Group's hotels were in that list. "The most simple and powerful marketing strategy is word of mouth. We have not spent one cent on advertising. For people to realise how special your hotel is, you have to make your hotel special." George Dai: "A lot of fashion brands like working with us".