Set to open right at the end of the year, on December 28, the W Taipei is one new hotel creating a lot of buzz in the industry as well as in Taipei – the 405-room property will be the first major branded hotel to open in the Taiwanese city in 11 years as well as W Hotels fourth property in Asia. Overseeing the pre-opening preparations is Cary Michael Gray, general manager W Taipei. A Starwood veteran who has held management positions across the Asia Pacific region, Gray also has a strong sense of design, having detoured briefly from hotel management to study architecture in New York.

How are preparations going for the opening of the W Taipei?
Taipei is an exciting and wonderful place. It’s almost like a secret of Asia. It’s been one of the economic tigers for a long time but seems to have taken a back seat to the fabulous growth in China. It’s sort of a combination between China, Japan and the U.S. There is a more sophisticated level of thinking than in many other places in Asia. There is the organisation and planning that Japan is so good at and then the wonderful hope that the U.S has had for so long. It’s a really wonderful place to live and do business.

What challenges have there been so far?
The biggest issue that we have in any hotel but particularly in a W is to deliver the W experience and that happens through the people. We call all the staff talent and so finding suitable talent to deliver on the W experience is really an opportunity that we see and we’ve been working very hard to get the right people in. It’s probably the most rewarding aspect of opening a hotel and a priority that we have so in going through the process we try to screen people for those that really want W.

What are the key features of the W Taipei from a design perspective?
The location relative to proximate tall buildings gives us the opportunity for spectacular views that up until now were available only in Taipei 101. With that opportunity, the design was to build an exterior glassed building where the guest rooms have floor-to-ceiling glazing to make sure they capture the maximum view.
The architect Tadashi Yamane came here and put together an exterior and space planning that shows the idea of interlocking pieces and the idea of design as something where you have on the one side nature and on the other all of the technology that people are used to having.

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