Hotels across Hong Kong are enjoying high occupancy rates in the weeks leading up to the holiday season, and are unveiling new services for business groups in the process.

Style star
Owned by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the new Hotel Icon offers a five-star hotel experience while also providing hospitality students a chance to hone their skills in a real-life working environment. Much emphasis was placed on the design concept, having enlisted the expertise of renowned designers and architects from Hong Kong such as Rocco Yim, as well as British interior designer Terence Conran. The 262-room property has a pillarless ‘Silver Box’ ballroom in hues of purple and silver that can fit 420 people banquet style, as well as a conference room that can seat 680.

Above & Beyond, its Chinese fine dining restaurant on the 28th floor, has three spacious private dining rooms. One has a 270-degree view of the harbour and its own industrial-grade kitchen for private cooking events. The room can fit three round tables of 10 people each or 20 people classroom style. There is another private dining room featuring a dynamic décor in tones of fuchsia and dark brown, with a separate lounge area and a long table that can also be used for meetings of up to 12 people. All of the rooms at Hotel Icon come with free minibar, Nespresso machines, an iPod docking system and FX Cloud printer. The hotel will also open the Vivienne Tam suite later this year – its version of the presidential suite that was designed by the famed fashion designer herself.

Power break
Le Meridien Cyberport has launched a series of themed coffee breaks inspired by the hotel group’s signature breakfast buffet that was designed by celebrity chef Jean Georges Vongerichten. There are five themes to choose from - Vinegar, Chocolate, Spicy, Salt and Sugar. Each theme has combination of savoury and sweet items to choose from – such as cherry tomatoes with rose and balsamic maltose dip from the Sugar menu, while the Vinegar menu includes balsamic vinegar and chocolate mousse tartlets. The hotel has introduced other themed coffee breaks that are just as creative. The ‘Stay Cool’ theme serves up delicacies such as vegetarian spring rolls on trays atop dry ice, while the ‘An Apple a Day’ theme includes green apple mouse cake and warm apple juice with cinnamon.

Hyatt Regency Hong Kong in Tsim Sha Tsui (pictured top) has a fun take on the standing buffet lunch, whereby it spans over several small meeting rooms, with one room for the salads, another for the hot dishes and so forth. The set-up adds an element to surprise to the lunch and allow delegates to mingle.

JW Marriott Hong Kong has a new half-day or full-day meeting package at US$114 and $131 per person, which includes use of the meeting room, podium and flip chart, along with stationery items, mints and mineral water. It includes coffee breaks and a lunch, and organisers can choose to have it at any of the property’s F&B outlets – such as the Michelin-starred Man Ho Chinese restaurant, where there is an outside area that can fit up to 40 people. The hotel will unveil a new deli in December and has plans to renovate its popular Fish Bar seafood restaurant in February 2012. In addition, the property now offers free Internet for its guests.

Fresh look
Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View has just finished the second phase of its property-wide renovation that started in 2010. Most of its 825 rooms have now been upgraded – in keeping with the hotel group’s new brand image as a lifestyle hotel. The rooms that have been renovated during the second phase feature a sleek and clean design – with wood panelled floors, coffee table books on Hong Kong, flatscreen televisions and rainforest showers. All of its meeting facilities have also been renovated. The Concord Room is the largest venue and can now be coupled with the Oasis room to create a even bigger space. The Concord Room can hold 700 people reception style or 408 for a banquet. When joined with the Oasis room, the entire space can fit up to 950 people for cocktails, with the sky roof at the Oasis room adding a different ambiance to the event.