While hotel and convention centre guests can rely on hardly noticed, but comfortable, rides to their rooms and floors, it is a different story back of house, where the giants of the elevator industry do the heavy lifting.
When it comes to the technical weigh-in, there are a number of contenders for the title of Asia champion heavy lifter, although it is the big manufacturers, such as Otis and Schindler, which tend to pack the most recognisable punches.
Suppliers
Schindler, for example, supplies some of the biggest hotel and convention centres in the region, including the Venetian Macao, which has 116 Schindler escalators and customer and freight elevators.
Otis is about to supply and maintain 26 lifts and escalators for the new 270,000 sqm Dongguan Huijing Hilton Hotel, which will be the largest Hilton hotel in Asia when it opens next year
China
Freight lifts are essential to hotels, maintaining vital supplies and serving ballrooms, especially where the properties have exhibition space or are attached to convention centres.
Langham Place, Guangzhou is a case in point. The hotel, which is connected to the Nan Fung International Convention and Exhibition Centre, has two 4.5 tonne capacity car lifts, one at each end of its Great Hall. Auto brands that have used the facility include Bentley, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.
“Once the hotel decided to share the public area of the Nan Fung International Convention and Exhibition Centre… the need for car lifts became imperative,” says May Kwok, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing.
The Ritz-Carlton, Tianjin and the Beijing Kempinski Lufthansa Centre are further examples of hotels that regularly hold car-related events and have lifts big enough to accommodate the vehicles.
At the Ritz-Carlton, Tianjin, there’s ample space in the second-level ballroom for a Rolls-Royce Phantom and events have been held there for BMW and Hyundai. But wedding couples make the most glamorous passengers of the freight lift when they are chauffeured into the ballroom.
At Beijing Kempinski Lufthansa Centre, the ballroom lift is more of a hydraulic platform attached to the hotel, but it’s nonetheless a godsend for some clients. “During auction season, we have a company that occupies the whole 1,333 sqm ballroom and large foyer area,” says Jane Hu, director of groups and events. “We also make it possible for event organisers to display cars in the ballroom for launch events. In 2015 we worked with BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover, Iveco and Maserati.”
Bangkok
For new hotels with grand event ambitions, freight elevators are high on the planning agenda. When the 26-storey Avani Riverside Bangkok Hotel is fully open in April, it will sport a car lift serving its 10th-floor 4,500 sqm ballroom, with a loading weight of up to 3 tonnes. “This facility provides a very convenient and safe means of transporting equipment and props to the meeting spaces for events,” says general manager Christian Hoechtl.
Australia
Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre also uses its two freight lifts mainly for the delivery of supplies, although communications executive Cristina Matisan says it is used for display purposes from time to time.
“On one occasion we used a flexible space located next to the main kitchen freight elevator to manoeuvre a car up to our first floor,” she says. “The area has a roll door that opens up and looks down onto the loading dock. A special forklift capable of lifting a 2 tonne vehicle was used along with a boom arm to hoist the car up into the space. The car was then driven into a foyer area on level one as part of an exhibition/trade show feature.”
And when ICC Sydney opens in December, two freight elevators will serve its fifth-level Grand Ballroom, one of which will have a capacity of 6 tonnes.
Malaysia
Although they are mostly utility items pure and simple, freight lifts are occasionally called upon to perform unusual and interesting tasks, with the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC)’s three elevators, for example, doubling as unlikely luxury transport.
“In addition to regular day-to-day use, the elevators have been used to transport VIP guests – from heads of state to pop stars – to ensure their privacy and safety while attending events at the venue,” says director of facilities Chen Soo Yoong. “During these times, they are dressed up with carpets, curtains and chairs, to better accommodate the VIPs.”
And he says the lifts are also sometimes used by KLCC’s nearby aquarium and animal centre to transport its guests – including tortoises and iguanas – to the rooftop so they can bask in the sun they need. A high calling indeed.
Keep on truckin’
Hotels may take pride in fitting cars into elevators, but few match the lifting prowess at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The centre has eight freight and two container elevators capable of carrying up to 7 tonnes and 45 tonnes respectively. “The container lifts accommodate 40-feet [12m] long container trucks and reach directly into some of the exhibition halls,” says HKCEC communications manager Gloria Fong.
