The room itself was actually quite nice and spacious, and overall I thought it was good value for money. The room was comfortable, and having a balcony was a nice addition, although the locking mechanism for the balcony door was rather confusing and not very intuitive.
That said, there were quite a few small things that added up and made the overall experience much less pleasant than it could have been.
Check-in is at 4:00 PM, which is already unusually late by hotel standards. I arrived at around 3:50 PM and attempted to use the self-check-in kiosk, only to be told that check-in was not available until 4:00 PM. Of course, I understand that the official check-in time was 4:00 PM and that early check-in is never guaranteed, but being unable to accommodate a guest even 10 minutes beforehand—particularly with an already very late 4:00 PM check-in time—felt unnecessarily rigid. It gave the arrival experience more of an Airbnb-style feel than the hospitality I would expect from a hotel.
The hotel also shows its age in certain areas. The elevators in particular felt somewhat dated and wonky compared with the rooms themselves. The location in Neihu is also not particularly exciting, with relatively little immediately around the hotel, although this is obviously a matter of location rather than something the hotel can control.
Most surprisingly, there was no hand soap or hand wash whatsoever at the washbasin. I asked the front desk about this several times because I initially thought something had simply been forgotten in my room. Instead, I was explicitly told that if I wanted hand wash, I would have to 自備—bring/provide my own.
I completely understand Taiwan’s move away from disposable, single-use hotel amenities and have no issue with that. However, hand soap does not need to come in disposable packaging. A refillable hand-wash dispenser beside the washbasin would solve the issue without generating disposable waste. There was body wash in the shower, but expecting guests to walk over to the shower dispenser every time they need to wash their hands at the sink is a very strange setup for a hotel. Being told that guests should simply provide their own hand wash was particularly surprising.
The Wi-Fi was another major disappointment. The connection in my room was extremely poor. When I raised the issue on the first night, I was actually told to try connecting to the Wi-Fi network of the room next door if mine wasn’t working properly. I found this to be a very odd non-solution. Why should a paying guest need to rely on the Wi-Fi access point intended for another room—and potentially share an already limited connection with another guest—because the connection provided for their own room does not work properly?
When I raised the poor connection again, I was essentially told that this was simply the speed of the internet. There seemed to be very little effort to actually troubleshoot the problem or provide a proper solution.
I was also disappointed with one of my interactions at the front desk. When I approached the desk, the staff member simply looked at me for several seconds without greeting me or asking how she could assist. I won’t speculate about her intent, but the interaction came across as distinctly unwelcoming. For someone working at the front desk of a hotel, I would at least expect a basic greeting or an offer of assistance when a guest approaches.
It’s unfortunate because the room itself is genuinely one of the stronger aspects of the hotel. It was spacious and comfortable, and for the price I think the accommodation itself represents pretty good value. However, the rigid arrival experience, lack of something as basic as hand wash, unreliable Wi-Fi and inadequate response to it, and generally unhelpful handling of relatively simple guest concerns significantly brought down what otherwise could have been a very good stay.
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