Good if travel light, housekeeping need to be improved, customer service lady is extremely helpful
2017-03-14
When I first get off the cab, first impression of this hotel is new and clean. There's a signage requesting for 5 stars at tripadvisor to get a small souvenir from the hotel. 4.5 will be the actual score i give to the hotel without any souvenir so the rating is still pretty high. The lift is located a few flight of stairs up from the hotel lobby. They have this small narrow wooden 'slope box' where u can drag your luggage up along this steep slope box to get up to the escalator. not a easy feat if u r dragging a medium size and bigger luggage. Once in the hotel room, it looks much more spacious than taipei 3 stars hotel. However, i wondered if the hotel room is new as i noticed few spots of tea stains on the table and hairs here n there on toilet basin and even bed. Then i was told to see if the folds on the bedsheet is there to indicate freshly changed bedsheet. The hotel ladies have too many rooms to handle and thus has some oversight liked this. Not easy feat to clean up so many hotel rooms with that limited time and manpower. The hotel is just behind the old street? of local foods. There's a lot of motorcycles around the area and as the stalls are located quite outside, u have motorcyclists driving right to you because they want to park their vehicles or they just want to buy things along the street. Didnt managed to visit FengJia market as we were unwell. Went to yi zhong street by bus. Not bad but its seem to be the usual thing of bubble tea, braised meat, smelly tofu etc. Forgot to mention that we navigate a lot in Taichung using local buses. Didnt know that its a wise decision to get our yoyo card at Taoyuan airport. Its free to take buses at Taichung as long as your trip is within certain km. We took a 20mins ride bus journey n i think its free too. We first started to take bus because the hotel reception , a young lady helped us with the bus numbers and where to take the bus. She even printed the map and passed to us. 6stars services! Even a 5 stars hotel at Taipei (stayed at Palais de Chine) didnt do that! The other staff are also helpful when i asked them on day trips/ what's nice to eat nearby etc. Those who didnt engage any drivers at taichung and would like to go for a day trip can check with them to see what they offer. I cannot remember if they have options to share cab etc with other hotel guests. We didnt take up the offer as its not cost effective for 2paxes. We are not interested in rainbow village. Neither are we interested in the swamp area as we think its impossible to see the sunset with the cloudy weather. Instead, we just navigate around the hotel, take buses to eat steamboat, shopping centers etc. Need to walk quite a distance from the hotel to the bus stop (10mins walk or so) and it helps with hp navigation. Once u r familiar with the bus stops, its easy to take bus to n fro the hotel to nearby areas. Before the trip to taichung, i have been following taiwan news and know how notorious their cab drivers are. Remember to always ask them to on the meter. Those awaiting at the train station is okay. They go by the meter. Its those that u take at those rural area liked ShinShe? that you have to take note of. Even while i asked the driver how much and to on the meter, he refused to answer my question, trying to change the topic. Only after a while did he mentioned 200TWD when it could have been just 100TWD as its a < 10mins car ride away. I think i should have stayed 3days at taichung instead because it seem cheaper to shop at taichung. Didnt manage to buy made in tw shoes at taichung. The prices are much higher in ximending. It's also difficult to find clean toilets in taichung (except shopping malls). If one liked to try the foods behind the hotel, then its gd to stay here. Afterall the hotel is new and room is clean. Maybe the next time i visit taichung, i will look for hotels located near the steamboat district so i can eat for 2 days straight... or i might just stay at Transinn. Hotel is abt 10mins ride? by cab from the taichung train station. Further from the HSR though.