JONEZY00

Thanks for the recent report! We are arriving on Wednesday on an awards stay and will also report in.

Cheers!

JONEZY00

Sitting at the departure lounge at TPE thought I would pass along some quick updates.

As background this was a 5 day award stay.

Checkin was flawless was met at the door and escorted up to the room. Rooms are spacious and the bathroom especially was large.

As stated by others the Exec lounge is not open until late morning so you take breakfast at the lobby restaurant. Breakfast was good and varied.

Exec happy hour from 5:30 to 7:30 with a nice spread and great desserts. After happy hour they still serve beer and wine (and possibly mixed drinks but we didn't try)

Lobby bar was nice but the food was ok. Some dished good others so so.

The staff was amazing know my name after day 1 and were intent on making sure everything was taken care of.

We took the car service from the airport which was spendy (NTD$ 2800) but was nice to be greeted after 24 hours of flying.

Cab to the airport was NTD$ 1,300 flat rate

Location is away form DT but the MRT was 10 minutes away and there was a mall 5 minutes away with a large food court.

All in all a great property.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

ozstamps

Thinking of staying 3 nights over New Year on our own dime, and the rates are quite insane sadly, unless there are some promo codes or something I am not aware of - if anyone can assist, love to hear by email or a direct contact at Hotel!

Seems like no points redemptions happening over New Year either sadly.

We are traveling around the island for a week and our company demands I book something "Central Taipei" - whatever that means or we would not get picked up or dropped off.

Courtyard seemed a little out of downtown so maybe they'll nix that, but this Marriott seems fairly central to me?

As a sidebar, was rather surprised to see zero Hiltons in Taiwan - anyone know why that is? Seemed strange.

Thanks in advance, Glen

SkiAdcock

Well you are trying to book relatively late for around a major holiday, which may explain why rates are high & no award availability.

The only thing I can think of is to split up your night reservations into individual nights & then, when you check-in, have them merge them so you don't have to change rooms/check in & out each night. I just did some dummy bookings & found rates less expensive that way.

I also checked SPG properties & they were higher than MAR.

Will send you an email so as not to crowd this thread w/ a bunch of individual dates/rates.

Cheers.

Hadrian35

Completed a 8 night stay end of November into December. I stayed at the Hilton in KL and Conrad in Singapore, both as Diamond and this property as a Gold was hands down the best stay.

It was a very early checkin, I arrived around 8am. They apologized that the room wasn't ready, informed me that the housekeeping would be in around 9 and it would be ready shortly after. Booked a twin/king couldn't get a guaranteed king which was strange but they delivered a king (i thought it was bigger than a king bed??) and upgraded from mid to high floor.

It was suggested that I breakfast while I was waiting. (Bags were taken and installed before I got to the room). I went to the restaurant and when asked for my room #, I explained I didn't have one yet, gave my name and told them the room was to be on the executive floor and I was never bothered again.

No breakfast in the lounge but fare was good down in the restaurant, varied selection and well maintained. 10 mins before close, I noted that the fruit was being fully restocked. Little slow on the coffee refills and there was only self service on the weekends, not a huge problem, breakfast was always great.

The room was great, awesome view of 101, huge bathroom. The amenities provided are "Thann Aromatic Wood" a woody, citrus smell and I absolutely love them. In contrast the Hilton KL provided the same cheap garbage they give you at HGI in the US.

The hosts in the executive lounge are a delight I gave my room number a couple times to new faces and that was the end of it, their memories are good and the lounge got busy but didn't get packed. Hosts are smiles and warm conversations, very personable. They are prompt to refill glasses at happy hour and a touch that I thought was very welcoming was the fact that most times when I left the lounge at any hour and they weren't busy with other guests, they wished me good afternoon/evening as they escorted me to the elevator and asked about my day made recommendations for plans and so forth.... honestly, the lounge staff reeally blew me away. They made the stay at a very excellent property. Once in an off hour, the lone attendant was busy with another guest an I made my own tea (the horror!) the guy came over and apologized and said that he would have made it for me...please don't mention it but it was really nice he was aware that I was there and offering to wait on me!

Fitness facility is adequate, clean, well maintained. Sauna is a dry sauna, clean and maintained like everything else here. Locker facilities were great. I only used the pool once as it was very windy in the evenings but it was nice.

One thing I thought was strange was that I left the DND on till around 9 or so a couple mornings and received the note under the door about how they were unable to clean my room. This even tho housekeeping is going into the afternoon. I don't know if they would have circled back but I let the desk know I was gone for the day so they could go ahead and clean and it was done. I think they learned my lazy holiday habits and just cleaned a little later in the morning after a couple instances. I note they have a housekeeping captain going in and double checking things, nothing was ever a miss with housekeeping.


Side review about getting around the city.
I should tell you that this was my first visit to Taiwan, and besides the great hotel the fantastic public transit really got me loving the city (along with food, culture and courtesy). MRT station as mentioned was a few blocks away. Uber is cheap but this is really the way to get around Taipei. Passes are cheap and it's easy to figure out. I was thrilled to see the attention to detail to keeping things clean; cleaners wiping down signage and washing the hand rails on the escalators. Bathrooms are everywhere and it's well ordered. It's quiet and clean even when packed and I was glad to hear from locals how proud they are of their transit, everyone cooperates to keep things well maintained and efficient. ^^^

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the detailed report. Much appreciated.

FWIW - I like the notes under the door saying we saw your DND, decided not to disturb, but give us a call when you want us to clean. Beats continually banging on the door.

Cheers.

Hadrian35

Imo it beat the shock of leaving before 10am and returning to an untidy room! At least the communication was clear and I could request the service.

bennos

If you like the Marriott Thann toiletries, you should try the real product instead of the bulk Chinese made product.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...-marriott.html

Ironically, Marriott sells the real product in their store.

mjcewl1284

Other FTers may know better than me but there used to be a Hilton Taipei near the rail station which is now called Taipei Caesar Park Hotel. As is the case with many hotels in Taiwan, many international hotel brands collaborate with local construction companies or management companies and it ends up being a joint venture, so to speak. It might be called "Taipei Marriott" but usually is managed by another company (This is just for example. In reality, I believe the Taipei Marriott is owned and managed by Marriott).
The Four Points in Taipei is a prime example, they are not owned and managed by Sheraton, but by a local Taiwanese management company.

I believe the Hilton pulled out of Taipei after the financial downturn in the late 90s and never returned (There isn't a Hilton in Hong Kong for that matter either, I believe only an HGI and Conrad exists in Hong Kong.)

banffflyr

Just completed a one night award stay in late January and won't repeat what Hadrian35 said as we had the same great experience. Came into TPE on a red eye and arrived at the hotel (via a private car booked using Klook) around 9am. Had emailed hotel in advance re early arrival and our room was all ready for us. Service levels from staff was fantastic and comparable to Conrad Bangkok which we'd just finished staying at. Subway and High Speed Rail available right under hotel at Nangang station. We used High Speed Rail / Bus transfer to get to the airport in the morning just to try something different. Amazed that this is just a Cat 5 property.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

alc

You stay at the Courtyard or Marriott as it is Courtyard that is above the Nangang station and Cat 5.

Here is the thread for the courtyard:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...er-2015-a.html

SkiAdcock

I think he meant CY, as it's a Cat 5 & Marriott is Cat 6.

Cheers.

unitedhandcuffs

I really like the Taipei Marriott hotel, easily my favorite business hotel in Taiwan and I've been in search for a good one for years. Great service in the exec lounge.