Just back from Taipei, where Mr. Megatop and I had a quick weekend getaway for American Labor Day. Weather was decent. Soup dumplings were great. Hotel was not.

Reservation
I booked us into a Deluxe King Bed room on a Bed & Breakfast Package directly on Regent's website. The rate was decent but not great: lower than comparables in Hong Kong, higher than comparables in Bangkok. The website had most of the information I was looking for regarding room size, hotel facilities, and so forth. It was a little hard to navigate at times, though, and there was no way to contact the hotel via email. Consequently, when I opted for a hotel car to handle the airport transfer upon arrival, I had to call the general 1-800 number for Regent hotels in the US. The operator handled the booking more or less efficiently and correctly quoted the price.

Arrival and room
Mr. Megatop arrived from Bangkok two hours before me. I arrived from Los Angeles and made it through arrivals formalities painlessly. I spotted Mr. Megatop in the arrivals hall easily. TPE has monitors so meeters'n'greeters can sit in a fairly spacious seating area and watch pax come through, standing up to meet them without crowding the entryway. ^ I had to go looking for the Regent fellow with the sign, but that was only because TPE didn't clearly mark which way to turn to find hotel drivers. The greeter was fine and quickly had the car brought round. The driver was silent, not a word. I'm guessing he spoke no English, but he didn't even say hello or try to address Mr. Megatop in Mandarin (as just about everyone else in Taipei did, since he's Chinese-heritage Thai and fits in just about everywhere). Only noteworth for the transfer was the lack of bottled water and cold or hot towels. At least the driver didn't scare the pants off us, as the taxi driver did on the way back.

Front desk check-in went well. We had been upgraded to a junior suite, which we genuinely appreciated. Bags came up promptly. No welcome tea or amenities, but the room did have fresh fruit. The room was decent-size for a standard room but a bit cozy for a suite, certainly on the junior side of junior. The lighting was poor. Things were just dim pretty much everywhere. The furnishings were slightly dated. The bed was quite stiff, as were the pillows, but that's a matter of personal preference. The other chairs and sofa were not particularly comfortable, though. There was no view to speak of-- just a decidedly unfashionable alley. The bathroom was good sized with a nice large soaking tub, a spacious shower stall, and a (very poorly lit) nook with a Japanese toilet worthy of the Space Shuttle. A tiny TV with wires hanging from the ceiling over the vanity definitely dated the room. The closet was good sized and had a safe large enough to hold Mr. Megatop's laptop. Western robes and Japanese yukatas (sp?) were provided, as were slippers. The we're-not-being-cheap-just-trying-to-save-the-planet-and-so-don't-plan-on-changing-beddings-or-towels card on the bed was totally classless. The towels and bedding weren't very nice, either.

Public areas and services
This was the hotel's big , which really spoiled everything. The building needed a refresh, which it is currently getting. The entrance drive was quite like the old Regent Hong Kong, with the exact same water fountain. The building itself had a different design, but this weekend it sported lots of scaffolding and lots of literally boarded-over windows. Very ugly. It looked like a construction project on the outside. The rooftop pool was just so-so, with a high fence that obscured most of the view (the point of having a rooftop pool, of course). The men's locker room could only be reached by walking outside into the pool area then back downstairs. Once there, it was tiny. An airplane lavaotory feels spacious in comparison. No steam or sauna.

The fitness center was being renovated. This was a huge point for me. I adhere to a fairly strict workout routine and I keep to it while on holiday. I intended that Taipei would be no exception. I noted the "fully equipped fitness center" information on the website before booking and checked out the photos. I checked the website just days ago (to make the airport transfer booking) and found no warning of the extensive renovations or the closed fitness center. In subsitute, they had converted a junior suite on a low floor (the rest of the floor was boarded up) into a "running studio," with a few treadmills, two ellipticals (of the sort I hate), and two bikes. No weights. Very dark, just like our room. On the first morning, I asked about "alternatives" to the "running studio" given the closure of the fitness center, and I specifically raised the possibility of day passes to the California Fitness outlet that we passed a few blocks away while riding in from the airport. The duty manager promised to look into it and asked me how many days I intended to work out (all three, I told him). After breakfast, a message was under our door reporting that "no alternatives" were available. A quick call to the concierge revealed that day passes to California Fitness could indeed be had for NT$500 (<$15). So, either the duty manager was ignorant despite my specific suggestion or he was lying (undoubtedly because he feared having to suck up the NT$500 per day, which I hadn't even asked for yet-- I just wanted to know about alternatives). In either case, totally unacceptable.

Service at the Brasserie breakfast area was no better. I didn't like the layout of the space and the quality of the food was just so-so. But I couldn't stand the little trays they had laid out for us, which made the place feel like a college Dining Hall. The table servers poured coffee directly from the industrial Bunn coffee pots--when they poured at all. No table cloths. Just fork and knife--stainless, not sterling. Napkins were paper, not linen. No water available on tables, only via the buffet. Servers had to be constantly beckoned, and even then didn't tend to obvious needs such as filling Mr. Megatop's empty coffee cup at the same time as mine. Dirty plates were not promptly removed, and often remained on the table for quite some time. The tables were also a funny height, too high. Signing in on paper checks at the register at the front was especially tacky-- as opposed to simply reporting the room number or signing a check presented at the table.

The concierges were vaguely acceptable. But on several ocassions incorrectly specified which official "Section" of a street a restaurant was located on. Obvious things had to be looked up, such as the cost of a day pass to the MRT. Recommendations on restaurants were not particularly good. Now that I think about it, actually, the concierges really weren't good at all. They were friendly and made an effort, though.

I detailed my issues in a lengthy letter to the general manager upon check-out. We'll see if and how he responds.

Bottom line: stay someplace else.