allstar_yvr

Agree. Taipei is severely lacking in luxury hotels; however, with no direct competition I find the rates at the MO to be in the stratosphere. I'm just going to miss the opening by a few weeks, but look forward to reading others reviews.

chinmoylad

Agreed. For such a large city, there is a dearth of luxury hotels. To be honest I'm surprised Pen hasn't opened up there considering they've done BKK, Manila, Shanghai, Beijing. Seems like the next logical step?

There seem to be a couple of interesting hot-spring retreat options* in the mountains near Taipei though...but I suppose if you want to explore the city, that's not an ideal base camp.

*Has anyone tried Villa 32 in Taipei?

Five Star Traveller

Mandarin Oriental has opened. Looking forward to staying here this summer.

taipeipeter

Well, it will be interesting to see how the MO does. Without the 3rd night free offer, base rooms are significantly more expensive than MO's in Singapore and even Tokyo. Management is apparently expecting about 50% of guests to come from the Mainland.

5khours

Got a room booked at the MO for this Friday. I'll report.

Bear4Asian

I stayed at both the Okura and the Regent hotels last summer. And I found them both quit luxurious, especially the Okura. Had a corner room with floor to ceiling windows on both corners overlooking a park.

lcpteck

Yeah, richest people in the world are from the mainland.

grumbler

I'll try the MO next time, but at the moment, I prefer the Meridien of the options there.

instyleprincess

I'm staying with MO TPE next Monday. I sent the concierge an e-mail last Wed to inquire some local info and if they can book a concert ticket for me, and so far I have not received any reply
Actually when I called them up last week to ask for concierge's e-mail, it took the concierge a minute to "remember" their e-mail address.

Aventine

Hope you will put up a trip report though.

brettbutzer

hi..


Hyatt is in the best place but it's not a resort that I'd suggest, but indeed excellent for company and shopping and the third vote for hyatt

I like Sherwood, Landis is just too far out from the town middle, or you can try Les Suites...

HKTraveler

Was just in Taipei last weekend and stayed at the Okura Prestige. Decent sized room with views of planes landing and taking off from the Songshan Airport but not a view of the airport itself. Good service and close to train station. Not close to Sinyi district though and pick W or Le Meridien if you want to be close to those locations.

gengar

My observation is that in Taipei there are tons of small, midrange 3-4* hotels scattered across the city that represent excellent value. These properties are more than satisfactory for business travelers and also draw in visitors who have a specific destination (e.g., close to family that they're visiting) or want to be right on top of public transportation. I've stayed in 800sqft+ suites for just over US$200/night and while no one will mistake it for 5* accommodations, this makes luxury a really tough proposition especially when the MO is not a very impressive-looking property.

As far as the hot springs hotels in Xinbeitou, all the ones I looked at appear to be scaled-down if not lousy versions of Japanese chains while still trying to charge what those chains charge in Japan.

wantan

Trying to decide between

SPG : W, Le Meridien, Westin and Sheraton
MO (Anniversary Sale, 1 night free) , ShangriLa or Grand Hyatt

I only have SPG Gold and no status with the rest. Arriving for holiday in Dec , which would be a good place to try ? Hoping for good connection to public transport which I understand MO is quite isolated ?

grumbler

W or Meridien.