Thanks for the updates & I'll add the property to the exec lounge sticky.

Cheers.

Quick one night stay a few weeks ago. Room wasn't ready at checkin so the bellhop took my bags and the bags were already waiting in my room when I returned later that night. Welcome gift was a selection of sweets from the bakery downstairs as well as a bowl of fruit.

Room was as described in the earlier reviews (well furnished, but with temperature control issues).

It was a little tricky to get to the gym if you're staying in the upper floors as you'll have to change elevators, walk down a hall to a new set of elevators, and go down a couple more floors. If using the treadmill, the default language is Chinese. Press the Taiwanese flag in the upper right corner of the screen to change the language.

As others have also said, it's nice to have a Category 5 hotel in Taipei, albeit at about 15-20 minutes from the city.

So this is the nicest Courtyard I've stayed at. Design of the building is classic Japanese, in the sense it is right above the train station, and all the architecture is very square. Lobby is very elegant.

Got a suite upgrade for my 1-night stay on award, room was ready when I checked in around 1pm. They asked if I wanted the late check-out (4pm guaranteed for platinum) but I declined.

Very nice, huge bathroom and has separate bathtub from shower. Also has another toilet in the living room area, next to the front door.

I had a very similar experience: Platinum staying for 2 days (extended to 3 due to hurricane...) last week staying here as it was close to my client.

Upgrade to suite with 1.5 baths, not a great view but overall a good space with a very large bathroom and bath and separate lounge area. This was a blessing considering I spent 2 days pretty much locked in the hotel.

Lounge (always a bonus for a Courtyard and pretty rare) had a good selection of free alcohol (local and international beer, plenty of ok wine), plus nibbles and a "rice chef" in the evening (you chose your own meat and veg for him to fry with a sauce). Breakfast was served in the hotel restaurant with an egg chef, steamed vegetables and then a good American selection (bacon, sausage, bakery items) plus some vegetarian Chinese curry type meals. Staff were also polite and friendly.

There was also an attached mall with a very good selection of restaurants (very much recommended if you want to eat nearby, in preference to the hotel)

However, to be clear it is still a Courtyard and having stayed at the Marriott across town it wasn't in the same league, though not too dissimilar. My "complaints" (being unfair as this is a Courtyard after all), but comparing to in general Marriott hotels as it really wasn't super cheap) were food related. Bearing in mind most of Taipei has great food: The hot lounge selection except for the rice chef was a bit basic and didn't change each day. There were two soups and some steamed vegetables. In addition the restaurant breakfast was missing dim sum and beans, which you'd normally see around Asia. In general the hotel is more tuned to an Asian palette. My room service meal was about the same Marriott pricing (i.e. expensive) but the menu wasn't really very large - more annoyingly it didn't appear to have any Taiwanese foods - more European and other classic Asian dishes (Singapore Noodles, Nasi Goreng).

If coming back to the city I'd still be tempted by the Marriott if it wasn't that much more expensive. Neither hotel has a great location for getting into town, suspect the Courtyard is actually better placed due to the high speed rail direct to Taipei station.

Marriott does lack a presence in Taiwan. SPG is actively building up lots of properties and it seems they are also better located. So I guess this will be a moot point in a year.

But I don't know about this "just being a Courtyard". I have never been in a Courtyard with a lobby where the ceiling is three stories up, with a bathtub so long you can lie in it, a shower enclosure so big you can do yoga there, double-sinks and a separate bathroom in the living room?
At least not in the US.

I enjoyed me reward stay at the Courtyard, and found it convenient for transportation: metro and train. Yes, it is not close to Taipei center.

Also upgraded to a suite, with 1.5 bath, etc.

Agree. A FT friend is going to be staying at this property & I went to its website to check out the lounge situation. After seeing the photos of the place (especially that lobby) I told him I thought he'd be pleasantly surprised. It's not your dad's old Buick, er, traditional CY :)

Cheers.

I checked out the lobby of both the Marriott and the CY a few weeks ago.

I know it is partially a matter of expectations. I was a lot more impressed by the CY than the Marriott. The lobby is a lot more grand than the Marriott.

If you take the Metro, the CY is actually more convenient as it sits on top of the Metro (and Regular Rail and the High Speed Rail). The Marriott is 3-4 blocks from the Metro. The CY location is less developed but give it a few years.

Neither is in the City Center like the Sheraton, Westin, W or Le Meridien, The Metro ride from the CY stop (Nangang) to the W/Le Meridien (City Hall) stop is 8 minutes and Sheraton (Shandao Temple) is 16 minutes.

The CY is operated by the same company as the Westin.

I've written a review in Chinese on another site, but would like to share my experience at CY Taipei here as well:

- Booked deluxe room for 2 nights. Checked that a suite was available for booking throughout. But as MR platinum, was eventually only upgraded to executive floor. Seems that SPG is still more generous in this aspect. There was quite a lot of complimentary snack and minibar items available in the executive room anyway.

- Lounge and restaurant are nicely decorated, and staff were friendly, however as some pointed out, food was mediocre for Taipei hotel standards.

- Before check-in, I found out from the CC statement that I was DCC’ed on a PREPAID rate :mad:. Took a day for them to confirm this. The duty manager was not too helpful at first, even suggesting that DCC on a prepaid rate is normal (which is ridiculous as customers would not be offered a choice of currency). When I demanded to cancel the DCC transaction, was told that it could only be carried out on the next working day and I had to pay in TWD at checkout first. Fortunately he backed off and offered a more reasonable solution which could recover my loss at the end. The hotel finally claimed that the DCC was a clerical error.

Given the nice hardware, the stay would have been pleasant if I didn't need to fight for the DCC problem to be fixed. I had hoped being a status member I would be better treated in terms of reaching a solution and also service recovery but I couldn't feel that.

Will also be staying here shortly as well, hence asking the same question as the CY in HK Sha Tin:

what amenities it come with?
anyone has the email address for the hotel?

Thanks

Staying here in March. Already spoke to the staff about an early upgrade. Looks similar to the Courtyard Seoul which I just stayed at and LOVED.

our flights (Party of 3) will be arriving around 10pm in the evening. Via Google Map show the options that are ~ 2 hours.

Other than Taxi, are there other options that will be door-to-door form Airport to the hotel?

Uber!

UberBlack would be more expensive than a Taxi. You can try UberX which is probably the same price as a Taxi I'm guessing.

You can take a look at the Airport limousine buses, see if there's any that stops near to this hotel and you can probably walk from there.

UberX is much cheaper than a taxi