oldtimer

My experience was peaked at 277 kilometers per hour, (about 172 miles per hour). It was a smooth ride.

ktjan

Just curious, as a plat member, if I book two rooms (one for myself and the other one for my two friends) at this property, can I bring both of them to the club lounge? Or can I only bring one guest?

Starwood Lurker

This is what it says in the Terms and Conditions (emphasis mine):

d. Access to the Club Level Lounge when staying at Sheraton hotels or access to the Executive Level Lounge when staying at Westin or Le Méridien hotels, even when not staying on the Club Level or Executive Level floor(s). At Sheraton properties, access to the Club Level Lounge does not mean access to the Towers Level Lounge, even if there is no Club Level Lounge in the hotel and there is a Lounge of any kind in the Towers. Access to Towers Level is determined by each individual property. These benefits are limited to the member and one guest IF that guest is in the same room as the member. Lounge access is not available if a lounge is at maximum capacity or if a lounge is closed for any reason.

My interpretation of that is that you can bring only one guest regardless of how many rooms you may be holding in your name. As with most anything, however, YMMV.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

PanAmWT

Where did you get the news that this hotel is moving from Cat 3 to Cat 4?

PanAmWT

You can bring your friends but they both will have to pay. It is $500 each person for breakfast and $800 each person for dinner. (You can not bring one guest for free.)

username

Or you can take the MRT 1 stop from the Taipei Train Station. The Blue Line towards Nan-Gang Exhibition Hall 1 stop to Shan-Dao Temple. The Train Station station gets extremely crowded during rush hour and holidays so it might not be the best if you have a lot of luggage. Exit #2 (or Exit #3 has the elevator and cross the street after you get to the street level).

My recommendation is taking the Airport Bus to the hotel. It would be a little slower but it is much cheaper, no up and down and saves energy.

ktjan

Ok, so even the guest stays with me in the same room, we still need to pay $500 for breakfast, right?

gfowler-ord-1k

I have never had a problem with 1 guest. I always make the room reservation for 2 since it was the same price.

Starwood Lurker II

I believe the extended benefit to the guest in your room only refers access to the club lounge. Whether breakfast is complimentary or not will have to be decided by the property.

You may write to them to find out. [email protected]

Thyetus Lee | Online Forum Coordinator(AP)
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd

PanAmWT

Did you pay for the excutive level room rate, or you got a complimentary plat upgrade? If it is the first case, you and your roommate of course are entitled to the same lounge benefits including breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner. If in the second case your non-plat roommate also did not have to pay for meals, then I will have to ask the lounge to refund me for all the TWD500 + 10% breakfast charges they imposed on me.

gfowler-ord-1k

We got lounge access because I was a Platinum. See Starwood Lurker's post above.

Ubud

Accessing the lounge as a Plat, they have never charged me for a guest (aka my wife) for breakfast, snacks, etc.

However, they will allow me to bring in other guests, staying in other rooms or other hotels, and charge a la carte for drinks, etc. This is the same if you use the meeting rooms in the lounge.

TerryK

Did your wife stay in the same room as you? If so, she can access the lounge without charge. Looks like they do follow SPG rules.

FlyingDoctorwu

Just wanted to post my experience here (positive!)

Pre-Arrival:
Booked a diplomat suite on points (14K/night) and a deluxe room (7k/night). We were traveling with my parents and my son and I wanted to guarantee a suite. So I paid for it (with points). I did contact reservations and had them make a note that I wanted my platinum benefits applied to the deluxe room. Two days prior to arrival, the deluxe room had been "pre-upgraded" to a diplomat suite on SPG! ^

Arrival:
I had consulted with the hotel re: transfers. They quoted a transfer cost of 3000 NT for a van for 4 adults and an infant. I declined. I got a contact form dtsm888 who quoted 1100 NT. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the transfer because my uncle contacted me prior to departure and insisted on picking us up. We arrived late, around 1130 PM but check in was quick and efficient and friendly. My mother asked about breakfast, and the check-in noted that both rooms would have club access (I think because plat status, not because of suites.. there is a separate exec level diplomat suite). Big bonus!

Room:
Diplomate suite has a bathroom and a half bath. I think other reviews cover the suite pretty well but here are my thoughts:
1) Bathroom is nicely appointed, however the hot water fills the tub very very very slowly... like 30 mins (it's a nice deep soaking tub though). L'Occitane products that were replenished frequently.
2) Very very comfortable large bed!
3) One of the diplomate suites seemed a bit larger (larger entryway,larger sitting room). One of the nicest Sheraton rooms I've been in...
4) no wifi in room was a negative. They had cable ethernet, but the lack of a wifi was big time as I was traveling with just my ipad. Free wifi in lobby though.

Club Lounge:
Great breakfast, great service. They had a table tucked away where we sat the first day; subsequent days they had reserved it for us. Breakfast consisted of congee, eggs cooked to order, cold cuts (great smoked salmon) and various other dishes. Nice selection; definitely not a continental breakfast. Nice coffee machine. Afternoon tea had a couple of pastries, but we typically did not partake. I hit up the lounge one night for evening hors d'oeuvres. There was quite a large selection available definitely enough to make a dinner out of it. Noodle bar. Good selection of self service booze including sparkling wine. Definitely the nicest Sheraton club lounge I've seen.

Amenities:
Outdoor pool, closed. Sauna: which was a new experience for me. Basically it's single sex bathing. It was nice, but I prefer a coed experience I think . Squash court.

Food and Beverage:
We had breakfast downstairs one day. 600 NT for the buffet. Large selection of foods, not as intimate a process as the club lounge. Of note, the extra person charge in the club lounge is 500 NT. We also had pizza from the restaurant downstairs. Not great by my high pizza standards but not terrible.

Location:
It's actually a little out of the way. Not Grand Hotel out of the way, but not quite where the action is. About a 10-15 minute walk to Chiang Kia Shiek Memorial (nice ponds for the kid to feed the fish). MRT stop right in front of the hotel (blue line). Taxis were plentiful and cheap, which we used a lot. It seemed we were 10-15 minutes to everywhere we wanted to be.

Service:
I saved this for last, because I really believe that this is where the hotel shined. After we arrived we realized that we had forgotten two pieces of luggage at the airport (oops!) 26 hours of travel will do that to you... The concierge made all the arrangements for the bags to be brought to the hotel the next day. We were told it would be about noon, and at 9 am the concierge called us and told us that he had talked to the luggage delivery company who had possession of the bags and to expect them around noon. We were charged 340 NT per bag, which I believe was the fee that the delivery company charged. It was quite nice that they took care of everything. I was address by name multiple time; not only in the club lounge but also downstairs. Pretty impressive for a hotel with 680 rooms. It was always easy to get milk for my kid, and never a charge!

All and all it was a great experience. Great service, two suites, and a great club lounge.

FDW

Fruit

Just to confirm, Sheraton Taipei moved to Cat 4. I was checking on booking the place and noticed the change too. Very disappointed as this is an older (renovated) hotel compared to the other new Starwood properties that are opening.

I have to second previous poster on service. Service is definitely good here. Although there were hit and miss moments. BUT overall much better then other Starwood properties in the US.