GOGO HOTEL — Hotel in Taichung

We did not have a very comfortable stay at Gogo hotel at all.

On the plus side: rooms were large, had a spacious nook with a nice city view, and were quiet (7th floor facing the street).

However there were many more downsides and inconveniences.

Hallways are rather long and not temperature controlled. The lobby is also poorly temperature controlled. In a climate like Taiwan, travelers often look to their hotel as an oasis and a refuge. At this hotel, opening the door and entering the hall is much the same as stepping outdoors and facing the hot and humid environment immediately.

The rooms have old carpets with some stains and could use updating. The shower head is not evenly placed in line with the tub (it is offset to the right a bit) so you are faced with either shooting water at the curtain (which seems old and musty) or adjusting your posture to stand slightly on the wall of the tub to have a proper shower. This leads to an uncomfortable showering experience which in Taiwan is something you do not want to compromise on. The tub wall is also tall so stepping over it onto the ground poses a safety hazard in a wet environment.

There is only one elevator which makes for very long wait times. This is doubly miserable due to the poor climate control as mentioned above, especially during checkout.

While a minor complaint, the hotel staff are very matter of fact and the demeanor and use of language makes it feel as if you are inconveniencing them. While not expected at a hotel of this caliber, it does not go unnoticed that staff don’t go out of their way to make your stay more pleasant, such as offering to bring luggage cart to the door or holding a door for you when you have multiple bags to deal with.

The breakfast is very plain and unmemorable - so much so that on our second day we opted to have breakfast elsewhere. While there are some local staples such as tea eggs, fried noodles, and seasonal veggies none of it feels very fresh or special. The rest of the offerings are meager at best: only white toast, a sparse selection (three) of fruit available.

Taichung has much more to offer and your money is better...

Chance upon this hotel because of something a friend said on FB. Decided to try it out.

The hotel was easy to find. It's located not along the main road but not far from it. The surrounding area was relatively quiet, yet you can find many eating places just within a short walk away.

The hotel looks like it's an old building that has been renovated. It's modern, clean.

The check-in process was smooth, and I found the staff friendly and helpful.

To get to your room, you have to scan your key card in the elevator, which adds a welcomed security measure; though this doesn't prevent anyone from walking up the stairs.

I had a Deluxe Room, which turned out to be one of the bigger corner rooms. The room was much larger than I expected, really spacious. It's well furnished, well lighted, clean and modern looking. There were huge windows along almost the entire outward-facing side of the room; though I hesitated to keep the curtains opened, especially in the evening, because people from nearby buildings can see into the room.

The bathroom was spacious! Though there is a huge glass window along the side of the bathtub. While there are blinds that can provide covering, the blinds are placed outside! So while someone is showering inside, another person outside the bathroom can raise the blind. Kind of weird.

Internet access speed in the room (via wifi) was quite good. I didn't experience any dropped signal or slow-down in speed.

Breakfast was impressive. There were salad, bread, fruits, cooked food, both Chinese dishes and western. Felt like a full buffet, and definitely much more than many of the other hotels I've experienced in Taiwan.

Definitely worth...

I used to stay at this hotel on business trips, however my latest stay with my family was just down right horrendous.

Upon check in, my family noticed a nasty stain on the lounge chair that resembled feces (I know, unbelievable!!) We notified the front desk and they gave us a different room. However, this room had stains all over the pillow case, blankets, moldy furniture, dirty towels, and the carpet was soiled with spilled drinks. What the hell happened to this hotel???!! New management perhaps?

Disappointed, I notified the front desk asking our original room back and they agreed on replacing the chair. We went back to the original room only to find 2 workers there scrubbing the now nasty wet chair. They informed me they were told by the front desk to only clean and not replace it, but they eventually did replaced it after realizing it was just too nasty. We asked for the manager but was told no manager was available.

What’s even worse is later that night I was stopped in the lobby area by the very same front desk person. He rudely blocked me and told me instead of speaking directly to the manager that I can just speak to him. I told him not to waste my time and please have the manager call me which they never did. We’ve also left 2 voicemails with the manager but he failed to respond. Enough said!

IMHO, this hotel is just an absolute disaster now. I will definitely look elsewhere to stay in Taichung. Avoid this one, there are much better options in the surrounding area.

Finally...