Holiday Inn Express Taichung Park, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Taichung

Customer service is excellent. Especially Anna, and hotel manager Stefi. They really helped redeem my experience with IHG Holiday Inn. Or it would be less than 1 star.

After night market, we came back to the hotel late. Right after my husband shower, I went in. Half way through my shampooing, I tasted the water being a little salty. As I open my eyes, the water was coming out brownish yellowish! It was so gross. I ran out and turned on the water in the sink and it was coming out straight brown!!! It was so traumatizing, leaving me wondering if I bathe and tasted some sewage water or something.

I frantically called front desk and they asked me to leave the water running and they will send the technician up. It took around 5 minutes for the water to slowly turn clear. By the time technician came up, he said, “it is clear now right? So what is the problem?” I was furious! What is the problem??!

I called front desk again the gentleman and they can help me change the room. I have 2 young kids with all the luggage and laptop opened. They offered a big room and double check it is fully functioning before we go in. Within 3 minutes, Anna came. She said she check the room next to us and it is okay with the water. I went in with her and turn on the tub water, it came out yellowish again!!!!! By that time, I burst! It was already 11:49pm. She assured me that it is a rusty pipe, but in my head, I’m still wondering if I tasted sewage water. All I’m concerned about is how would my kids brush up, it is so late already and how about our luggage?? ! She immediately offer to bring over a case of bottle water for us to brush up . Upon hearing that my husband has a 5am online meeting, she offer the 2 rooms so we don’t have to move our stuff and he can use the room to have full privacy for meeting.

I was still furious but I looked at Anna, she maintain her kind gesture and I realized it really isn’t her fault and she is finding all possible solutions for us. She even said she will reflect to see if we can get partial point refund back. We took her offer for the room with late check out. The next day, as we checked out, all front desk knew about our situation. The manager, Stefi, came out and assured us they are inspecting the pipes, address the situation and it was an isolated incident in the two rooms. I told her, Anna is really worth praising for her professionalism. I must admit, I was not keeping my calm and it must have been a stressful situation. I work for customer service before and no one wants these things to happen. I told her, I’m just thankful for Anna that at least my husband has a second space to work so my kids and I can sleep in, clean bottled water to brush up, and we got late check out. I Google when we woke up and indeed, it is mostly a rusty pipe that burst or something.

Upon realizing our kids were so young, Stefi, empathized for our situation and offer a full refund back to us. It was out of my expectations since I was already happy with Anna’s solution for us already.

Room: 2.5 stars. 4.5 for cleanliness of sheet. 1 star for bathroom. Room 1112: a lot of mold on the silicone grout and behind the sink. Room 1111 was better but still have it. I didnt check the bathtub area as I was too afraid to shower. Room 1112 has dust by the window area and bathroom vent.

Breakfast: 4 star! Actually a lot of varieties and good.

customer service: 5 stars

Location: 5 stars. 10 minutes to night market and around 10-15 walk to station. Has shopping shop and Starbucks by lobby. Free parking. View is pretty nice from 11th floor. You see the park.

Amenities: 4 stars coffee by 3 floor, good laundry room,...

Overview|A decent hotel to stay and perfect for a quick getaway. Great location. Attached to an outlet mall and just a few minutes drive away to other malls. There’s a lovely park across from the hotel with some boats you’re able to row on weekend(s). Tiny elevators so check out time can be tough to use the elevator.  |The main reason I’ve selected this hotel for my stay was for the convenient laundry room located at level 5. The housekeeping crew were incredibly kind and generous. ||Check In:|It was very straightforward and Ms. Linda made the check-in process as simply and swiftly as possible. We got one of the rooms earlier than check in time. ||Rooms:|We had booked for the connecting rooms. Room 1228 came with a king size bed and room 1229 came with a pair of twin beds. The corridor of this hotel has no AC or any form of ventilation. Room 1229 has a strong mothball odour-like like smell blowing from the AC vent. I’ve informed the front desk and they sent a technician over, but without inspecting he said the room smelled like a “woman’s room”. I don’t know what kind of remark is that supposed to mean. This kind of remark was quite demeaning, insinuating that the foul odor was our fault simply because we were women. Clearly there were two rooms smelling very differently & room 1228 doesn’t possess that sort of awful odour. We had to make sure all our clothing were locked inside the bag fearing of items smelling like mothball. It was not pleasant. ||Bathroom:|It came with a separate shower stall & a WC (without a bidet). Very good water pressure for a nice warm shower. A tiny bathroom so please bear in mind if you’re particular about the size of the bathroom upon traveling.||Breakfast:|Nothing to scream about. The food was okay. Not many choices. The coffee is great. It gets crowded after 9am so please make sure you go earlier. ||Laundry Room:|There’s no ironing board or iron in your room and you’ll need to do your ironing at level 5 at the Laundry Room. You’ll need to bring your hotel room card to access this level. There’s two washers and two dryers available for hotel guests to use. It cost NT80 per wash/dryer. You’re able to change the coins at the front desk. Only detergent is provided so do bring your own dryer sheets.||Pros:|Wonderful view of the park  |Attached to a mall |The hotel card works well and only accessible to your designated floor||Cons:|Mothball smelling room (Room 1229!)|Tiny elevators |No ventilation hallway|No bidet for WC ||Tips:|Park view room. |A better tip: Stay elsewhere to make your Taichung experience better. Pay a little more for the comfort of your stay. Look for Le Meridien TaiChung. ||Summary|Perhaps it was just my luck to experience the mothball issue and it’s definitely influenced me to not return to this hotel again. Plus, the technician staff didn’t make the experience any better. He wasn’t displaying any professional ethics as we encountered the same guy again when the laundry washer wasn’t able to take in the coins during our stay. The management should look into this issue...

We have always stayed at HIE Taichung Park when we visit Taichung and need a place to sleep, and the experience has generally be quite positive. After this stay however, we will probably look for another accommodation next time.

We were given a room on the top floor but facing the close-air courtyard. The room and the hallway out of it had smells of cigarette and air freshener. We asked for another room and were moved to one facing outside but on a lower floor. This room had quite some stain on the carpeting, but it's generally well-cleaned.

At 5:15 in the morning, the smoke detector in the room went off. There was not smoke so we called the front desk to check what's going on. The phone rang for a minute but no one answered. So we pressed the emergency button on the phone, the phone rang for another minute and still no one answered. The smoke detector went silent after about 10 minutes so we went back to sleep.

At 5:55, the smoke detector went off again. We called the front desk and the "emergency desk" again and still no one answered the calls. The smoke detector rang out of battery at 6:10, and this time the call to the emergency desk was answered. The staff said that he'll send someone up to check the smoke detector. We got another call a few minutes after, and the staff told us that they "disabled the smoke detector remotely" so it should not go off and that they will send someone to check after we checked out.

Being disturbed by a faulty smoke detector obviously made us very tired the next day. But we were more concerned that calls made to the front desk or using the emergency button went unanswered for almost an hour. We were also concerned how the hotel disabled the smoke detector "remotely". What if there is a real fire?

Hopefully the management of HIE Taichung Park will check the fire safety equipment and evaluate their emergency handling protocols. But we will give the new HIE across town a try the next time we...