茹曦酒店 ILLUME TAIPEI — Hotel in Taipei

Location and in-building convenient store were the only good things about this hotel for us. Stayed 2 nights here, never again. First, they messed up our check-in and gave us the key card for a room that was already occupied, with people currently in it! Some random staff actually opened the door of the occupied room and then was unable to say anything in English or Chinese about the issue. Fine, we called reception and they prepared a new room, but which took way too long and wasn’t on the same floor as the other party we were traveling with like we requested. The new room was 28 degrees when we got inside, as the curtains were opened all afternoon and the sun was heating up everything, especially the crib. The crib is smaller than standard size and a bit shakey, my 1 year old barely fit, and she is not tall. It took at least 3 hours for the room to cool down to at least 23 degrees. The floor was filthy with lots of long black hairs, obviously wasn’t vacuumed for quite some time. (Neither myself, husband, or baby has long black hair.) We requested fresh towels, they never came, so my husband called again. Went to the pool, floaties for kids aren’t allowed. The best part, they called the room at 12:15 am and knocked on the door waking myself and baby up. Although they were checking why the door wasn’t locked, they could’ve dealt with this issue by calling our number on file or something else. My husband was out of the room and didn’t want the very loud door to open and shut loudly. Staff are friendly, but inept. Horrible stay, will NOT recommend anyone come here with a baby especially.

The parking lot is also a disaster. Be extremely careful when opening your trunk, as there is a ton of low level piping.

I suggested this hotel for my friends visiting from Taichung and internationally to stay at, and I deeply regret it. Also, my friend’s room had a crib, which they did NOT request. And my other friend’s room also had a crib, but they requested a cot. Obviously the staff here does not pay close attention to detail!

Lastly, their hotel bar’s drinks were terrible, especially the espresso martini, and the bathroom was crawling with cockroaches. 🤮

Edit- They comped our breakfast after I complained a lot and asked what they were going to...

The Illume Hotel apparently has been in operation for several decades and both the building itself and the hotel is well known and seems to have established quite a good reputation... It is now operating with a revamped management team and a new name and has gone through a number of renovations...

The fact that the hotel has a well established history is a plus and can be seen and felt when you stay here because it operates very professionally and everyone you meet here is very polite and courteous...

I stayed here a few times and previously because of some health issues had to ask for help in room selection... Not only did the hotel happily obliged to help to get me a room that better meets my needs but unknown to me at the time the Assistant Front Office Manager Max Wang took time out of his busy schedule personally to come to help me to select a room type that's better for me so I really would like to thank him sincerely for that...

Mind you this is a big hotel that deal with tourist groups and large banquets and weddings all the time so the fact they would send an assistant manager to assist a single customer with some special needs just shows you how the management of this hotel values service to it's customers...

So I was really impressed by that as well as with the hotel rooms themselves... The remodelled rooms are all new in appearance and are quite large in comparison with newer hotels in Taipei where their rooms can be quite cramped...

So basically with this hotel you are staying in a well established place run by a highly professional management team that values customer service... Plus the revamped rooms themselves are spacious and quiet nice with large well designed bathrooms as well and the cleaning staff do an excellent job with room cleanliness...

Therefor I would recommend the Illume Hotel very...

The poshest hotel I’ve been to and I loved it! Luxurious reception with people who took your luggage up to your room for free, staff who held the lift open for you and helpful receptionists. The rooms were marvellously large equipped with several large mirrors, pretty comfy beds,a sofa, a good quality Panasonic TV, an office chair (lots of fun😜), a desk, a wardrobe, dressers, shower, bath and a toilet. This hotel had by far the best television I’ve ever had in a hotel room, it was easy to use and you can plug in USBs from home. Our room had a great view of the pool too!

There is room service however our maid kept breaking our toilet and for some reason she kept turning the shower head towards the wall so when I didn’t realise she’d done that it just sprayed everywhere. She still gave us free bottles of water every day and made the beds.

There’s an outdoors pool which is open until 21:30 but there is a catch: you must wear a swimming cap. You can buy them at the hotel but I recommend you buy a swimming cap elsewhere for a lot cheaper. One member of staff at the “Health Centre” suspiciously blinked too much when he tried to sell us his overpriced swim hats so that’s another reason not to buy from them. They supply towels, sun beds, changing rooms and a sauna for free. Near the pool is a gym too.

The buffet is extremely overpriced at all times of the day. The food wasn’t that interesting there and there’s no point in wasting money when there is a 7 Eleven attached to the hotel.

The location is so central, there is an entire mall virtually underneath the hotel which has plenty of restaurants and shops. Just a little bit of a walk from this hotel is Rilakkuma cafe and a SOGO.

I recommend this hotel for anyone who loves...