amba Taipei Songshan — Hotel in Taipei

I stayed here recently in the Extra Large River View Room for my 15-night mandatory quarantine (March-April 2021). Overall, I would consider staying here again for another quarantine.

Pros: The hotel itself is located in the upper levels of a high-rise, and the 21st floor is dedicated to quarantine guests. This means incredible views and no outdoor street noise. With no other buildings blocking the sun and huge windows (basically wall to wall, floor to ceiling), the room got tons of sunlight. Clean and modern (no carpet) with nice amenities (e.g. smart TV with YouTube and Netflix app - need own log-in; bluetooth speakers - although had tape covering and muffling the sound) Large space to lay out a yoga mat and work out Lots of fresh fruit included with breakfast

Cons: There was no free early check-in. An early check-in fee was applied based on my flight's arrival time. Because my flight arrived at 6am from the US, the hotel required an extra night's payment. So instead of 15 nights, I paid for 16 nights. When I stayed at another Taipei hotel for quarantine in August 2020, they allowed free early check-in The food wasn't my favorite. I chose the "bento package", which meant I had food that was all made in-house, but I also felt like there wasn't enough variety for a two week stay. I ended up ordering Uber Eats seven times to replace some lunches/dinners I didn't find appetizing. For breakfast, you could choose between three types - American, Japanese, or Chinese. Lunches and dinners were primarily Chinese. Window cleaners suddenly appeared outside my window one day, and it would have been nice to have been...

All rooms are located on floor 17 to floor 21 , hence amazing views are almost guaranteed (I say almost because a smaller number of rooms are inner facing rooms and have a view only to the courtyard surrounded by walls). In fact, the view alone is worth a million dollars but they only charge a fraction of that for the room rate ;)

I've stayed here in this hotel 4 times in the past, and definitely is one of my favourites in Taipei because of its million dollar view and the superb convenient colocation to the MRT and TRA train stations (and the associated cafes, restaurants and bookstores in the station).

Great for business and solo travellers.

Don't expect stellar service here though, this is not a resort hotel, the staff will be very attentive to your needs but they certainly won't make you feel you are someone special.

I am quite amazed that in my few number of stays here, the FO staff that checked us in and out don't smile that much, and even the HK staff all seem to be unhappy. I would have liked more smiles from the FO & FB staff, and in addition that the HK staff proactively greet guests more often. This is my only dislike about this hotel, but once you get over it, everything else makes the stay here outstandingly enjoyable.

The Hotel provides free car parking for the guests, the parking lot isnt very spacious, and can easily get full during lunch and dinner hours because apparently the hotel restaurant is quite a popular venue to host private functions. Try to avoid these hours if you are bringing a car...

We stayed at the amba in Songshan for our several night visit to Taipei and really liked it. The hotel can be slightly hard to find the first time, but that's just because it occupies the 17th-21st floors of the building it's in, and the lobby/check in is on the 17th floor. The location is conveniently located very close to the Songshan station on the green line MRT, and during business hours you can even use the skybridge so you don't even have to go to street level to get to the station. There is a lot of food nearby and it is just a few blocks from Raohe night market.

The check in was easy, and our medium king river view room was spacious and well laid out. Everything was clean, the bed was comfy, and the view is beautiful. The shower gets hot quickly and has good water pressure. I wish the toilet had a bidet, which is common in Taiwan in my experience, but oh well. My only complaints are that the internet is a bit slow, and there is not much soundproofing through the door so you hear any noise in the hallways. However, since the hotel is so high up in the building, you don't hear much road noise which is good. One major convenience in this hotel is that they have complimentary laundry/drying machines on the 18th floor for you to use. They provide laundry detergent and liquid fabric softener. This is really helpful for longer trips and we really appreciated it. Staff here are really nice and helpful. We didn't ever go to the restaurant in the hotel and didn't buy the hotel breakfast, so can't...