EPISODE Daan Taipei - JDV by Hyatt — Hotel in Taipei

Every year I stay in many hotels—from the luxurious to the unadorned—but none of them would make me go so far as to leave a review, except for Episode Daan. Don’t expect me to lavish praise on their service and amenities—although they are top notch. What I want to write about are the values that this hotel tries to convey that make me rethink hospitality and even humanity.

This hotel is a rule-breaker. It thrives on breaking all the established rules for hotels—good, smiling and preferably bowing waiters, unnecessarily long front desk, dedicated concierge 24/7, instagramable swimming pool, and so on. When you get down to the nitty-gritty of these rules, they are essentially set by no one.

Unfortunately, however, the hotels that don’t follow these rules are often seen as subpar. The root of this view rather lies in an absurd but understated dichotomy of hospitality: the server and the served. Today, we travellers are long past the time when Columbus sailed around the world. This Italian navigator probably expected a warm welcome whenever he reached a new and unknown destination. The locals had better do all they could to make these troublesome invaders feel at home. Otherwise, guns and massacres, and the label “lack of civilisation”. Luckily, those dark days are over. If we hasten to draw a clear line between ourselves and people like Columbus, must we still maintain the strict distinction between the server and the served when travelling?

Episode Daan has broken this rather ridiculous dichotomy by, in the first place, treating its employees as living human beings. This allows the hotel as a whole to treat guests as fellow human beings. In the SOCIAL, a multifunctional and well-decorated space, the employees are among the guests. They chat, mingle and even sit down to have a drink with them. This is certainly fresh and new, and takes some getting used to for those who have been entrenched in the aforementioned dichotomy for so long. But I think what Episode Daan does is about restoring something precious in humanity—human interaction.

When I first arrived at the hotel, Cindy efficiently guided me through the check-in process without any unnecessary flattery. When I joined the nightly events in the SOCIAL, Sarah (who is a manager and is supposed to sit in the office, invisible to guests) and I shared thoughts on hospitality over a drink. Even the owner of the hotel, I heard, regularly came to chat with guests. In particular, I became friends (fyi, not as a polite platitude but as a relationship that two people can actually have) with Anne after talking to her for hours. This is something that I never expected to happen. But on second thought, it is also something that everyone should expect while traveling—a restoration of pure, equal human interaction, with no hierarchy or distance.

What I write above is, one could say, highly personal. But nowadays, in the age of AI, it is increasingly rare to actually experience something that makes you feel personal, and to be willing to write a review that is not generated by AI and therefore might read as unidiomatic. But I did it on purpose to pay tribute to Episode Daan, the rule-breaking hotel that is all about the human touch and will, I have no doubt, soon be the game-changer in the world of...

I am taking the time to write this review because of something unfortunate that had happened to me that turned into quite a remarkable human experience of which I have never experienced in any other hotels I have stayed at in my previous travels. To make a long story short I will try to be brief as possible. While traveling on our last leg of Asia we departed for Taipei after staying a few days in Tainan visiting a relative. We made our way by High Speed Rail (HSR) luggage and all . Once we arrived the hotel had very unassuming entrance below was a cafe and a restraunt nothing like your typical hotel entrance. Apparently, you needed to take the elevator to the 5th floor and there was a small stand with a receptionist to receive you ( it also acted as reception to what seemed to open up in the background a very cozy , trendy lounge that had a touch of familiarity to it). At that moment, we both realized that I had left one of the packages on the train coming to Taipei. I had dragged this with me all over Asia only to just lose it at the final moment before going home .I felt heartbroken. Cindy, the receptionist, sensing my sadness tried to ease my worries and immediately called the station to try to locate my package. She said not to worry it will be found I was quite doubtful it ever would be found because I wasnt even sure at what point it was lost . Cindy tried her best to keep me positive even as so far as to adding me to her social so that we could be in communication if there was any updates. There are so many things here she did that made me believe she went above and beyond what I consider normal service. As we settled into the night, we decided to go have dinner and do some shopping to get my mind off my big blunder. I had already written off my cherished art piece I had bought in Vietnam as a loss and a lesson learned at that moment Cindy texted me "Found it!" I was in disbelief . It was apparently in a neighboring city a stop after Taipei . What she told me next was that she was going to go to the train station and travel to the next city to personally get my package for me. This was not just service this was someone who cared and felt empathy about others . It is an example of how people should treat one another in life and it was another lesson learned. I was just completely dumbfounded but I could not let her do that and explained to her with much gratitude that I will go there myself and collect my belongings personally. So she said for me to give her a a moment and she will get back to me. When she finally texted me back she said that she will have my package delivered to the station in Taipei so that I didnt have to go travel to the next city. Words can not explain the gratitude I dont think she even realized how impressed I was by the simple act of caring for a stranger.

The hotel is very quaint and trendy . It is located near shopping centers ,restraunts, clubs . You definitely won't be disappointed with its location but it's the people that work there that makes this hotel a truly 5 star experience. Highly recommend this place. Definitely will return to Episode ....

I never been this encourage to write a review, but this hotel is really bad. I wondering why still got 4 stars, this hotel should be only 1 stars（Ah, I realize they got free gift for FAKE REVIEW)

No Room Service, No Porter/Concierge, Small Old Room (they renovated the old hotel so got alot electrical problem), Noisy Loud Voices, Bad Service.

Entrance : No one there, only big sign EPISODE Lobby was on 5th floor with closed shop in first floor and no one greet us nor helping us with the luggage. On the Lobby they also doesnt help people to help you with your luggage, you need to Do it yourself, well its a butique hotel, i wonder since when Hyatt Group have Butique Hotel, and no one helping at all.

Room : Very humid, dark with alot spotlight uncomfortable room, (Balcony Room) and in our first night there is electrical problem that makes you cant turn the spotlight off, so you sleep with spotlight in your bed, so they call someone to help to repair, and it still happens again on the second night, so at midnight they moved us to another room to sleep, and say will repair the 2nd day. Well I moved some of my personal things and some clothes on that day since we moves to the other room just so we can get sleep well without spotlight on our face while sleeping. On The Third day we realize we forgot our phone charger and some clothes on the last room, but until the last day we stayed The Things is GONE.. and we are asking like 2 days without any response or call back from the desk. Yes they are GONE, and hotel doesnt responsible for it, i had long flight, i cant sleep well, my things gone, i need to buy new phone charger, and everything is a mess. Gives me Apologize letter with big plastic ball for christmast tree accesories ?? I dunno what should i use with this ??

I think it was the fifth night, we moved to another the balcony room, well I advise dont stay in balcony room, the wind is getting inside, the balcony and the shower is humid, there are stairs to get into the shower, you can only use curtain to help you block it.

Next for the loud noise at night, with only 2 elevator working, and alot people coming to drink, which the receiption just in front of the bar, Free Drink Free Snack ? yeah just some water tap with soda water and cheap snack bar in glass jar.

Another thing after everything bad happening here, i was checking out late, yeah I check out around 12.40, and i was so tired since i need to go to another city, and yeah They Charged half day charges for late check-out since i didnt tell them before. I was telling them I had the worst day staying here, would you gives me some compliement for this ? no they still charged me. OK I dont want to debate with them anymore.

Thats what I wanna say dont believe the fake reviews, I would never come back to this hotel, dont believe the fake reviews, you should read those complaint reviews, they are real.

I never do any reviews, but this hotel service and attitude really encourage me to write this reviews. for 5 stars hotel in Hyatt Group this hotel doesn't worth HYATT name. Shame on Hyatt group hotel using fake review...