Golden hot Spring Hotel — Hotel in Taipei

Booked modern suite 2 nights for 2 separate beds, 3 months in advance. I was informed that check-in time was 6 pm. On arrival date we checked in at 6:30 pm and have to wait for 10-15 minutes in order to separate the beds. After 15 minutes wait, we had to ask the reception if our room was ready ( instead of she informing us). Receptionist knew that we were unhappy and helped us bring luggage into lift. After pressing level 3 button she stepped out of lift and informed us that our room was on the right side after lift opened at level 3. ||Lift lobby and corridor at level 3 was very dark. My elderly mum (using walking stick) has to juggle her luggage and walking, was afraid that she could not see well and might trip and fall. Whereas i was managing my own luggage and our shopping stuffs. (Why didn't the receptionist help us all the way to the room?)||Bathroom was very dim too. We couldn't enjoy the hotspring as there were noises from outside window and water drainage sound for pipe from neighbours for draining their hotspring tub.||There was instruction written in Chinese in the bathroom advising us to cover drainage holes before sleep, to prevent noises. I followed the instruction and could still hear very loud water draining sound from our bathroom, numerous times middle of the night. Which means we did not have quality sleep for both nights. ||The next day we had a long day, looked forward to go back hotel to rest. However room was not cleaned up. As our tissue paper was running out and towels were wet, I tried to call the reception for replenishment. Phone was not working and i had to take lift down to inform reception. Cleaner turned up in 5 minutes with the necessities, i received them from her at our door. She did not leave immediately and however findng excuses to "value add" her service so that she could stay a little bit longer (seemed to be waiting for tips). We rejected her offer and ask her to leave.||Buffet breakfast was not fantastic but staffs were polite.||We do NOT recommend this hotel. No way that we will...

Booked modern suite 2 nights for 2 separate beds, 3 months in advance. I was informed that check-in time was 6 pm. On arrival date we checked in at 6:30 pm and have to wait for 10-15 minutes in order to separate the beds. After 15 minutes wait, we had to ask the reception if our room was ready ( instead of she informing us). Receptionist knew that we were unhappy and helped us bring luggage into lift. After pressing level 3 button she stepped out of lift and informed us that our room was on the right side after lift opened at level 3. ||Lift lobby and corridor at level 3 was very dark. My elderly mum (using walking stick) has to juggle her luggage and walking, was afraid that she could not see well and might trip and fall. Whereas i was managing my own luggage and our shopping stuffs. (Why didn't the receptionist help us all the way to the room?)||Bathroom was very dim too. We couldn't enjoy the hotspring as there were noises from outside window and water drainage sound for pipe from neighbours for draining their hotspring tub.||There was instruction written in Chinese in the bathroom advising us to cover drainage holes before sleep, to prevent noises. I followed the instruction and could still hear very loud water draining sound from our bathroom, numerous times middle of the night. Which means we did not have quality sleep for both nights. ||The next day we had a long day, looked forward to go back hotel to rest. However room was not cleaned up. As our tissue paper was running out and towels were wet, I tried to call the reception for replenishment. Phone was not working and i had to take lift down to inform reception. Cleaner turned up in 5 minutes with the necessities, i received them from her at our door. She did not leave immediately and however findng excuses to "value add" her service so that she could stay a little bit longer (seemed to be waiting for tips). We rejected her offer and ask her to leave.||Buffet breakfast was not fantastic but staffs were polite.||We do NOT recommend this hotel. No way that we will...

We live in Taipei, and were looking forward to going up to Beitou for a little weekend relaxation. Our weekend got off on a bit of a rough start because I had failed to notice that this hotel offers rooms for day use (you can rent for 3 hours at a time to just use the hot spring tubs). Consequently, I had accidentally booked a room with a check-in time of 11 p.m. (other options are 6 p.m. and 3 p.m.). This was absolutely my fault, and has no impact on the overall rating of this review.

We paid the fee to check in earlier, and when we came back from dinner, there was a strong smoke smell in the room (the hotel is supposedly non-smoking). We changed rooms, and we were finally able to enjoy the hot spring tub. The hot spring water was excellent and the tub was quite comfortable. We had a "park view" room which allowed us to enjoy the trees in the morning from the hot spring tub. The room itself was well appointed, however the bed was very firm, and my wife (she's Taiwanese) and I didn't sleep much. My back and side were sore after tossing and turning on that mattress all night (I'm 183cm/88kg). Additionally, we discovered that the thermostat in our room didn't actually control the air conditioner. Consequently, when we thought we had set it warmer during the night, it kept blowing cold air and we woke up to a 21 degree Celsius temperature reading. Breakfast was good and had a solid selection of Chinese, American, and Japanese offerings.

Ultimately, checkout was at noon, but we left around 9 a.m. because we were so tired from the sleepless night and just wanted to go back to our apartment. My advice is if you live in Taipei, or you are a Westerner who is used to a soft mattress, save your money and don't stay overnight. Just rent a room for a few hours to enjoy the...