Having stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, which were amazing experiences by the way, I highly anticipated my 7-night stay at the Grand Hyatt in Taipei in January 2024. However, this experience left me quite disappointed. In general it is still a very nice hotel and the stay was comfortable, but some of their service left a lot to be desired especially for a 5 star hotel.
Room: Not as nice as Hong Kong or Shenzhen, but still pretty good.
Front desk staff and concierge: Very professional and helpful, we received wonderful service from the staff.
Bell service: The gentleman at the entrance was very nice and always helped us get a taxi to where we needed to go, thank you! HOWEVER, when we arrived to check in early we left our luggage with them to be delivered to our room, we came back after lunch to find out that our room was ready, but the luggage was not in the room. We waited for an hour and a half and still no luggage. We tried calling concierge, front desk, and bell services and nobody answered the phone so we walked down to the lobby to ask the concierge, who called bell service and was told our luggage was on the way. We waited in our room for another hour and still no luggage and nobody answered the phone. We had to go back down to the lobby again to ask the concierge, who was then informed by the bell service that they had FORGOTTEN about delivering our luggage. By then it was already over 2.5 hours of waiting. We did not trust them to take our luggage again so we asked to get our luggage back to take them up by ourselves.
Room cleaning service: the room cleaning service was very careless, I have never had such horrible experiences with room cleaning. Amenities were not replenished half of the time, face towels were missing 2/3 of the time, sometimes toilet paper was not replenished. After we called to complain they sent us some extra sets of towels and toilet paper, but the next day towels were again not fully replenished. One day we came back to the room to see our toothbrush carelessly left on the side of the sink (ewww); another day our personal belongings was found on the bathroom floor; another day the TV was turned on; another day some fresh bed sheets were left on a chair....everyday we come back to our room to find traces of carelessness by the cleaning staff that makes me think "is this really a 5 star luxury hotel?!?"
Breakfast: Absolutely amazing!! So many selections of delicacies from all over the world, and the food was very tasty. The staff at the cafe was also very friendly and professional.
Overall nice hotel but some of the services were not worth the amount of money I spent for this stay. If I were to stay in the 101 area again I think the W Hotel might be a better choice based on my past experiences with...
Read moreMy family and I were looking forward to staying at the Grand Hyatt. The place is clean but dated and overdue for a refurbishment.||||Our complaint is about the check in. We arrived at 11am and asked the Front Desk what time our room would be ready. We were told to come back in 2 hours so we left for a drink. At 1.30pm we returned and were told by the same staff that the room was ready but awaiting final inspection, which would take 15-30 minutes. I told her clearly that we had an afternoon appointment that we could reschedule if the room was not going to be ready as promised. She assured me that the room would be ready, and that our bags would be delivered to the room as soon as it was ready. She gave us welcome drink vouchers. We returned after almost an hour at 2.15pm, only to be given the same stock phrase 'the room is ready and awaiting final inspection and your bags will be sent to the room once ready' by another staff.||||By this time we had to rush for our 3pm appointment without freshening up (we would have rescheduled the time if we had been given a definite time for check in). I needed something from my bag, and the staff said she would inform the bellboy holding our bags. The bellboy had clearly not been informed when I reached the holding area, and I wasted valuable time trying to communicate that I was a guest who needed something from my bag. This could have been avoided if only that staff had followed through.||||I received an email from the Front Desk at 3.53pm to inform that our room was ready. When we returned at 5.45pm we were horrified to see our bags still sitting outside the main entrance, where they had been deposited since 11am!||||This was truly shocking service. Not once during our check in experience did we feel that anyone helped us with sincerity, and the stock phrase 'the room is ready and awaiting final inspection' is just to fob off guests. Be truthful so that your guests can make alternative arrangements should the room not be ready.||||Second black mark: we had been warned about the breakfast queue so we arrived early (before 8am). We felt very sorry for fellow guests after us - at one point the queue was snaking around to the lobby. The hotel should ensure that the facilities are adequate for its guests' comfort. It was not pleasant for us to eat while watching so many waiting outside. ||||The hotel's location is good; it is centrally located and 5 minutes from 101 Taipei. However it is easy to get around Taipei so if location is not a major consideration I would recommend staying...
Read moreOverall, we had a good experience EXCEPT that I feel like the entire place was way too overpriced for the older condition of the place-- you can tell from the room's carpet, grimy corners of the shower stall, toilet, & closets that it is an older place that is getting a dated look. The worst was the dank smell of mold in the bedroom area that I could really smell the first night we were there. It was so damp that when I tried to hand wash and dry some clothes in the room (even synthetics), they either took forever to dry or wouldn't dry and a couple even started to smell moldy too. This place needs a good dehumidifier in each room or some sort of entire HVAC system overhaul. To add insult to injury, their in-house laundry service is ridiculously overpriced-- about $14 to wash a pair of paints, $11-12 to wash a shirt, etc. to the point where a family would pay over $150US to do one small load of laundry while there! Using Laundry Town was an unreliable additional source of stress (not sure if it was the hotel staff's fault or their fault but our clothes went missing for half a day), so finally I resorted to carrying dirty laundry down the streets to do it myself at the Dexter Coin laundry, about a 9 min walk past the Hi-Life convenience store. The breakfast buffet was great (both in the lobby restaurant as well as the 22nd floor), but again, be forewarned that it's really overpriced like everything else in this hotel. Ultimately, a family member had a bad reaction to surprise nuts in the complimentary basket of rolls given to us as part of room service. The employees apologized and were nice, but I had to later proactively ask at least for a refund of the room service cost before it was given. So there were good and bad parts of our stay. The best were that the lobby level looked gorgeous with the Christmas tree, the food was excellent, and the employees were very nice- the ones at the front desks all seemed to speak English too. The location is great, in a safe, clean area close to the best luxury shopping and the MRT/Taipei 101. We enjoyed going to the nearby 7-11 and Starbucks in the Trade Center next door for much cheaper food options. If you want to see the "real" Taiwan with the grungier hole in the wall type restaurants and night markets, you will have to travel farther out. I heard there will be 1 or 2 new hotels in the area, so the next time, I would probably try the newer hotel, mainly due to the mold/constant dampness issue in the...
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